10 New Technologies to Pump Up Your
Network
Carrie Higbie, Siemon
Global Network Applications Market Manager
Ask the Expert , TechTarget – SearchNetworking,
SearchEnterprise Voice, SearchDataCenter
President, BladeSystems Alliance
10 new technologies to pump up your network
1. Intelligent patching
2. Better cabling
3. 10G is reality
•
Gigabit to the desktop
4. Security appliances
5. Layer 7 products
6. Wireless, especially WiMax
7. Blades
8. Advancements in switching and routing
9. VoIP/IPT
10.Grid computing
1. What is intelligent patching?
• Adds the physical layer to your management
capabilities
• Allows you to see where devices are on your
networks
• Real-time MAC management
• Real-time upgrades to labeling and documentation
• Significantly decreases troubleshooting and fault
detection
• Discovers all devices
• Logs all events
• Reports by object class,
event type, location
• Triggers and escalates
alarms or alerts via email,
voice, page, messaging,
cameras etc.
• Dispatches SNMP
commands to switches or
other network devices
• Enforces methodologies
for best practice change
control and management
• Extends third party, inhouse, NMS, asset
management, help desk
• Sensor technology embedded in
patch panels and patch cords
Patch panel
• LAN sensor strips mount over
switch or router ports
Switch with sensor strip
• Analyzers collect connection
data from the physical layer
and LAN port connections and
feed to the sensor software
Analyzer
• System cables connect patch
panels and LAN sensor strips
sensors to analyzers
• Software monitors network
connections and devices
2. Better cabling
• Class F/Category 7
• Noise immunity
• Now approved for government installations that used to require
conduit due to noise
• 10G Category 6
• Will really last 10 years
• Category 5e is not approved for this technology
• Shielded systems
• 50-micron fiber, laser optimized fiber
• Standards are now recommending Category 6
minimum
Why does this increase performance?
• Downtime is expensive
• Heartier cabling is less susceptible to problems
• Recabling is expensive and requires downtime
• Retransmissions increase latency and network traffic loads
• Auto-negotiation due to poor cabling can keep expensive
electronics from performing as expected
• ANEXT is not an issue with shielded systems
• External noise such as factory machines are not an issue with
shielded systems
• Initial investment is 5-7% of network costs, but poorly installed
cabling is 70% of network problems!
• Any time you revisit your cabling you are investing in LABOR –
the most costly factor!
DCLCC cabling
NFPA codes and standards represent a set of
minimum fire safety requirements for the
protection of buildings
NFPA 90A is responsible
for plenum spaces in
buildings
•NFPA 90A – Standard for
air conditioning and
ventilation equipment
• Sets requirements for flame,
smoke and fuel load
• 4.3.10.2.6 -- “All materials
exposed to the airflow shall be
non-combustible or limited
combustible and have a
maximum smoke developed
index of 50...”
• Combustible (CMP, etc.) cables
allowed as exception
• Requires listing of limited
combustible cable
NFPA 70 is responsible for
plenum cable products and
applications
•National Electrical Code
(NEC)
• Recognizes hazards associated
with cables in plenums
• Requires removal of abandoned
cable from plenums
• Fine print note (FPN) points to
NFPA 13 requirements for plenum
sprinklers with combustible
loading
NFPA 13 standard for the installation of
sprinkler systems
• In sprinklered buildings, use of
combustible cables in concealed
spaces, including plenums,
requires installation of sprinklers
in these spaces.
• Use of limited combustible cable
does not require sprinklers in
these spaces.
• The options:
1. Sprinklers in concealed space
2. Cable in conduit
3. LCC cable (most cost
effective)
Why does this matter?
• May affect your ability to occupy the building
• Abandoned cable can deplete your cooling resources
or cause an air dam
• In faults 95%+ is due to smoke only 5% is actual
fire
• Fire spreads on parallel cabling
3. 10G – It’s here!
• Fiber-based options
• Utilize SMF or 50 micron laser optimized fiber
• Copper twisted-pair versions are in alpha
• Based on 10GBASE-T standard to publish in June 2006
• Copper 10GBASE-CX4 products have been out for
some time
• Predominantly in storage
• Limited to 15m (twinax)
• May be replaced by 10GBASE-T alternatives
Difference between copper and fiber
• Fiber does not auto-negotiate
• Copper will auto-negotiate between 10/100/1000/10G
• Copper limited to 100m on augmented Category 6,
Class F/Category 7
• Limited to 55m on legacy 6
• No support for Category 5e
• Fiber will be 10X the cost of a 1G fiber port
• Copper will be 3X the cost of a 1G copper port
• Photons versus electricity
10G early adopters
• Data centers
• Vertical infrastructures
• High-demand applications
• Graphics
• Simulations
• CAD/CAM/CAE
• Teleradiology and telemedicine
• New non-compressed video applications
Gigabit to the desktop
• All PCs come with Gigabit capabilities
• Chip costs have decreased significantly
• Many companies are already moving to gigabit
• Power users see immediate benefit
• Some are already 10G
• Provides additional throughput and decreases
latency
• Saves on transfer times and increases productivity
4. Security appliances
• More than a firewall
• Examines port activity
• Can be in the NIC or at the switch
• Shuts down offending systems
• Integrated management for many security options
• Can include spam and malware filters
• Can stop problems before they propagate
• Most include radius services
• Provides additional logging and audit trails for
compliance
Where can I build in security?
EMBEDDED
FIREWALL
Users,
PCs, NICs,
etc…
User access
infrastructure
Wired
Desktop
Business Servers:
Files, Applications,
E-mail, Web,
Storage
LAN core
infrastructure
LAN Core
Server
Farm
RADIUS, Policy,
& Directories
Servers
10/100/1000
ADVANCED
HIGH
DENSITY
Phones
Telephony Servers
& Gateways
IP Voice
WAN Routers,
Firewalls, VPN,
Anti-Virus, IDS,
Wireless
Switch
Remote
Sites
Internet
Access
Network
Management
WAN & Internet
infrastructure
What’s under the hood?
• Application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC)
• Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA)
• Utilizes pattern matching
• Specialized processors
• IPS/IDS
• Intrusion protection/intrusion detection
• SSL/VPN
5. Layer 7 products
• Build on QoS from Layer 3 by adding applicationspecific routing
• Can assist with bandwidth-hungry applications by
providing specific routing based on priority as the
application sees it
• Use content management such as HTTP headers,
SSL, Session IDs, cookies and URI
• Distribute content and services among different
servers to balance loads
• Can be proxy or transparent
Differences between proxy and
transparent modes
• Proxy
• A single point of entry
• Centralizes security
• Consolidates logging
• Performance advantages
• Transparent
• Reverse of Web cache
• Can add some minor latency
6. Wireless – In particular, WiMax
• Designed primarily for last mile
• Can offer increased performance for some last-mile
and/or campus applications
• Still shared bandwidth
• Still wireless
• Can be operated in protected/licensed spectrum
• Part of IEEE BWA (Broadband Wireless Access)
• New Intel chip for WiMax introduced
• Point to multi-point distribution
802.16 WiMax
Redundant
Server Farms
Internet
Redundant
Management
Redundant Primary
Backbone Provider Router
Redundant Backbone CSU/DSUCSU/DSU
Provider 2 Router
ATM Switch
6Ghz - 2 Way
Digital Radio
Internet Carrier
Transceiver
Digital Radio
m
ea
str S
n
E
w
Do ith D tion
w ryp
c
En
Workstation
Transmitter
Workstation
CPE Firewall
and Proxy
CPE Router
Workstation
Cable Modem
Transmit and Receive
Tower
Router
Segmented
Fully Redundant
Server
Farm
7. Blades
• BladeSystems Alliance
• All things blade
• Racks
• Enclosures
• Interoperability booths
• Servers and storage
• Cooling and power
• Data center considerations
14 South Networks
Nexcom International
3UP Systems
nStor Corporation
Advanced Premise Technologies
* OSA Technologies
American Power Conversion Corporation
* PLX Technology
* Amphus
Q4 Company
Apple Computer
* QLogic
Artesyn Technologies
* Raritan Computer Inc.
* Avocent
SharkRack, Inc.
Berg Software Design
The Siemon Company
ClearCube Technology, Inc.
Silicon Mechanics
* CoroSoft
* StarGen Inc.
Other members StoneFly Networks
* Coughlin Associates
Emulex Corporation
Sun Microsystems
* F5 Networks
Tatung Company
* Chris Hipp
Topspin Communications
IBM
Unigen
* IMEX Research
* Unisys Corporation
* InfiniCon Systems
* VERITAS Software
Kashya, Inc.
* Wind River
* Mellanox Technologies
Wright Line Inc.
* Nacio Systems
XIOtech
Network Appliance
Zetta Systems, Inc.
IT budgets – Where are the dollars spent?
Courtesy of Intel
Why consider blade servers?
• Reduced complexity
• Streamlined deployment and ease of management
• Scalable
• Increased density of processing power in smaller footprint
• Consolidated management
• Clusters with additional processing power
• Increased I/O at wire speed for all on same backplane
• Increased storage options
Differences between blades and traditional
servers
8. Advancements in switching and
routing
• Increased wire-speed processing
• Ethernet on the backplane work in progress in IEEE
• 10G switches and 10G uplink ports are available
from most manufacturers
• Some include layer 7 capabilities
• PoE addition and significant decrease in costs
• PoE gigabit only works on end-span (power provided
from the switch)
Better routing protocols and ELECs
• In many areas, WAN speeds are greater than LAN
speeds
• Can be used to cluster resources
• Higher levels of traffic now move at increased
speeds
• Greater competition in this space has allowed for
greater functionality
• Ethernet local exchange carriers mean
conversions/encapsulations are now avoidable
9. VoIP and IP telephony
• It’s not new, but is being readily adopted
• E911 is still an issue
• Product sets are proving to be more scalable and
interoperability is increasing with SIP and product
maturity
• 75% of voice traffic expected to be VoIP by 2007
(IDC Research)
VoIP and IP telephony
• IPT includes things such as fax, universal
messaging, etc.
• Takes voice and samples it into packets for delivery
across a network
• Provides a significant cost savings to companies
especially office to office
• Needs some type of gateway to the POTS network
VoIP and IP telephony
•
Switch may be in phone, may be separate cable
•
Standards recommend two outlets per work area
• One for phone, one for PC in this case
•
If switch is in phone, cable channel becomes shared
media
•
Phones may be powered via data cable
•
Voice traffic is sensitive and requires dependable
bandwidth
•
Video conference may be part of system
•
Category 7 cable allows PC and phone to operate at
10/100 over one single cable
•
New wireless IP phones are being introduced
Routing for VoIP
• Call is digitized in phone
• Each packet is about 20ms of voice
• Packets move to IP PBX
• If in house, sends packets to other phone
• If out of house and on VoIP system, sends call to
other system
• If not in house, not VoIP – moves to POTS network
Universal messaging
• Part of SIP
• Calls can follow a user
• URL dialing
• Voice mail in e-mail
• Voice system can read you your e-mail
• Single connectivity solution for messaging
VoIP and the LAW
• Is it data?
• Is it voice?
• Public service commissions seek tariffs
• EU says quality is too poor to regulate like PSTN/cell
• Origination of call is tariff point
• How do you track this with mobile workforces?
• SIP allows location by URL
• Internet allows calls to originate anywhere
• Similar to proceedings from cable industry several
years ago
Using the switch in the phone
•
Cost of phone (average retail)
$360.00
•
Avg. cost of not running a new cable
- 150.00
•
Stated “cost” of phone after savings
$210.00
•
Cost to replace phone once over lifetime of system
$360.00
•
Actual cost with one replacement ($210.00 + replacement)
$570.00
•
Average cost of running an additional cable
$150.00
•
Average cost of phone without switch
$200.00
•
Average cost of one replacement over lifetime of cable
$200.00
•
Total cost with additional cable
$550.00
10. Grid computing
What’s a grid?
• The ability to group/cluster many systems together
to increase processing power
• Do not have to be the same computers
• Reaching mainstream corporate environments
• Share processing loads
• Share storage pools
• Virtualization is a great fit for this technology
• Can process requests remotely and send solution
sets
TeraGrid – Open scientific computing
Allows shares of significant data stores
• Full image of the earth once every 24 hours
• Some are a terabyte in size
• Lawrence and Berkley labs built a grid out of PCs
that nearly equaled the processing power of a small
Cray for under $20k
• Becoming an option for large ERP/CRM systems
• Check out www.top500.org for a listing of resources
Thank you
Carrie Higbie, Siemon
Global Network Applications Market Manager
Ask the Expert , TechTarget – SearchNetworking,
SearchEnterprise Voice, SearchDataCenter
President, BladeSystems Alliance