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End-User Traffic Rising, More Traffic Migrating to Private Networks

October 15, 2018Business, Technology 12,939

What’s on the horizon for the global internet? We have a few ideas.

International internet bandwidth and traffic growth has gradually slowed in recent years, but remains brisk. And IP transit price declines continue globally, but significant regional differences in prices persist around the world.

The combined effects of new internet-enabled devices, growing broadband penetration in developing markets, higher broadband access rates, and bandwidth-intensive applications will continue to fuel strong internet traffic growth.

While end-user traffic requirements will continue to rise, not all of this demand will translate directly into the need for new long-haul capacity.

Aggregate international internet capacity and traffic growth rates are slowing as the global internet matures and more traffic migrates to private networks. A variety of factors shape how the global internet will develop in coming years.

Transit Costs and Prices

Not only does the transit market exhibit both robust volume growth and sharp price decline, but the escalating bandwidth use actually lowers unit costs and enables the price decline, ensured by stiff competition.

The transit market is in the early stages of 100 Gbps port adoption but is poised to ramp up considerably in 2019, driving unit prices down further. Equipment costs for routers populated with 100 Gbps ports has reached parity with 10 Gbps on a unit basis. Once 10 Gbps inventory begins to clear, few incentives remain to invest in 10 Gbps platforms where scale warrants 100 Gbps.

Not only does the transit market exhibit both robust volume growth and sharp price decline, but the escalating bandwidth utilization actually lowers unit costs and enables the price decline, ensured by stiff competition.

Transit lags the transport market where 100 Gbps is well entrenched in the backbone and network operators are actively exploring higher line rates and next-generation optical transmission schemes. While single GigE sales have declined considerably from the heyday 10 years ago, 10 Gbps sales pervaded for years, suggesting that the next port size will not quickly displace the global market for 100 Gbps—despite brisk traffic growth.

Content Delivery Networks and Caching

The increased reliance on direct connections to content providers and the use of caching will continue to have a localizing effect on traffic patterns and dampen international internet traffic growth. As demand for content and applications grows in new locations, CDN nodes and caches will be deployed into these areas.

While the increase in broadband users and access rates will continue to drive traffic growth in access networks, much of this growth may be managed locally within a network and may not lead to proportional increases in traffic on international links.

The Rise of Content Provider Networks

The largest content providers’ private networks are having a major impact on the growth of internet capacity requirements. The focus of backbone providers has started to facilitate interconnection with handful of large content providers who account for the majority of traffic.

As the content providers extend their networks into new locations, backbone operators will continue to optimize their topologies in response.

As the content providers extend their networks into new locations, backbone operators will continue to optimize their topologies in response. In some cases, backbone operators may reduce capacity or shift capacity to new locations. Additional companies, including Akamai, Dropbox, and Oracle, are in the process building global networks, which will shift additional traffic away from the public internet. As a result, the pace of international internet capacity and traffic growth appears likely to continue a pattern of broad deceleration.

This content comes from TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography Research Service. This tool provides analysis and statistics on internet capacity and traffic, IP transit pricing, and backbone operators.

Originally Published @ TeleGeography’s Blog

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Latency: What’s the Differences Between Fiber and Copper?

October 15, 2018Business, How To's, Technology 24,254

Fiber optic communication has development rapidly in recent years. And in many applications fiber optic cable has replaced copper cable for higher speed and higher bandwidth applications. Therefore, numbers of people claim that fiber optic lines have lower latency than copper connections, while others do not think so. Then what’s the latency differences between fiber and copper?

fiber-vs-copper latency

Latency in Fiber and Cooper

Before comparing the latency differences between fiber and copper, latency refers to a time delay between stimulation and its response. Usually, it’s caused by velocity limitations in a physical system. Put it in simple terms, latency is the time it takes for a signal to travel from one place to another place. And there are diverse types of latency: network latency, Internet latency, audio latency, WAN latency, etc. No mater in a fiber optic network or a copper network, latency can be described as distance and speed. In addition, latency does exist. It’s just a question of fast or slow. One key factor that affects the latency is the signal speed in transmission media. Fiber and copper are two of transmission media. The type of media used in communication system depends on the bandwidth and transmission distance required by the application.

Fiber Latency

As we know, the speed of light in free space is about 3×10⁸meter per second. While the speed of light in air is slower than that in a vacuum. So does in the glass. Therefore, when an optical signal travels in a fiber link, there are five latency contributors: two are created when the signal moves from the electrical domain to the optical; another contribution occurs as the signal goes through the optical fiber; and as the signal is converted from the optical domain to the electrical, latency occurs.

fiber latency

Copper Latency

Signals in copper cables are easy to be interrupted by around environments, especially in longer distance transmission. The signals will attenuate as distance increases, which will lead to data transmission error, page error and make users feel slow speed at the moment. Actually the transmission speed doesn’t slow slow down. Besides, alien crosstalk also would cause transmission errors and latency.

copper latency

Fiber vs Copper: What’s the Latency Difference?

Signals are transmitted at 2/3 the speed of light in fiber optic cables. In copper it can be faster than that. However, this cannot account for system latency. In longer distance, latency in fiber optic system is lower because of less need for processing and repeating of the signals. While signals in copper are affected by electromagnetic interference and are prone to higher rates of loss over long distances.

In addition, no mater in a fiber optic network or a copper network, latency can be described as distance and speed. In addition, during the whole transmission process, serialization delay that shows how fast a data pocket can be serialized onto the wire, has far more impact on shorter distances. For example, it will take 8ms to serialize a 1500-byte packet on 1.5Mbps link, while it will only need 1.2us on 10Gbps, or less on higher speed. That shows speed makes a significant difference.

Summary

In a word, the latency differences between fiber and copper are influenced by transmission distance, speed and environments. For shorter distance, copper cables can be the first choices, for the delay in it does not mean much and its low cost. For longer distance transmission, fiber cable offers lower latency for the whole network and can be an optimal choice.

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VPN vs VLAN: What’s the Difference?

October 15, 2018Business, Technology 21,004

As the popularity of the Internet has grown, many businesses are seeking for approaches to extend their own networks. First came Intranets, which are sites designed for use only by company employees. Nowadays, many of them are creating their own VPN (Virtual Private Network) or VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) to accommodate the needs of remote employees and distant offices. What is a VPN and what is VLAN? This post will explain these two terms and the differences between VPN vs VLAN.

What Is a VPN?

A VPN is a virtual private network that utilizes a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. A typical VPN network has a main local area network (LAN) at the corporate headquarters of a company, other LANs at remote offices or facilities, and individual users that connect from out in the field. Instead of using a dedicated leased line, a VPN uses “virtual” connections routed over a public or shared infrastructure such as the Internet or service provider backbone network. Therefore subscribers who are physically isolated from the main LAN can get access to the company’s private network and remotely.

VPN Applicable Network Scenario

Here is a typical example of using the VPN network. As illustrated in the figure below, Network “A” sites have established a VPN (depicted by the red lines) across the service provider’s backbone network, where Network “B” is completely unaware of it’s existence. Both Network “A” and Network “B” can harmoniously coexist on the same backbone infrastructure without interrupting each other.

VPN Network

What Is a VLAN–the Subcategory of VPN

A VLAN is a group of networking devices configured to communicate on one or more LANs as if they were attached to the same wire, but actually they are located on a number of different LAN segments. VLAN networks are based on logical instead of physical connections with great flexibility. A VLAN network defines broadcast domains in a Layer 2 network. A broadcast domain is the set of all devices performed to receive broadcast frames originating from any other device within the set. Broadcast domains are usually bounded by routers since routers do not forward broadcast frames.

VLAN Applicable Network Scenario

As shown in the figure below, Layer 2 network switches are used to create multiple broadcast domains based on the configuration of these switches. Each broadcast domain is just like a distinct virtual bridge within a switch. By adding a Layer 3 router, it possible to send traffic between VLANs while still containing broadcast traffic within VLAN boundaries. The router uses IP subnets to deliver traffic between VLANs. Each VLAN has a distinct IP subnet, and there is a one-to-one correspondence of VLAN and IP subnet boundaries.

VLAN Network

VPN vs VLAN: How They Differ From Each Other?

VPN vs VLAN, they are two different concepts but related to each other. A VLAN is a subcategory of VPN, but they are designed for different hierarchies. VPN constructs range from Layer 1 to Layer 3, while VLAN is purely a layer 2 construct. A VLAN is used to group multiple computers that are not usually within the same geographical areas into the same broadcast domain. A VLAN can also segregate computers in a larger local network into smaller networks for each office or department and shielding the data so that they do not act as if they are on same network even if they are in the same switch. However, a VPN is more often related to remote access to a company’s network resources. It’s a method of creating a smaller sub network on top of an existing bigger network compared with VLAN.

Summary

No matter which one you choose over VPN vs VLAN, the foremost thing is to get reliable network switches or routers implemented in VPN or VLAN networks. FS can always fulfill your requirements by offering gigabit ethernet switch, 10gbe switch, 40gbe switches, as well as new gigabit VPN routers. They’re with powerful data-handling capacity and high compatibility for applications in data centers and enterprises.

original content published by FS.COM

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VPLS vs MPLS: What’s the Difference?

October 15, 2018Business 22,413

The Internet has undergone tremendous changes and broken the barriers from the impossibilities to the possibilities. To seamlessly and securely get access to the Internet or Web is what we’re seeking along the way. VPLS and MPLS are two competing technologies to direct network traffic, letting you have speedy data transfer and communication. What is a VPLS or MPLS network? What’s the difference between VPLS vs MPLS? We’re gonna to elaborate them one by one.

What Is MPLS?

MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is a type of communication that enables a service provider to provision cost effective and flexible “Virtual Private Networks” across a shared core network infrastructure. MPLS is used to send data and network traffic along the most efficient routes, which may be predetermined and are communicated using labels. Packets are carried on predetermined routes along point-to-point connections through label switch routers (LSRs) until they arrive at their destination. In MPLS network, the MPLS switch (eg. FS S5800-48F4S SFP switch) transfers data by popping off its label and sending the packet to the next switch label in the sequence. MPLS perfectly integrates the performance and traffic management capabilities of Layer 2 switching with the scalability and flexibility of Layer 3 routing.

MPLS Network

What Is VPLS?

VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) is a service that uses MPLS and VPN (Virtual Private Networking) to securely and seamlessly connect multiple LANs over the Internet, making them appear as if they were all on the same LAN. VPLS enables a service provider to extend a Layer 2 network across geographically dispersed sites using a shared core network infrastructure. VPLS works by creating a virtualized Ethernet switch at the provider’s edge to link remote sites. VPLS happens at Layer 2, and the carrier builds out the network, but the customer can do their own routing if they wish. This approach is ideal for corporations that have multiple data center footprints and office or remote locations that require low-latency connections between sites.

VPLS Network

VPLS vs MPLS: Factors to Consider When Choosing Them

When deciding over VPLS vs MPLS for connectivity between remote locations, there are multiple factors to consider. We’ll look into them one by one.

Switching Layer

One of the main benefits of VPLS over MPLS are the levels of security offered. As aforementioned, VPLS extend a Layer 2 network across geographically dispersed sites using a shared core network infrastructure. While MPLS perfectly integrates the performance and traffic management capabilities of Layer 2 switching with the scalability and flexibility of Layer 3 routing. VPLS does not share layer 3 routing tables with the service provider, while MPLS may do so, means that VPLS is generally the better solution for highly-sensitive data.

Network Size & Traffic

Generally, MPLS can deliver a wider type of network traffic than VPLS. VPLS is typically used for fewer locations that need very high speeds, very simple networks with high performance and high security. Thus, if you desire to connect entities such as data centers across the long-haul network backbone, VPLS is preferable as an Ethernet-based connection strategy. If a customer had hundreds of locations across the country who needs voice, data and video traffic to be carried to all locations, MPLS might make more sense because it is protocol-agnostic and can handle multiple types of traffic. MPLS may be an even clearer choice where large numbers of branches are involved.

Levels of Scalability

Another key difference between MPLS and VPLS is the inherent level of scalability. Due to the manner in which these two technologies interact with your network, MPLS is considered to be far more scalable. Using a backbone of MPLS for maximum network access and scalability, together with VPLS connections for more sensitive data often represents the best possible compromise, you would make the most of both protocols and substantially increase network efficiency.

Conclusion

Although MPLS and VPLS are different technologies, they are not mutually exclusive. Many businesses deploy both MPLS and VPLS protocols within their network in order to get the best of both worlds. FS provides gigabit ethernet switch and 10gbe switch which support both MPLS and VPLS. All these switches comes with rich L2/L3 business processing ability for core switching networks.

Original content published by FS.COM

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LAN vs WAN vs MAN: Which One to Choose?

October 15, 2018Business, Technology 22,694

Network is essential for establishing communications among devices such as computers, routers, or fiber switches to operate over the area they cover. LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network) and MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) are the three most prevalent types of networks that are utilized today. There are some similarities and differences between them. LAN vs WAN vs MAN, which one should you choose?

LAN vs WAN vs MAN

What Is LAN?

LAN is an interconnection of a group of related networking devices within a small geographical area where the distance between these devices is small. Some of the LANs also cover the networks in office , school, and home. Most of the LANs are built for the purpose of sharing vital resources such as printers and exchanging files.

LAN is also widely used to provide services such as sharing computer applications, gaming and accessing the internet. This type of network is under the control of one administrator who is in charge of the configurations and settings and other devices connected through Ethernet cables and wireless routers.

What Is WAN?

WAN is a kind of network connection between multiple networking devices over a large geographical area. The connection can be between different cities or even countries. A WAN network can be a collection of small networks that have been combined, or it can be as a result of various private business entities. One good example of WAN is the internet, since it connects computers from different corners of the world.

The WAN network is too complex to be managed by private administrators. Therefore, WANs usually have a public ownership, where network devices in this network can be connected either by cables or through a wireless connection.

What Is MAN?

As the name suggests, MAN is a type of network that connects network devices within a specific geographical area. MAN lies in between LAN and WAN. The area covered by MAN network is larger than that in LAN but smaller than that in WAN. MANs are mostly used to provide fast connections to cities and large institutions.

MAN experiences comparatively high speeds to facilitate fast sharing of resources such as files within a city. One main disadvantage of the MAN is the high cost. The technology deployed for MAN network is pricier than that of LAN and WAN.

Key Comparison Between LAN vs WAN vs MAN

LAN vs WAN vs MAN, there are similarities and differences between them as listed in the chart below.

Parameter	LAN	MAN	WAN
Ownership of Network	Private	Private or Public	Private or Public
Design and Maintenance	Easy	Difficult	Difficult
Propagation Delay	Short	Moderate	Long
Speed	High	Moderate	Low
Congestion	Less	More	More
Application	College, School, Hospital	Small towns, City	Country/Continent

Conclusion

Generally speaking, there are many advantages of LAN over MAN and WAN. LAN provides excellent reliability, high data transmission rate, and they can easily be managed. However, LAN cannot cover cities or towns and for that MAN is needed, which can connect city or a group of cities together. WAN is not restricted to a geographical location, although it might be confined within the bounds of a state or country. No matter which kind of network you choose, the routers or network switches you choose should be eligible to better satisfy your demand for network architecture. FS provides high performance gigabit PoE switch, 10 gigabit switch, 40 gigabit switch,etc. If you have any requirement, you can kindly visit www.fs.com.

Original content published by FS.COM

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FIBRE AND THE INTERNET: A REASSURING CONSTANT IN A CHANGING WORLD

October 15, 2018Business, Technology 15,886

Twenty-five years ago last week, British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee and his team published, for free, the protocols that would create the public Internet. A quarter of a century seems like barely a blink of the eye, but what Berners-Lee unleashed that day has had a profound impact on our lives. Just look at the first ever Internet page to see how far we’ve come.

The world is now on the brink of the Internet of things (IoT) and a big data revolution, which means more data is being created in an Internet minute than ever before. Bandwidth has never been more in demand.

zayo_stopwatch Twenty-five years ago, a minute may have been the loading time for a single web page. Now, according to a report by Excelacom, there are 150 million emails sent, 2.4 million Google search queries and 20.8 million WhatsApp messages sent every minute in 2016. We know that artificial intelligence, virtual reality and driverless cars are just over the horizon. But in reality we have no idea what the world will look like in 25 years – the pace of change is too fast.

This is a phenomenal amount of data. It would not be possible without a scalable network infrastructure. The question is, how do we ensure that we are deploying the right infrastructure today to cope with data demands today and the Internet of tomorrow? The answer comes in a reassuringly familiar form: fibre.

Fibre optic cables work by having a single glass core via which information travels. It wasn’t until research conducted by Dutch and American scientists in 2014 in multi-core technology (the practice of having several glass cores for information to travel down in a cable rather than just one) that we understood fibre’s true potential.

The scientists were able to achieve a top speed of 255 terabits per second – equivalent to 32 terabytes of information a second. To put this into perspective, this equates to downloading a 1GB film in 0.03 seconds. Astonishingly, as a result of this research, it was realised that a single fibre cable could theoretically carry the entire world’s Internet traffic.

This modern technology and its almost limitless bandwidth will be essential to our increasingly digital world. Communication is now instantaneous, with text, audio and video messages travelling at light speed. Data centres store terabytes of information that is critical to businesses and their customers, with this information available instantaneously as and when required. Video content can be watched on-demand using devices that were created under a decade ago.

Fibre optic networks and their capabilities have allowed the world and its data to move forward in such a way that would have been inconceivable 25 years ago.

So what does the next 25 years have in store for the Internet? The amount of data consumed will only increase with time, and technology like driverless cars and smart cities will require an almost limitless amount of bandwidth to run effectively.

The one truth that we do know is that without a scalable, high-capacity fibre network all of these concepts would be nothing more than science fiction.

Original content published by ZAYO

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How to Properly Test your Internet Connection Speed?

October 15, 2018Business, How To's 13,335

Testing the speed of the Internet connection is a relatively simple and easy task, but the real question is whether we do it optimally, thus ensuring that external factors do not affect it.

The Internet connection speed limit

Internet connection speeds can be compared to the way water flows in a pipe. No matter how large the source tank is, or how fast water is being pumped from the source, it is still going to be limited to what the destination pipe (along with all intermediary ones) can allow through it. Similarly, the maximum attainable speed of any Internet connection is going to be limited at the customer’s end, based on the modes of connection opted for, by the end user.

Wireless vs Wireline (wired)

Wireless connections have revolutionized the ease of use as far as connecting to the internet is concerned, but they are, unfortunately, negatively affected by several different situations:

The distance between the source (router, for example) and the destination (your laptop, desktop or smartphone);
Physical obstacles – these could be any solid objects like walls, buildings, or even people;
Other wireless signals nearby, operating at similar frequency, can cause interference with each other and negatively impact the performance of the network;
Wireless network connections signal sharing.

These are just a few main examples of situations which might affect the speed of your wireless internet connection, regardless of the terms of the plan you subscribed to.

Wireline connections, or wired connections as commonly known, are comparatively superior as far as reliability is concerned, along with being far more resilient to other, nearby wired or wireless connections. Wired connections are therefore the primary method of broadband Internet service delivery, to ensure that customers get the speed that they are paying for.

Testing speeds via a wired Ethernet connection

This is the most trusted and reliable method for performing a speed test. It ensures that the speeds being tested are more or less what is actually being received at the customer’s end without being negatively affected by undesirable factors.

It is also important to ensure that we are NOT connected to a VPN connection while performing a speed test. A VPN connection routes internet activity via a third party server, which has a high probability of severely impacting the internet usage experience, as perceived by the end user. Therefore, any active VPN connections should be disconnected before performing a speed test.

Using a wired connection, there are two primary ways to connect your device to the Internet:

Ethernet cable from Distribution Point (DP) => Router => Ethernet cable to PC / Laptop
Ethernet cable from Distribution Point (DP) => Direct to PC / Laptop via a Dial-Up Connection

Using a wired Ethernet connection to a router, the different aspects to analyze, before testing the connection speed, are:

No active VPN connections – It is important to ensure that the internet connection is being used directly and that there are no intermediary VPN connections being used.
Avoid simultaneous usage – It is important to ensure that the device performing the speed test gets an exclusive, 100% access to the entire speed capacity available on the existing plan. Therefore, it is desirable to ensure that no other devices (other than the one performing the speed test) is connected and using bandwidth resources simultaneously on the same internet connection. This problematic scenario is more probable wherein a single household has multiple family members sharing and using the same internet connection at the same time.
No background tasks – Ensure that the device performing the speed test has no background or simultaneous tasks/applications actively using the internet connection.

Steps to properly perform a speed test using (Ethernet cable from router to the desktop PC or laptop):

Close all background tasks / processes / applications actively using the internet. Also ensure that no other device(s) are using the internet connection, simultaneously.
Ensure that the desktop PC or laptop is connected directly to the router using an Ethernet cable without any active VPN connection(s).
Open the latest version of a popular web browser. A few good examples of which are: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
Visit http://beta.speedtest.net/ – This is the beta version of the popular speed test facility provided by Ookla. It uses HTML v5 and does not require Flash to be installed.
Select a server situated close to your location (using the “Change Server” option), or proceed with the default (best) selection.
Tip: Selecting the “UNIFYDOT” server would normally be the best choice.
Initiate the speed test by clicking on the “GO!” button.
Wait until both the download and the upload speeds are measured.
Compare your speed test result with the speeds offered on the plan you are paying for.

PLEASE REMEMBER, YOU ARE A BROADBAND SUBSCRIBER, WHERE YOUR SPEED IS VARIES SOMETIME AS IF YOU PREFER YOU GET FULL MENTIONED SPEED INSTEAD OF "BROADBAND UPTO" SPEED, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER TO GET DIA LEASED LINE, WHICH WILL PROVIDE GUARANTEED 1:1(UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD) SPEED 24X7X365 DAYS.

The Conclusion

Having discussed the pros and cons of wireless and wired connections alike the question is, should we completely abandon Wi-Fi connections?

No, we shouldn’t.

Wi-Fi connections as we know it, have revolutionized the ease of use factor of our daily internet usage requirements. It may not even be possible to be connected via a wire in certain situations.

Potential solutions to such situations involves, primarily, the understanding of the trade-off between speed and ease of use and thereafter, the possibility of upgrading the router in use. A better quality router would definitely make a difference in this regard. However, depending upon the number of wireless connections near your location, it may be a good idea to opt for a 5 GHz router, which works on a different band entirely, thus having a lower probability of interfering with, or being affected by surrounding wireless networks operating on the 2.5 GHz band.

Irrespective of the chosen speed package, the actual achievable speed is still going to be affected by the mode of connection chosen by you (Wi-Fi / Ethernet), as a customer. Therefore, it is imperative to differentiate between the speed made available to you at the last mile connectivity, by us, as UCPL, and the speed achievable via Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) on the router that is being utilised.

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What is an internet backbone?

October 15, 2018Business, Technology 22,192

Great information put together by Team @ Telia Carrier