The Challenges Before The ISPs

Today, Internet has more than 40 million users

world-wide. According to Morgan Stanley, this figure is expected

to reach 160 million by the year 2000. Basically, a

network-to-network connection which would mean that all the

networks, sub-networks, and intranets are interconnected,

Internet today has become the new road upon which our voice,

data, and images travel.

This was something that Internet was not

supposed to be initially. So, it was not designed to provide the

kind of fault tolerance and assured delivery that the business

users expect. On the other hand, the present telecom

infrastructure was also not designed for this kind of traffic

requirement.

Added to this is the emergence of what is

called intranet, the organization-wide "internet" that

provides the users with a common interface for all their

applications. Many organizations use them as their sole corporate

computing medium for employees. Many a times, these intranets are

interfaced with Internet and try to use the latter as a medium of

communication.

This has resulted in a lot of pressure on

Internet. This also means that the Internet services have

tremendous business opportunities. Looking at this, many

traditional telecom operators have embraced Internet service

business. In other words, Internet and intranets have created

both challenges and opportunities for service providers

specializing in data networking.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) exist to

provide access to services on Internet. But for the first-time

service providers, the whole game is an expensive proposition.

These ISPs have to build and maintain modem pools, routers, and

thousands of other relative infrastructure nodes and resources.

The hardware and technical design problems should not be solved

by the ISPs. These should be left to the equipment vendors and

solution providers. And an ISP must worry about marketing,

content production, and about technical innovation of the

business, where it excels.

Most of the ISPs use a network in such a way

that the entire Internet traffic is routed over the voice network

through local switches to the tandem switches and then to the

toll/TAX office. Toll/TAX office then interfaces to the

centralized VSNL modem pool for access to VSNL backbone and

servers and then to Internet. The existing network is already

congested and VSNL has almost stopped giving any more Internet

connections to the customers.

Infrastructure and data network architecture

being used at present have several challenges to be addressed.

• Congestion on the voice network. The
  
  traffic requirements per Internet subscriber are very
  
  high (0.3-0.6 Erlang approx.) and existing voice network
  
  is designed for 0.1-0.2 Erlang per subscriber. This
  
  excess load on the local and tandem switches of the voice
  
  network is degrading the overall network performance.
• Limited number of ports and modems.
  
  The number of modems and ports are limited which is
  
  resulting in limited subscribers access to Internet.
• A complex network. This network has
  
  too many lines, adapters, servers, and cables. This makes
  
  the network more complex and also results in poor quality
  
  network.
• Limited SNMP. Does not have Simple
  
  Network Management Protocol (SNMP) on all devices. SNMP
  
  basically manages the nodes on IP network.
• All the devices are not secure.
• No remote management on all devices.
• No dynamic traffic-to-line allocation.
• Long holding time on voice network.
• Dissatisfied customer. Since the
  
  existing infrastructure is not able to support high speed
  
  and quality service, it results in dissatisfied
  
  customers. At times, www means World Wide Weight.

width="331" height="204">This exponential

growth of Internet may have created problems for ISPs, but it

provides several opportunities to them in offering bundled

services and in demand capitalization. Some of the typical

services which could be bundled with Internet include:

• Analog access (up to 28.8 kbps) and ISDN
  
  access–64 and 128 kbps.
• Dedicated access, i.e. leased line of 64
  
  kbps/2 mbps speed.
• Free space for home page, Netscape
  
  navigator software.
• Help desk, web page development, and
  
  hosting.
• Consulting/training, messaging database,
  
  and directory services.
• Domain name registration, security
  
  services.
• Credit card billing and commerce.

Phasing out huge networks is not an easy task

from the investment point of view as a major chunk of the

investment has already gone into modems and trunks and into

technical support. (The present network is full of modems and

trunks which has resulted in heavy investments and the large

number of nodes in this network have resulted in more number of

technical support/staff). Apart from this, there are other

limitations.

• Costly router ports. This is because a
  
  single router is not being utilized to its speed (access
  
  network limitation).
• High access charges. The access charges
  
  are high because of multiple Point Of Presence (POP)
  
  maintenance.
• Inefficient network management. Since the
  
  existing network is not well planned and it has many
  
  types of nodes that have to be maintained, it is really
  
  difficult to maintain the network cost effectively.
• Little customer loyalty. Because of poor
  
  network performance and poor customer care, the customer
  
  does not show any loyalty to its ISP.
• Poor customer education. Presently, ISPs
  
  are not focusing on customer training or creating
  
  awareness on Internet and its access. Even corporate
  
  customers have not been given any attention. ISPs really
  
  have to educate the customer.

Challenges Before The

ISP

The main challenge before an

ISP is meeting the huge traffic demand and providing quality

service in a cost-effective manner. There are other areas of

concern too. These include:

• Providing high-speed connections for
  
  quality service to corporate customers.
• Profitably expand data networking options
  
  for ISP and enterprise customers.
• Increase profitability and improve
  
  efficiency of the inter-switched network.
• Providing premises functionality in a
  
  central office environment resulting in improved user
  
  satisfaction.
• Deliver a carrier-grade access,
  
  navigational, and security platform resulting in new
  
  revenue generation and cost saving. width="331" height="343">To meet Internet
  
  and ISPs’ challenges, the government must plan right
  
  policies and allow several ISPs for country-wide network. In
  
  fact, most of the countries have several ISPs to cater to their
  
  needs in an efficient and cost-effective manner. At the same
  
  time, ISPs need to plan a separate data network to suffice this
  
  kind of huge requirements. And, ISPs may be allowed to get into
  
  the Internet content services business.

  These ISPs will be expected to build the
  
  information superhighways in a short duration. As Internet users
  
  mostly have a dial-up access on the existing voice network using
  
  conventional modems. This approach of providing Internet
  
  connection brings the traffic to a stand still/congestion in the
  
  peak hours. In fact, Internet users are looking for something
  
  faster like ISDN, cable modems, or even faster technologies for
  
  providing access. Service providers would love to oblige, but
  
  there are problems in putting the faster technology into place
  
  and managing it afterwards.

  If the above challenges are met, then ISPs can
  
  benefit in terms of voice network resources, new data services
  
  revenues, and single data network equipment. These will make the
  
  maintenance easy, enhance market image, and help to focus on core
  
  businesses and on the end customer. However, achieving these
  
  challenges is not an easy task and will not be possible by one
  
  ISP, i.e. VSNL.

  There are many steps that need to be taken by
  
  the government and the ISPs, themselves, in order to see that
  
  Internet succeeds in India. While policy related issues are to be
  
  decided by the government and the regulator in consultation with
  
  the industry, ISPs can focus their activities on better
  
  infrastructure, innovative service offerings, and aggressive
  
  marketing. While the latter two will depend upon geographic
  
  regions and the size of an ISP, here is a brief outline of what
  
  to take care of as far as infrastructure is concerned.

  Basic Infrastructure

  The following infrastructure
  
  needs would have to be addressed:

  • More Internet connections would mean more
    
    number of computers. But the computer prices are still
    
    high. To bring down the computer prices, government must
    
    remove the duties and it may be fully depreciated by one
    
    to two-year period.
  • The telecom infrastructure must be
    
    designed for data network applications which could
    
    support high-speed services. This infrastructure must be
    
    able to provide 64 kbps, nx64 kbps, ISDN, 2 Mbps, and
    
    high data rate connections to the end user. For example,
    
    the data network could be based on ATM/Frame Relay.
  • To have smooth traffic flow from one point
    
    to other, it is suggested that number of backbones be
    
    increased and these backbones shall support high speed.
    
    For example, ATM over SDH backbone.
  • ISPs should be free to borrow the backbone
    
    from GSM and basic service providers or from DoT at
    
    nominal charges. Access Network And
    
    Access Gateway

    u Existing
    
    access network infrastructure is designed for voice applications
    
    but not for data/Internet. Therefore, the access infrastructure
    
    must be designed by the equipment suppliers for high-speed data
    
    services. This could be achieved by using more fibre in access
    
    network and or cable TV network could be utilized. Similarly,
    
    from equipment point of ISDN facility, 2 Mb or high data rate
    
    leased lines and ATM switches or multiplexers with routers be
    
    used in the access.

    • ISPs must be allowed to have their own
      
      access gateway to have international data link connection
      
      from MCI, BT, or any other information connection
      
      provider.
    • This infrastructure must guarantee the
      
      quality services. The quality of service, high speed, and
      
      easy connection to end user will be the key
      
      differentiator for the private ISPs.

    Network Management
    
    System

    The new infrastructure and
    
    design should have optimized the number of nodes in data network
    
    and these nodes must be connected on suitable network management
    
    system. Only one network management system per network, at high
    
    level is recommended. The existing VSNL network management is
    
    very complex because of many technologies and many number of
    
    nodes in the network. Better network management system means
    
    better quality of service to end customer and easy life for ISP.

    The present infrastructure is not at all
    
    suitable for Internet services offering. The government must
    
    encourage more and more ISPs to set up new data networks and
    
    provide quality and speedy Internet services.

    As for the prospective ISPs, though there has
    
    been slight delay in the whole process, they should start
    
    thinking about the most crucial part of their business, the
    
    infrastructure.