Habib Youssef 1

Habib Youssef, Ph.D

youssef@ccse.kfupm.edu.saDepartment of Computer Engineering

King Fahd University of Petroleum & MineralsDhahran, Saudi Arabia

Network Evolution to the New Millenium

Habib Youssef 2

Outline

Introduction

Operator Challenges and Requirements

Network Convergence and Consequences

Glimpses at some new developments» Web Switching» ASP» Wireless Broadband Access» The Networked Home

Habib Youssef 3

Introduction Over the last few decades technological advances in

telecommunication and computing have been happening at a breathtaking pace.

As we enter a new millenium, network operators are facing important challenges:» Enhance the network in the face of explosive growth in data

traffic and demand of higher bandwidths.» The Internet has become a worldwide phenomenon which is

driving forward the need for extra bandwidth to cope with new multimedia services (text, voice, and still/video images).

– Most of the optical highways are being deployed to cope with the increasing Internet traffic (World Wide Web traffic).

Habib Youssef 4

Introduction (contd.)

However, it is not economical for network operators to focus their evolution on the provision of Internet services only, since most of their revenues are still coming from voice services.

Hence, established operators are being forced to partner with a telecommunication operator with long-standing experience in the provision of both voice and data networking services.» Such a partner will help them determine the right mix of

network investment to cope with growth in IP traffic,» in the longer term, it will help them move toward a common

network infrastructure (Network convergence).

Habib Youssef 5

Forecast revenues from voice and data services (Source: Yankee Group)

0

50

100

150

200

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

152159 167

176185 194

15 18 2328

3646

US Dollars(Billions)

Voice Data

Habib Youssef 6

Challenges faced by Operators

How to cope with explosive IP traffic How to optimize revenues from both data and

voice services Which services are genuinely useful to the end

users (residential or corporate) Optimum migration strategy towards an open

network with servers and intelligence that links the data and voice worlds (network convergence)

Habib Youssef 7

Network services In developing network services, operators must

remember that,» Services are developed for users

– Should be simple to use provide users with easy ways of customizing their usage profiles

– Knowledge is more important than information services should be more data-centric rather than purely

communication-centric. Hence, databases and data-mining tools will become key assets.

– Access devices Today telephone handsets and computers are the main access

devices. However, in the future, access will be provided via a wider range of devices ==> Information must be aggregated and generated by a service in such a way that it can be decoupled from the interaction with the device.

Habib Youssef 8

Operator Requirements

Internet Service Providers» Many operators are also ISPs whose short term

objective is to increase profit by optimizing the cost of deploying and providing access to current services

» In the long term, operators must seek to provided new value-added services in order to increase profit, e.g.

– VPNs– Broadband RAS– Managed Firewalls,– VoIP– ASPs

Habib Youssef 9

Operator Requirements (Contd.)

Local Exchange Carriers need a network that can support a mix of services and technologies, not just IP traffic» Switches/Routers that support both IP and ATM» Circuit emulation for leased lines» Frame Relay internetworking» ATM support» Voice over IP» Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)» Wireless access and mobility

Habib Youssef 10

Wireless Access/Internet

We live in the “Information Era”, where pervasive access to information is becoming a necessity anytime and anywhere» Commercial illustrating importance of Internet anytime:

– Young man who jumped from an airplane but couldn’t get his parachute to open.

He pulls his PDA device and connects to his insurance company web site to increase the limit on his term life insurance

Access to the Internet from a wide range of mobile devices» PDAs, Cellular phones, pagers, in-car computers, etc

Habib Youssef 11

Wireless Access/Internet (Contd.)

Current common properties of these devices» Small screens, low power, little memory, limited

keyboard, low bandwidth– Special protocols and data formats– See

http://www.wirelessinstitute.com/standards.html http://www.wapforum.org

» WAP Forum is focusing on creating a global wireless protocol specification that works across different wireless technologies, for adoption by appropriate industry standards bodies

Habib Youssef 12

Fixed Wireless Internet Access

Interim solution for businesses/homes that don’t have access to CATV or DSL broadband access» Unlike traditional mobile wireless technologies, fixed-

wireless technologies are not designed for use with smart phones, PDA’s, or other similar devices

An ISP using fixed-wireless technology» Sends data from central office or base station optical fiber to

base station antennas» The base station antennas convert the optical signals into high-

frequency radio microwaves for transmission to the antennas of customers in the same cell as the base station antennas

» Te customer’s antenna captures the signal and passes it to the network interface unit , which converts the radio waves to electronic signals and streams them to the receiving computer

Habib Youssef 13

Global Wireless Market

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Users (M)

$$ (B)

Habib Youssef 14

Wireless Market Potentials

Canada» In 1994: 2.7 million wireless users» In 2000: 11.8 million wireless users

Saudi » In 1998: around half million» In 2001: around two million

Habib Youssef 15

The case for Satellite access

Until about 60 years ago» Each individual communicated with about 100

persons, of which 80-90% lived nearby About 20 years ago, these figures changed

» Each individual communicated with as much as 500 other individuals, of which 80-90% are far apart.

The 90’s have seen the emergence of Information Technology which integrates telecommunications, computing, TV, videoconferencing, and consumer electronics in every location (home or business)

Habib Youssef 16

The case for Satellite access (Contd.)

The challenge is to provide » Multi-application networks» Broadband access to everybody (2 Mbps and more)

Terrestrial networking solutions cannot meet all requirements » Wide area multicasting and broadcasting is not easy» A large investment is required to bridge the last mile

between the customer and the local exchange There is a growing belief that Satellites can play a

complementary role in reducing the time-to-market» The subscriber has only to install a satellite terminal and

subscribe to the service via a satellite in orbit

Habib Youssef 17

The case for Satellite access (Contd.)

Wide bandwidth is already available in millions of homes (over 40 milllions in Europe alone) » Existing home installations can be used to a connect

Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs)» Such services will be provided by satellite onboard

processing (OBP) systems Existing telephone networks are limited in

providing wide access to subscribers» More than two thirds of the investment of a telephone

network is required for the last mile » Investments in the order of 10’s or 100’s of Billion

Dollars to implement the last mile with optical fiber

Habib Youssef 18

The case for Satellite access (Contd.)

Cable TV companies have an installed base of high-bandwidth transmission media (coax) for one-way distribution to subscribers. However» density is much less than the telephone network» A merging of telephone and CATV technologies has

been taking place To provide high-bandwidth to everybody

everywhere requires» Huge investment» Time

Habib Youssef 19

The case for Satellite access (Contd.)

Network technicians would recommend» Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

Telecommunications managers would recommend temporary solutions such as

– Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) – High speed/rate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL) – Very High speed/rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL)

More cost effective solution seems to be Satellite access» Terrestrial network would continue to serve telephony

applications» Satellites will be providing the wideband access needed

by multimedia (interactive) services

Habib Youssef 20

Growth in Network Usage

The World wide web has permanently changed networking.

Millions of individual users access the internet from home regularly

Home offices are on the increase Businesses are using the Internet for

commerce. Increasingly, individual organizations are

maintaining their own intranets

Habib Youssef 21

Internet User Growth

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

00 00 00 001996

2000

1999

1998

1997

1995

World Wide Web Users in Millions

Habib Youssef 22

Trends in Applications

Web pages now provide animated graphics, audio & video.

Ease of use is expected of applications. Number of functions are expected from a single

application (e.g., Web browsing, Mailing, Calendaring etc.).

Diverse data types are expected to be handled by a single application (e.g., Documents embedding spread sheets, graphics, voice etc.)

Habib Youssef 23

Trends in Applications E-commerce

» E-Business– Building & maintenance of a complete Web Storefront – Electronic banking & cash

Electronic banking will displace checks & cash in commerce

– E-trade» E-contact to create the “Cyber-salesperson”

– Need for an integrated call center to establish the human touch in cooperation with web access

– Collaborative browsing and multimedia access» E-branch to reach out to the places needed by the

business

Habib Youssef 24

Trends in Applications (Contd.) Videoconferencing Telecommuting

» The E-office– Employees will perform jobs from remote locations

Distant learning Online publishing

» Majority of books & other publications will be online Entertainment on demand

» Movies, TV shows, Sports …. on demand

Habib Youssef 25

Technology Drivers Traffic is doubling every 9 months, while

processing capacity is doubling every 18 months.» Rely on caching whenever possible!» Good data mining!

0200400600800

10001200

1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

Year

Dat

a R

ate

(Kbp

s)

Habib Youssef 26

Technology Trends Devices capable of integrating a number of

technologies are being designed and produced e.g. a single switch may interface ATM, FDDI, and Fast/Gigabit Ethernet.

Layer 2 and Layer 3 (IP switches) are being designed and produced.

To meet increased bandwidth needs and application sophistication new standards are being proposed.

Devices capable of prioritizing and filtering are becoming available.

Applications aware switching devices.

Habib Youssef 27

Technology Trends (Contd.) Increased ASICs usage to minimize size and improve

performance. Integration of a wide range of functions, thereby

simplifying networks and reducing operating expenses. Use of an open software platform, making it possible to

integrate best available applications. The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS)

» to offer voice and mobile multi-media to the mass market (3rd Generation Mobile systems or 3G)

Networked Home

Habib Youssef 28

Web Switching A new generation of networking devices

specifically designed to address the unique requirements of Web traffic.

They use URLs in addition to IP addresses to make switching decisions.

They are smart switches armed with» sophisticated URL load balancing capabilities» Network address translation» embedded DNS intelligence» use complex policies to manage and speed web traffic

flows

Habib Youssef 29

Web Switching (contd.)

They use URLs in addition to IP addresses to make switching decisions.» URLs provide a ubiquitous method to identify content

across the Internet» Since a URL identifies only the content requested, not

its location, so instead of viewing the IP address associated with this URL as the network address where the content/service is located, this address points to the virtual IP address of the web switch, which functions as a cache or content traffic manager.

» By looking deep into the HTTP payload down to the URL, a Web switch knows what content is being requested

Habib Youssef 30

Web Switching (contd.)

The knowledge of what content is being requested allows a Web switch to know» which user-defined and/or pre-set security policies

must be enforced» which content is to be allowed or denied, and» which QoS requirements are needed for specific

content or even users.

Habib Youssef 31

Web Switching (contd.)

As the VIP address for a WEB site, Web switches intercept all traffic destined for that site» this permits them to predict hot-content before

servers become crowded.» Web switches dynamically replicate hot content to a

Web cache.» Further, a Web switch tracks which servers have

delivered specific content, and therefore, new requests for that content can be sent directly to them resulting in improved server cache coherence/performance.

Habib Youssef 32

TechnologyEssential Technology characteristics to support future applications A variety of access technologies

» wireless, cellular mobile, digital loop carrier, cable modem, IP, ATM, etc.

Manageability» Policy responsive network, administrative partitioning

Scalability» Cost effective growth, bandwidth on demand, Usage &

application based prioritization, multi vendor solutions

Habib Youssef 33

Technology (Contd.)

Reliability» Utility like uptime, self healing networks, embedded

security enforcement Next generation features & services

» Advanced application functionality, ability to easily create new applications & services

Habib Youssef 34

Standardization Efforts Standards are necessary to maintain flexibility & to

avoid the clutches of proprietary designs. Some standards:

» ITU: H323– Supports packet switched networks to carry telephony

traffic» IEEE: 802.1p, 802.1Q

– Support prioritization of data traffic at layer 2, this enables QoS

» IETF: RTP, ISLL, RTSP– Real-time Transport Protocol, Integrated Services over

Specific Link Layers & Real-Time Streaming Protocol enable IP networks to carry multimedia traffic

Habib Youssef 35

Case Example

Head OfficeNetwork

Internet

Branch OfficeNetwork

Branch OfficeNetwork

Leased Line/VPN

Leased Line / VPN

Leased Line/VPN

Why should the company pay for separate inter-branch telephone charges when the VPN

could carry voice traffic?

Habib Youssef 36

Result : Network Convergence

Converged networking is an emerging technology thrust that integrates voice, video

& data traffic over a single network

Habib Youssef 37

Network ConvergenceNetwork Convergence entails convergence in various

aspects e.g. Payload Convergence

» Different data types are carried in same communications format (e.g., layer 1 audio & video streams as well as layer 3 packets may be carried in layer3 datagrams )

Protocol Convergence» The move is away from multi-protocols to a single protocol

namely IP Physical Convergence

» All payloads travel over the same physical network (QoS & CoS may however be used to differentiate service requirements

Habib Youssef 38

Network Convergence (Contd.) Device Convergence

» A single switch may support Ethernet packet forwarding, IP routing, ATM etc.

Application Convergence» A single application integrates formerly separate functions

(e.g., Web pages allow interactive communication) Technology Convergence

» Same technology (e.g., ATM) is used for both LANs & WANs Organizational Convergence

» Centralization of networking, telecommunication & computing services under a single authority

Habib Youssef 39

Converged Network Architecture

A large converged network will probably be composed of LANs and WANs

They will not be homogenous networks, due to:» Differing economic and performance requirements

over LANs and WANs» Differing bandwidth, delay and jitter requirements

Two possible scenarios are presented.

Habib Youssef 40

Converged Network Example 1

Edge network: Switched or routed Ethernet

Core Network: ATM or Frame Relay etc. LAN Edge Network LAN Edge Network

WAN core network

Habib Youssef 41

Converged Network Example 2

Parallel core networks Traffic is filtered into

different service classes at exit from LAN, and routed via different networks:» Connection oriented ATM

for multimedia traffic» Packet switched WAN for

bursty LAN traffic

LAN Edge Network LAN Edge Network

ATM

Packet Switched WAN

Habib Youssef 42

Information Information Delivery Delivery

(Multicast)(Multicast)

Bandwidth Conservation (e.g., Multicast IP)

Supported in: New Routers, Core & Edge Switches NICs

• Multicast IP BenefitsMulticast IP Benefits– Conserves backbone bandwidthConserves backbone bandwidth

– No administration required: automaticNo administration required: automatic

Habib Youssef 43

DA SA TRTR VLAN IDVLAN IDPrPr Information

2 Byte 802.1Q Tag2 Byte 802.1Q Tag

802.1p: 3 Bits802.1p: 3 Bits

Prioritization Technologies

In the switched LAN: 802.1p/Q» 8 levels of priority» Applied to Ethernet packet header» State of standards

– Unanimous approval of draft

In the routed WAN: IP ToS» 8 levels of priority» Applied to IP header» State of standards: Has been a

standard for years

Habib Youssef 44

Guidelines for Application PrioritizationGuidelines for Application Prioritization

7 Systems Management7 Systems Management

6 Real-time Video6 Real-time Video

5 Voice5 Voice

4 Business-Critical4 Business-Critical

0, 3 Best Efforts0, 3 Best Efforts

2 Less than Best Efforts2 Less than Best Efforts

1 Background1 Background

High-PriorityHigh-PriorityQueueQueue

Low-PriorityLow-PriorityQueueQueue

Prioritization Guidelines

Habib Youssef 45

Single QueueSingle Queue

Dual QueueDual Queue

HighHigh

LowLow

Switches that Support Multiple Queues

Multiple queues in all new core & edge switches» Built into hardware» 802.1p tags, without multiple queues, cannot provide priority

Habib Youssef 46

Summary

TechnologyDeregulation/

Convergence

User Growth & Appl. Sophistication Standardization

Evolution in Network And Services

Explosive increase in Transmission Bit Rates And Switching Capacities

Abundant Computing power, DSP, Compression etc.

Distributed operating systems, Middleware, Intelligent agents, Real time database systems.

Globalization, Deregulation

Increased competition, Partnerships

Rapid introduction of Revenue

generating services

Anytime, Anywhere, Anymedia

connectivity, transparency, Flexibility, manageability, Reliability

Habib Youssef 47

Networked Home Networking technologies are starting to invade the

home to link computers and tap into the Internet, to carry phone signals and TV programs, and communicate with home appliances, surveillance cameras, air conditioning units, lights, etc.

Now, prime candidates for home networks are homes with two or more computers.» In the US, homes with two or more computers are

estimated to total 17 millions.» Physical basis for these networks: VG TP, Cat-5 UTP,

electrical power lines, wireless schemes (in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz range)

Habib Youssef 48

Networked Home (Contd.) Projected revenues in the US market:

» Home data and entertainment networking -- By 2001, will hit $725 million (Karuna Uppal, Yankee Group, Boston).

» The biggest market right now for home networking in US involves control: heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; lighting; pumps and sprinklers; and security. Total spending is expected to top $2.75 billion by the end of 2000 (Navin Shabharwal, Allied Business Intelligence).

Players» Start-ups or have been in the business for a short time.» Well established multi-billion Dollar companies such as

Cisco, Intel, Nortel, Motorola, Lucent, 3Co, IBM, and Panasonic

Habib Youssef 49

Networked Home (Contd.) Difficulties

» Lack of useful wiring in a residential network» There is no single affordable medium that meets all

requirements Some new homes in the US are being built with

home networking in mind, namely according to structured wiring standards.» With structured wiring, the communication lines

come into the office at a single point - the wiring closet - and radiate-out from there.

Habib Youssef 50

Homes with structured wiring in the US (The Yankee Group)

0

100

300

400

200

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

50

150

300

500

8001000s of homes

500

600

700

800

Habib Youssef 51

IBM Home Director Products Home Director consists of

» a connection center that sits in the wiring closet» control modules and connectors

Through the center it is possible to control and manage all of the various computers and devices on the network.

The system allows for asserting control from any point on the network and remotely from the Internet.

Habib Youssef 52

Home Structured Network

Connection Center

NetworkGateway

Cat-5Phone lines

WirelessPower line

TV Stereo

Telephones

Mobile Phone

Lightingcontrol

Surveillancecamera

Thermostats

Broadband

ServicesCable modem/ADSL modem/

Satellite receiver/Wireless transceiver/

combination

Habib Youssef 53

Home-networked households in the US in thousands

Phone line

Power line

Wireless

6.5%

81%

75%

87%

92%

70%

1.5%

6.5%

1.5%

6.5%

1.5%

6.5%

1.5%

6.5%

1.5%

1999Total: 600

2000Total: 1321

2001Total: 2478

2002Total: 3998

2003Total: 6006

Habib Youssef 54

To be continued...