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Now, the Future Connection

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

Next Generation Networks are no more in the embryonic state. Are enterprises

ready to adopt them?

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The

networks of the 1990s were designed primarily to carry data across the

enterprise. However, the information exchange requirements of enterprises have

evolved over the years. Now they feel a pressing need to share other forms of

information such as voice or multimedia along with conventional data on their

digital networks. And the Next Generation Networks (NGNs) have emerged to

satisfy this need.



A common market

perception is that NGNs cater to voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications. That's

true to an extent. However, they offer more comprehensive connectivity options

covering more information types besides conventional data -and voice. Driven by

Internet Protocol (IP), an NGN offers a packet-based network with packets

identified by their types-data, voice, or video. These NGN characteristics

perfectly fill the bill for enterprises that are eyeing future technologies for

their centrally controlled and geographically dispersed networks. “Large

enterprises and SMBs are now investing or looking to invest in NGN architecture

particularly IP based NGNs-that will drive convergence resulting in lower

total cost of ownership and reduced network complexity for them,” says Sudhir

Narang, Sr. vice president, SP and Government, Cisco Systems.

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NGN Use: For Business

Transformation



Today, most enterprises are striving to have consolidated infrastructure

for all their IT needs. This is mainly because they want to simplify

infrastructure management at reduced costs. As networks form part of the overall

IT infrastructure, CIOs prefer to deploy a common network for their diverse

information distribution needs. “Enterprises want all their applications to

converge on a single infrastructure and distribute them across geographically

distributed locations and even to the mobile workers,” agrees A Prasad Babu,

systems engineering manager, Juniper Networks.

However, now these

applications are not restricted to only traditional data distribution, but

corporates want to introduce voice and video applications also on their

networks. For example, VoIP is among the most crucial enterprise requirements

today. Using converged networking offered by NGNs, companies could aim to

transform their businesses by offering voice- and video-based value-added

services to their customers. While offering Internet banking, for example, banks

can even provide the facility of voice communication to their customers to

interact with the bank staff over the same network. “Such a facility will help

enterprises attract more new customers and retain the existing ones,” says

Prasad Babu.

Similarly, using

video-conferencing facility offered by NGNs, corporates can achieve more

business agility by conserving time and cost, which they would normally spend on

travel. But for all this, communication quality has to be exceptionally good.

“As companies can't afford to compromise with the quality of service (QoS)

in today's competitive business environment, NGNs can equip them to deliver

relevant quality for all their communication needs,” says Prasad Babu. In the

process, enterprises can also target higher productivity levels. As IP-based

NGNs make a service available to end-users across any access network, a service

available in the office can be made available seamlessly over a wireless LAN, a

broadband connection, or a cellular network to even a roaming user. “This

service agility drives greater productivity for enterprises,” says Narang.

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Further, NGNs can give

comfortable experience to the customers for interacting with the organization

offering multiple communication channels. And, thus, more satisfied customers

will translate into more business for the organization. “Enterprises can

integrate new IP data, voice, and video applications over a single IP-based

network infrastructure for increased profitability,” suggests Narang.

NGN Deployment: For

Competitive Gains



While NGNs promise hefty returns to enterprises in terms of reduced costs

and easy manageability, CIOs need to follow the right deployment strategies. For

example, while selecting the networking platforms, they need to plan for the

future-say, up to five years down the road. “With the security and efficient

operation of an enterprise network at stake and with typical service-level

agreements (SLAs) lasting for two to five years, selecting the right provider

for the job is crucial,” suggests Narang.

For this, the entire

onus will be on CIOs to aptly estimate their information requirements separately

for data, voice, and video communications. While the conventional selection

parameters such as scalability, availability, resilience, and QoS will hold true

for NGNs. Enterprise tech chiefs are required to gain sufficient knowledge about

the NGN options before zeroing in on a particular technology. “For this, CIOs

can hold frequent discussions with the vendors even before floating their

requests for proposals,” suggests Prasad Babu. Depending on their application

environment, enterprises can even follow the managed services model. “Managed

services or out-tasking to service providers can help businesses reduce overall

network costs by 15-25%,” estimates Narang.

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NGNs

for the Enterprises: Factors that will...

Encourage the use

  • Business transformation need

  • More enterprise agility

  • Need to offer convenient interaction channels to

    buyers and suppliers

  • Consolidation of technology infrastructure

 Discourage the use

  • High capital cost with insignificant investment

    protection

  • Regulations and policies

  • Low awareness levels

  • Expensive devices, say, for IP telephony

With an objective to

offer an assured experience to the end-users, CIOs need to select only an

application-aware network that could deliver right QoS. While security will hold

paramount importance on converged NGNs, CIOs will be required to ensure security

even for voice applications-along with data-to prevent unauthorized access

to the network. As the basic objective of enterprise will be to run the new

network operations smoothly, service providers will also have to contribute

significantly. “Making the difference between 99% and 99.999% availability

requires a significant effort by service providers,” says Narang.

There could be more

transition challenges. As CIOs are supposed to handle migration issues while

moving from their existing networks to NGNs, they need to carry out a definite

analysis covering cost-benefit taking into account capex and opex factors,

regulatory guidelines, and management requirements including manpower training.

Since NGNs will result in total revamp of enterprise networks, there will not be

any significant investment protection for the user organizations. However, they

can achieve cost-reduction targets by deploying NGN-based converged networks.

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NGN Flavors: Technologies

and Applications



As NGNs are making steady inroads into the enterprise information

environment, there are a few technology options that CIOs can consider. Since IP

offers tremendous advantages to corporates, clearly IP-based NGNs will be the

immediate choice. However, keeping an eye on their future demand, enterprises

need to closely evaluate technologies based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS),

which primarily use IP backbone for information delivery. “MPLS-based NGNs

will be highly suitable for enterprises planning to integrate data, voice, and

video on a single infrastructure,” says Prasad Babu.

There are some

advantages of MPLS for managing multiple forms of information. Since using MPLS

technique, every IP packet is assigned a label to identify the user and

information type, the router can ignore the IP address. As a result, enterprise

users with overlapping IP addresses can communicate on the same provider

network. It helps reduce cost of operations and simplify connectivity. Also

using labeling techniques that define label switch path (LSP) and identifier for

the IP address, MPLS ensures information security that can be matched with that

of frame relay or ATM networks. The MPLS technology will be particularly useful

for NGNs because it will help segregate data, voice, and video transmission. And

if there's a link failure, while transmitting one form of data, the dynamic

routing protocols reroute the information flow to reach the destination almost

instantly.

Thus, enterprises can

expect exceptional reliability from the NGN infrastructure, which can create the

platform for plenty of new-generation applications. “Application convergence

opens the doors to all-media services such as videoconferencing, which is

effectively a new service being neither voice, nor video, nor data, but an

integration of all the three,” says Narang. “Applications such as IP

telephony and videoconferencing drive down communication costs.” So, the NGN

applications are particularly relevant for enterprises in the BPO, telecom, and

BFSI markets that deal with large number of consumers. While NGNs can help

enterprises leverage voice and video applications, their success will largely

depend on regulatory guidelines.

But all these could

just be some teething troubles. They shouldn't discourage the enterprise CIOs

looking for innovative technologies to strengthen their information

infrastructure. It'll be hard for them to ignore the benefits promised by NGNs.

Right deployment approach will, of course, determine the success for new

platforms.

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