Monitor Bandwidth Software

Service Assurance and Keeping Up with the Demand to Deliver New Services - IPTV, data, VoIP, Wireless

Friday, April 8, 2011 by Eden Mondanaro

Service Providers are constantly looking for ways to speed delivery to market without compromising quality. Automation is the only way to effectively accomplish this task. Manual solutions and CLI are labor intensive and error prone which results in lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.

A single system to automate repeatable processes not only makes the fulfillment process significantly quicker but also eliminates costly errors. But it can't stop there. Once services are deployed, customers frequently need to change their service. For example a customer may require more bandwidth, or a different configuration. Redcell allows service providers to react quickly and efficiently to these customer needs. The result is delivering services to the end user faster, and with higher level of quality.

Let's take a look at a graphical representation of the Redcell solution for service fulfillment:

Redcell's Service Assurance Solution delivers powerful and flexible tools for service providers to monitor the health of their network and services to ensure the best customer experience.

Here are some key features of Redcell for Service Fulfillment:

Common interface across multiple services
Track associations between services & customers/subscribers or network resources through the CMDB
Unified Service Provisioning
Transaction Model
Auditing of All Service Transactions
Service Templates
Service Preview
Integration with Pools
Service Quick Views
Tools to extend existing services or model & rapidly deploy new services

More Technical Notes:

Service Assurance

Proactive device/service health monitoring
Service Diagnostics (OA&M)
Data Collection and associated formulas and metrics for collected data
Performance Dashboards
Prepackaged Monitors

Core/Aggregation Network

MPLS L2 E-Line Circuits (Point-to-Point)
MPLS L2 E-LAN Services (Multipoint)
MPLS L3 E-LAN/E-Tree Services/IP VPNs R
Configuration – Change – OAM
Redcell Resource Management & Operations

Integrated Service

Carrier Ethernet End-to-End Service (EVC)

Edge/CPE Network

NNI Service
UNI Service
CPE Configuration, VLANs

Core MPLS

MPLS Traffic Engineered LSPs (RSVP - TE) / TE Tunnels & Named Paths

According to The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, global mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold between 2010 and 2015. This will mean even more challenges for all tiers of Service Providers - and the only way to get there and succeed will mean having the best software.

The Impact of Carrier Ethernet on Service Providers

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 by Eden Mondanaro

Managing Next-Generation Service Provider Networks

-- The Problem

The advent of mobile internet access and the subsequent explosive demand for high bandwidth services on mobile devices has created a pivotal point for service providers. Widely considered the most disruptive technological event for service providers since mobile phones were first introduced, consumer demand for mobile internet access has quickly outstripped the capabilities of existing infrastructure. In addition, mobile phone and VoIP use continues to steadily increase.

This highly competitive and rapidly expanding market creates an unprecedented opportunity for service providers. By meeting the demand while maintaining efficient networks and increasing profitability, service providers have the ability to expand their footprint and market share by a significant percentage.

Conversely, the ability to make costly mistakes in infrastructure planning also exists, resulting in an unsatisfied public, high competition and, ultimately, loss of market share. Service provider infrastructure needs to be adaptable, scalable and cost-efficient.

One of the key aspects of this sea-change from a mobile network perspective is the rise and adoption of Carrier Ethernet for Mobile Backhaul. Compared to traditional hardwire solutions, switched ethernet provides a more economical solution while providing greatly increased bandwidths. Highly optimized for packet-based traffic and the ability to be transported over a variety of transport media, Ethernet-based infrastructure has quickly become a de-facto standard for the backhaul segment.

Utilizing existing copper infrastructure and running Ethernet over Copper provides viability from an in-ground perspective although bandwidth limitations with copper leave fiber as the clear leader for backhaul solutions. Fiber’s limitations include the expense of existing copper replacement and the physical inability to run fiber to certain locations. These issues leave a service provider managing multiple services over divergent vendor equipment. Truly a challenge.

-- The Solution --

The core drivers of increased bandwidth, simplified management and cost cutting are never more prevalent than in today’s rapidly expanding mobile web market. Some obvious solution examples include single console management and automation of repeatable tasks.

Furthermore, a single management application capable of discovery, inventory and QoS would eliminate other costly standalone applications while making it easier to proactively identify and remedy key network points.

By automating the numerous facets of network management, especially repeatable processes, CLI and other manual solutions can be relegated to only extremely rare instances. By standardizing repeatable tasks though automation, adherence to industry standards is also improved. This type of automation reduces costly errors which lead to lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.

Fault management is another area where a single application solution is desirable. As previously noted, if fault management is not tied to inventory, it is difficult to identify the piece of equipment as provisioned or customer-active. By having fault management, inventory, QoS and SLA tightly related like that of a single platform, the ability to identify, prioritize and resolve key issues occurs faster and more proactively. This means mean time to repair (MTTR) is reduced and customer satisfaction increases.

Below is a chart of MEF Acronyms with their descriptions and related Redcell Services from the free White Paper, "The Impact of Carrier Ethernet on Service Providers."

-- The Dorado Software Solution --

A Carrier Ethernet solution provides answers for many of the problems plaguing service providers with respects to managing and scaling network segments including the carrier ethernet mobile backhaul. Dorado Software’s Redcell™ solution helps service providers reduce costs, simplify network management and increase customer satisfaction by providing a single console to manage the entire carrier ethernet network lifecycle. From provisioning, OAM, monitoring, fault management to discovery, inventory and proactive QoS and SLA administration, Redcell provides a single platform for the high majority of a service provider’s needs.

Redcell also support complete lifecycle management for delivering and supporting next generation applications and services such as IPTV, Video-on-Demand, Storage Extension and Disaster Recovery. Configuration of ports can be in conjunction with assigned VLANs and associated security levels such as MEPs and MIPs.

A major part of Dorado Software’s success is the rapid implementation time of the Redcell platform. A faster discovery and implementation cycle coupled with a more flexible response mechanism makes the Redcell solution quicker to begin realizing ROI. Dorado Software is also known for moving quickly to adopt new technologies and standards. One case in point is the adoption of various management protocols including the imminent release of IEEE 802.1ag for service verification, IEEE 802.3ah for link layer troubleshooting and MEF Ethernet Local Management Interface for service status and auto provisioning of customer premises equipment.

The upshot is that some buzzwords of today are Unified Communications and Long Term Evolution (LTE) for good reason. Service Providers are being faced with more pressure to change and competition than ever before. Redcell offers an extremely effective, competitively priced solution.

Managing LTE (Long Term Evolution) to Delivery High Quality Mobile Broadband at the Lowest Cost

Friday, December 10, 2010 by Eden Mondanaro

Long Term Evolution (LTE) provides the bandwidth necessary to deliver advanced and compelling services. It will no longer be good enough to maintain the quality of the network. Service providers must differentiate themselves by monitoring the user experience or quality of experience. Mobile providers face a number of challenges with technologies and standards at and beyond 3GPP / LTE.

Another challenge facing mobile providers will be the requirement of maintaining a hybrid environment for years to come. TDM and the more traditional telco technologies will not just go away with the advent of 3GPP / LTE. The typical mobile operator will need to maintain a TDM / Ethernet environment through several device lifecycles. The interface / integration requirements for these multi-vendor platforms will be a challenge.

Get Datasheet (No Registration Required)

The Dorado Software Carrier Ethernet Solution

At Dorado Software, we have a solution to manage multi-vendor, Long Term Evolution: We call it Redcell. Here is what the Carrier Ethernet Services component of Redcell from Dorado Software covers:

Core/Aggregated

MPLS L2 E-line Ckts (P2P)

MPLS L2 E-LAN (Multipoint)

MPLS L3 E-LAN/E-Tree/IPVPNs

Integrated

Carrier Ethernet end-to-end

Core MPLS

MPLS Traffic Engineering LSPs (RSVP_TE)

TE Tunnel & Named Paths

Edge/CPE

Uni-service

NNI Service

CPE COnfics, VLANs

Service Examples

Mobile backhaul

IPTV

VoIP

VOD

Broadband

Cable

For your more information or your personal reading pleasure, here is a link to a free white paper (courtesy of Dorado Software) titled, "The Impact of Carrier Ethernet on Service Providers."

Managing The Evolution of LTE

Thursday, August 12, 2010 by Eden Mondanaro

GOAL: Manage LTE to Delivery High Quality Mobile Broadband at the Lowest Cost

Scaling will be a factor as well. The introduction of new services and features that come as a result of LTE deployment will drive an increase in individual mobile adoption rates. While per-user usage will also increase, resulting in an increased per-user revenue growth, individual mobile adoption and usage will expand as well. This will result in an increased need to quickly and smoothly scale the configuration, deployment and provisioning of all parts of the network from devices to gateways.

Another challenge facing mobile providers will be the requirement of maintaining a hybrid environment for years to come. TDM and the more traditional telco technologies will not just go away with the advent of 3GPP / LTE. The typical mobile operator will need to maintain a TDM / Ethernet environment through several device lifecycles. The interface / integration requirements for these hybrid platforms will be a challenge.

The Long Term Evolution (LTE) Solution from Dorado Software

Dorado Software's Redcell Suite of Resource Management, Service Management, Fulfillment and Assurance products offers Service Providers a true end-to-end solution for their next generation OSS. From service activation, fulfillment and assurance to managing your resources.

The suite is flexible and scalable to meet a wide range of installations, and packaged with tools to easily customize implementations to meet any environments requirements, including any service and support for any device.

Key Features of Redcell:

Service Provisioning / Activation

E-line, E-LAN, E-Tree

QoS for Voice, Video, Data

MPLS, L2/L3

Mobile Backhaul, LTE, IMS

Health & Performance Monitoring

Real-time device & service

Deep Discovery & Inventory:

Single database & GUI for consistent service configuration & activation

All H/W, S/W, physical & logical sub components

Topology

Hierarchical visual mapping services with alarm propagation

Configuration Management

Real-time configuration changes

Change detection & policy-based evaluation

File, OS Management

Backup, restoration, archiving, deployment & comparison

Comprehensive Reporting

Inventory: By Device, Sub component, Service

Change / Compliance: Who, What, When, How

Integration, Customization

Service Studio tools for quick modeling of any service

Device Driver SDK to support any device

For more information on managing LTE, please contact us or visit the Dorado Software website.

Identify your bandwidth hogs

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by Alan Taylor

A recent campaign by Dorado Software regarding network monitoring and bandwidth usage is getting a good amount of attention.

Bandwidth hogs have been around since there have been networks. Some high-bandwidth usage is to be expected from most companies: software uploads and downloads, data porting and other activities. The problem with bandwidth arises when users begin oversubscribing to YouTube, Hulu and other high-bandwidth streaming services - requiring a tighter application of network management.

There are a number of techniques used to stem bandwidth abuse. By throttling or lowering priority of specific types of traffic or specific websites, a network engineer can effectively lower incidents – until new types of traffic or new websites come online: a constant game of whack-a-mole.

Another technique is to continue increasing available bandwidth – a costly option that never identifies the real culprits.

Leveraging IP network monitroing software to identify specific bandwidth hogs helps to permanently stem bandwidth abuse. By identifying specific workstations, resources and / or protocols contributing to bandwidth abuse, steps can be taken to reduce the ongoing abuse.

Dorado’s bandwidth identifier helps to identify bandwidth hogs and provides easy-to-understand graphs and reports that shows how users, applications and protocols are consuming bandwidth. You are also able to remediate problem quickly using Dorado Software by pinpointing degraded network resources.

See more about how you can get complete visibility into your IP Traffic behavior by getting a free trial here.