Network resource planning
Encyclopedia
Next generation services
Many communications service providersCommunications Service Provider
A communications service provider or CSP is a service provider that transports information electronically. The term encompasses public and private companies in the telecom , Internet, cable, satellite, and managed services businesses.The market in which a communication service provider specializes...
- from wireline, wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
, broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
to next generation
Next Generation Networking
Next-generation network is a broad term used to describe key architectural evolutions in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into packets, similar to those used on the...
carriers - are introducing next-generation services such as interactive video over cell phones and multi-user conference calling. These new services are straining the capacity of existing networks. In a 2006 Reuters interview, John Roese, CTO of Nortel, pointed out that YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
almost destroyed the Internet, and in a keynote speech at Cisco’s C-Scape analyst conference in December 2006, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Networks said, “Things like YouTube are just the baby steps of the impact video will have on networks.” Since every video transmission requires roughly 150 times the bandwidth of a voice transmission, it is estimated that a one percent adoption of the Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
V CAST
V CAST
V CAST is a 3G EV-DO network created by Verizon Wireless to deliver audio, video, and entertainment content. The typical download speed is between 800 kilobits and 1.4 megabits per second with burst speeds of up to 3.1 megabits per second...
service required a 400 percent increase in Verizon’s corresponding network capacity.
The bandwidth-intense nature of next generation services has required traditional network planning
Network planning and design
Network planning and design is an iterative process, encompassingtopological design, network-synthesis, and network-realization, and is aimed at ensuring that a new network or service meets the needs of the subscriber and operator....
to evolve. Subscriber growth of legacy services like voice and data had an incremental impact on networks. New subscriptions and their corresponding bandwidth demand followed a relatively linear growth curve. As such, planning methods such as link- and node-specific forecasting
Telecommunications forecasting
All telecommunications service providers perform forecasting calculations to assist them in planning their networks. Accurate forecasting helps operators to make key investment decisions relating to product development and introduction, advertising, pricing etc., well in advance of product launch,...
or “trending” were sufficient to ensure networks could support current and planned subscribers.
The dramatic swings in bandwidth demand that slight variances in subscription rates bring to bear on networks carrying services such as video can no longer be adequately planned for with these traditional methods. Network Resource Planning addresses the weaknesses of trending by incorporating business planning and marketing insight in the planning process. The addition of market analysis adds an additional layer of context and provides a feedback loop that enables more accurate planning. Furthermore, the importance of coordinating infrastructure investment activities across organizations is addressed to ensure that network capacity is provided when and where it is needed, and that human and operational support system resources are appropriately included in the planning process.
Next generation networks
The bandwidth needs of next generation services has placed added pressure on carriers to migrate from traditional networks like PSTN and TDMATime division multiple access
Time division multiple access is a channel access method for shared medium networks. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This...
to new Internet Protocol (IP)
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
-based, or next generation networks
Next Generation Networking
Next-generation network is a broad term used to describe key architectural evolutions in telecommunication core and access networks. The general idea behind the NGN is that one network transports all information and services by encapsulating these into packets, similar to those used on the...
, that can more adequately support the new services. Planning the transition to IP-based networks is a difficult endeavor in many respects. The capital expenditure (CAPEX)
Capital expenditure
Capital expenditures are expenditures creating future benefits. A capital expenditure is incurred when a business spends money either to buy fixed assets or to add to the value of an existing fixed asset with a useful life extending beyond the taxable year...
challenge of these new networks is that while it is remains expensive to make a mistake and deploy too much equipment (i.e., over-building their network and wasting assets), the non-linear relationship between bandwidth and network requirements means there are also significant costs from deploying too little (i.e., under-building the network and putting themselves at a higher chance of delivering poor quality of service
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
and losing market share).
From a technical perspective, the new IP-based networks are also far more difficult to plan. The self-routing nature of IP networks requires planners to determine how the network will behave under normal, overloaded, and failure scenarios. The fact that IP can drop or delay packets during overload conditions introduces new complexity to the system. Interactive services such as voice, two-way video, and gaming are particularly susceptible to the resultant digital jitter and delay. Under these circumstances, the network planners need to know how these services will be affected under varying conditions. In addition, they need to know how the network can be configured to provide the best quality of service at the least cost.
The issue is further compounded by the fact that the simplicity of IP network operations comes from a more uniform, layered approach to network architecture. It’s the interaction between the layers of the network that creates significant complexity. For example, routine services can run on an IP (and/or Ethernet) network, while high-QoS services are assigned to special routes. These services ride on the underlying logical transport network (ring or mesh), which in turn rides on the underlying optical infrastructure. For planning teams, the effect of traffic on each layer must be taken into account in the other layers. This situation is made even more complex when reliability and disaster scenarios come into play, as backup resources must be made available at each layer in the hierarchy.
Traditionally, network planning was performed on a domain-by-domain (i.e., transport, access, etc.) and isolated basis. Network Resource Planning has adapted to address the shared-fabric nature of IP networks by integrating planning across domains. Network planners have a much more powerful tool in Network Resource Planning for leveraging all of the strengths of the various domains in comprehensive master plans. Over the next five years, the vast majority of tier-1 and -2 service providers are expected to shift to convergent network planning systems to handle the complexity of these networks, as well as reduce CAPEX and operational costs.