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, in-house, NMS, asset management, help desk

• Sensor technology embedded in patch panels and patch cords

• LAN sensor strips mount over switch or router ports

• Analyzers collect connection data from the physical layer and LAN port connections and feed to the sensor software

• System cables connect patch panels and LAN sensor strips sensors to analyzers

• Software monitors network connections and devices

Patch panel

Switch with sensor strip

Analyzer

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

•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 70 is responsible for plenum cable products and applications

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?

Users, PCs, NICs,

etc…

User accessinfrastructure

Wired Desktop

Wireless Switch

LAN coreinfrastructure

Telephony Servers& Gateways

RADIUS, Policy, & Directories

Servers

Business Servers: Files, Applications,

E-mail, Web, Storage

Network Management

10/100/1000

IP Voice

ADVANCED

PhonesHIGH

DENSITY

WAN Routers, Firewalls, VPN, Anti-Virus, IDS,

WAN & Internetinfrastructure

Internet Access

Remote Sites

EMBEDDED FIREWALL

Server FarmLAN Core

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 application-specific 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

Transmit and ReceiveTower

Redundant BackboneProvider 2 Router

Cable Modem

Redundant PrimaryBackbone Provider Router

Digital RadioDigital Radio

ATM Switch

Internet CarrierTransceiver

Downstream

with DES

Encryption

6Ghz - 2 Way

RedundantServer Farms

CSU/DSUCSU/DSU

RedundantManagement

Internet

RouterSegmented

Fully RedundantServerFarm

Workstation

CPE Firewall and Proxy

CPE Router

Workstation

Workstation

Transmitter

802.16 WiMax

7. Blades

• BladeSystems Alliance

• All things blade

• Racks

• Enclosures

• Interoperability booths

• Servers and storage

• Cooling and power

• Data center considerations

Nexcom International    nStor Corporation* OSA Technologies* PLX Technology   Q4 Company* QLogic* Raritan Computer Inc.   SharkRack, Inc.   The Siemon Company   Silicon Mechanics* StarGen Inc.   StoneFly Networks   Sun Microsystems   Tatung Company   Topspin Communications   Unigen* Unisys Corporation* VERITAS Software* Wind River   Wright Line Inc.   XIOtech   Zetta Systems, Inc.

14 South Networks     3UP Systems   Advanced Premise Technologies   American Power Conversion Corporation* Amphus   Apple Computer   Artesyn Technologies  * Avocent   Berg Software Design   ClearCube Technology, Inc.* CoroSoft* Coughlin Associates   Emulex Corporation* F5 Networks* Chris Hipp   IBM* IMEX Research* InfiniCon Systems   Kashya, Inc.* Mellanox Technologies* Nacio Systems   Network Appliance

Other members

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