The Hindu Business Line : Gain the edge in campus networking

CAMPUS network has been evolving over the past decade, absorbing new technologies, says a new book from Cisco (www.ciscopress.com) , titled Campus Network Design Fundamentals, and authored by Diane Teare and Catherine Paquet.

But what is `campus network'? It is "an autonomous network under the management of a single entity that exists on a university campus or within a local geographic area such as a business park, a government centre, a research centre, or a medical centre," defines Tom Sheldon's www.linktionary.com.

"Individual networks within buildings typically connect to the campus network via routers. Hierarchical topologies using high-performance switches may also be used."

The book discusses Cisco's `Enterprise Composite Network Model' that comprises three functional areas, viz. enterprise campus, enterprise edge and service provider edge.

Enterprise campus contains all the functions required for independent operation within one campus location, explain the authors. Enterprise edge is about "communication between enterprise campus and remote locations, including the Internet, remote employees, other campuses, partners, and so forth." The last, that is, service provider edge is implemented not by the organisation but by service providers.

Enterprise campus has four modules as follows: one, campus infrastructure representing "one or more buildings connected to a backbone," and comprising three sub-modules, viz. building, building distribution, and core; two, management module, which houses "monitoring, logging, security, and other management features"; three, server module, containing internal campus servers such as e-mail, file and print servers; and four, edge distribution module, which provides the interface between the campus and the edge, typically using "Layer 3 switching to provide high-performance routing".

The book has chapters on the design of switching, routing, wireless LAN, voice transport, content networking and so on. The chapter on network security lists the devices required for each of the modules and sub-modules of the campus network.

For instance, key devices that your network management module should have are HIDS (host-based intrusion detection systems) with integrated software on mission-critical systems such as web-servers; virus scanning; OTP (one-time password) server; access control server; network log server; and Layer 2 switch.

There is ample reference to Cisco's `SAFE white paper' providing `secure blueprint for enterprise networks'. The authors discuss the `self-defending network concept', which is about security present in every aspect of an organisation. In such a network, "every device, from the desktop PC through the LAN infrastructure and across the WAN, plays a role in securing the network."

A chapter on `other enabling technologies' discusses IP multicast, storage networking, and IP version 6. Traditional IP network is not efficient when sending the same data to many locations, as for example, when the CEO's annual video address has to go to all employees. IP multicast is the answer; it enables data to be sent from the source as one stream.

HSRP (hot standby router protocol), VRRP (virtual router redundancy protocol), GLBP (gateway load balancing protocol), NSF with SSO (non-stop forwarding with stateful switchover), and SLB (server load balancing) find mention among methods available for the network administrator to increase availability. To help apply the book's inputs, there is a case study with solution.

Essential inputs to make the campus more productive!

Pulse of telecom

THE Asia-Pacific region is home to 60 per cent of the world's population, represents half of the world's economic output, and continues to be "one of the most vibrant ICT (information and communication technology) markets," notes the introduction to The Preston Gates Guide to Telecommunications in Asia 2005 edition, from Asia Law & Practice (www.asialawandpractice.com) .

The book, distributed by Bharat Book Bureau (www.bharatbook.com) , compiles views of experts on opportunities and challenges in the region. Thus Michael J. Boyle notes that FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) model is "quickly becoming the focus of telecom companies' last-mile delivery strategy, encapsulating the `triple play' of voice, video and data services." Do you know that "many telecom companies and wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) are testing broadband wireless access (BWA) networks"?

William C. Boni writes that in the past security was assumed to be a binary: "either an organisation was `totally secure' or it was vulnerable." He points out that in today's complex environment, absolute security is an unachievable objective. "Organisations should only invest resources to the point of reasonable assurance," guided by the principle, "information protection = risk management."

Country-wise analyses are informative. For instance, the Australia chapter speaks about the privatisation of Telstra and the super-regulator ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority). The China section notes that the total amount of fixed-asset investment in telecom from 2000 to 2003 was $110 billion plus.

Among the 2003-2004 acquisitions (and targets) in China are: eBay (Eachnet.com), Yahoo! (3721.com), IAC (Elong.com), and Amazon.com (Joyo.com). WiMax, the worldwide interoperability for microwave access, can upstage 3G in Hong Kong, it is believed, because of "the potential to offer broadband speeds of up to 14 megabits per second".

The India chapter looks at the law on convergence, BPOs, apart from issues such as the WLL-M controversy, access deficit charges, and spectrum management. About Indonesia, one learns that the country with its thousands of islands has a low tele-density. "The fact that the government requires more financing to support the country's economic recovery may serve as a strong bargaining position for foreign investors to obtain a more secure foothold in Indonesia's telecommunications industry."

In Japan, tsushin means telecom, and housou, broadcasting. "Confidentiality is protected in the former case, but not in the latter." Terrestrial analog TV broadcasting is scheduled for termination on July 24, 2011. Malaysia wants to become a developed nation by 2020; and it has `ten national policy objectives' for the communications and multimedia industry.

You are probably aware that the Philippines is called `the text capital of the world', because text messages average 100 million per day! "There is the `share-a-load' or `pasa-load' feature where subscribers can send call and text credits to other subscribers. There are also games, recipes and daily quotes that can be downloaded. Even money transfers can be effected via SMS."

FBO and SBO are abbreviations that Singapore uses to differentiate between facilities-based operations and the service-based ones. "Recently, Singapore was selected to be Asia's first GPRS Roaming Exchange Peering Point," enabled by it high level of connectivity. The picture in Thailand isn't too rosy for new players, opines the book, considering the dominance by three top operators, viz. AIS, DTAC and TRUE.

South Korea introduced number-portability about two years ago to the fixed line services; this has been expanded to mobiles too. Taiwan pursues its goal of becoming the first WLAN city in the world; the M-Taiwan project is about `dual network', promising GPRS or WLAN access to consumers from their mobile phones. `The Third Trillion Project' aims to raise revenue from the telecom industry by 2008 to NT$1 trillion.

Recommended reference.

Tailpiece

"He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth... "

"Oh!"

"And with Bluetooth too!"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in