Carriers not getting proper return on network infrastructure

Ando Corp is the American subsidiary of Japan's Ando Electric Co. It is currently conducting trials for its first OC-48c IP Core Network Probe. The gigabit speed router is a hardware accelerated statistics engine. The American division of Ando has been in operation for two decades and coordinates with the company's other operations in Asia and in Europe. In this article, a senior executive with the firm looks at the need for state-of-the-art equipment. It is common knowledge in today's IP industry that network management and monitoring capabilities lag far behind packet forwarding technologies, with the broad consensus being that the sooner network management applications catch up the better. According to an Infonetics report, enterprise customers lost an average of $7.8 million in lost productivity and revenue in 1998 alone, the majority of which resulted from bandwidth saturation on specific network segments, hardware failures and other service provider problems. However, perhaps the largest black hole resides at the core of high-speed IP networks - where carriers are currently unable to effectively monitor and manage the flow of information. In order to accommodate their large customer databases, carriers are spending enormous amounts of money on expensive network build-outs that do not effectively keep up with the high speed at which today's networks are run. And, this inability to accurately check the quality of data being transferred at the core in an efficient and cost-effective manner leaves IP carriers with only two options: maintain full router performance and settle for simple, layer-two information gathered at port level, or reduce router performance by as much as 30% and turn on proprietary monitoring options. Ideally, carriers would be able to maintain full router performance and still gather detailed information from the network (level-three and above). However, in order to do so it is necessary for carriers to have a completely passive device that can be deployed independently of existing network equipment. It is also necessary that the device's architecture allow carriers to overcome performance bottlenecks associated with software based monitoring. With this type of solution, new revenue generating opportunities and paths to profitability can open up by allowing for improved integration and functionality of high-level applications as well as IBI (Internet Billing Infrastructure) type applications. Overall, the recent economic downturn and highly competitive market place means that ISPs are now riding a wave of financial uncertainty. Even the most established ones are fighting for market share and have found themselves struggling to find ways to differentiate their services, increase revenue and drive down costs. The carriers that can move quickly and cost-effectively to improve network management and, in turn, offer better SLAs to their enterprise and downstream service provider customers will thrive - while their other, less nimble competitors will bog down in an industry wide slowdown. Hiro Sato is general manager of Ando Corporation's IP Products Division. He has been promoting the IP router at trade shows throughout North America. Sato is based in the company's American head office in San Jose CA.

Carriers not getting proper return on network infrastructure

News | July 30, 2001

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