A Talari Networks White Paper. Transforming Enterprise WANs with Adaptive Private Networking. A Talari White Paper

Transcription

1 ATalariNetworksWhitePaper TransformingEnterpriseWANswith AdaptivePrivateNetworking ATalariWhitePaper

2 2 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking Introduction IT departments face pressures to control costs while meeting increasing demands on the network. As applications thirst for bandwidth ever increases, centralizing servers and services reduces some costs, but places increased pressure on network reliability and response. New services such as VoIP and videoconferencing only furtherincreasethispressureonnetworkreliabilityandpredictability. Adaptive Private Networking (APN) is doing for Enterprise Wide Area NetworkingwhatRAIDdidforstorage deliveringanetworkwith30x 100xbandwidth/$,monthlyWANcostsreducedby40% 90%,andwith greater reliability than existing private WANs using Frame Relay or MPLS. Inacarrier pricingenvironmentwhereaprice/performancefactorof 2x (50%) is enormous, Talari s Adaptive Private Networking (APN) technology brings Moore s Law and Internet economics to Enterprise WAN buyers for the first time in 15+ years. Furthermore, an APN solution does this incrementally and seamlessly on top of existing networks noforkliftupgradesrequired. LearningfromtheStorageMarket Figure1:RaidReliability Where RAID wrapped a layer of hardware and intelligent software around the PC hard disk, the intelligent software in APN appliances does something similar with multiple WAN connections existing private WANs and high speed Internet connections (T3, OC3, Metro Ethernet, etc.) at data centers and large sites, as well as existing 2009TalariNetworksInc.

3 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 3 connections and any type of broadband Internet links for branch/smallerlocations.seefigure2. Figure2:AdaptivePrivateNetworking RAIDleveragedthatPCharddisktechnologytorevolutionizebusiness storage cost, capacity and reliability. APN technology leverages the most powerful, ubiquitous, low cost communications network ever created thepublicinternet todeliverenterprisewansthatarefar higher bandwidth, far lower cost and more reliable than the best proprietarysingleserviceproviderwansavailabletoday. TheWANPrice/ReliabilityDisconnect Over the last decade Internet connectivity has exploded and the associated economics have resulted in the more than 400 million broadband Internet subscribers worldwide. Bandwidth hungry applications such as video, and competition between broadband providersaredrivingupthespeedoftheseconnections.todaymany knowledgeworkershavemorebandwidthathomethantheydointhe office,sometimesalotmore. The contrast with the market for private WAN bandwidth can be clearly seen in Figure 3. This chart plots different wide area services againsttheirreliabilityandcostpermegabitofbandwidthpermonth. Reliabilityinthiscaseisthecombinationofnetworkavailability,plus the absence of packet loss and excessive delay from the applications perspective. FrameRelaywasfabulousprice/performancewhenitwasintroduced inearly1990s,muchbetterthanthex.25andleasedlinesitreplaced. As Frame Relay gives way to the improved, all IP cost structure of MPLS, business are seeing only modest reductions in the price of privatewanbandwidth. Attheotherendofthechartweseethehighlycompetitivebroadband Internet market. These connections are still quite reliable at somewherearound99%.but,thatsmalldifferenceinreliabilityversus 2009TalariNetworksInc.

4 4 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking Frame Relay or MPLS is driving a thirty to one hundred times differenceinbandwidthcostpermegabit. Figure3:WANPrice/ReliabilityDisconnect Carriersareabletogetawaywiththis100timesdifferenceincostper bit because broadband s two nines reliability doesn t meet the minimum three nines (99.9%) or four nines (99.99%) which enterprisesexpectfortheirprivatewans. Businesscustomersareconservativewhenitcomestotheirwidearea connectivity,andrightlysoduetothehighcostofdowntime.sogiven thatoneortwovendorsineachcountrydominatethetelecomservice providermarket,therehasbeenlittleincentivetocutprices. It is this price versus quality disconnect that offers businesses the ability to significantly reduce their ongoing WAN expenditure, and significantlyincreasetheirnetworkcapacitybyusingadaptiveprivate NetworkingtosolvetheInternetquality/reliabilityissue. ReliableWANsDon thavetobeexpensive Forthelastfewyearstheonlychoicestoconnectaremoteofficehave been either expensive leased lines, Frame Relay or MPLS, or to live withthevariableperformanceandsuboptimalreliabilityofanipvpn overthepublicinternet. Nowthereisanotherchoicethatcombinesthebestofallworlds.APN takestwoormoredisparatesourcesofinexpensivebandwidthateach networklocationandcombinestheminawaythatdeliversreliability thatmeetsorexceedsthatofferedbyanysinglevendorframerelayor MPLS network. These bandwidth sources can be high speed links at 2009TalariNetworksInc.

5 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 5 largersitesoranyinternetconnectivitysuchasdsl,cable,ftth,t1, T3, Metro Ethernet, etc. Depending on their goals, businesses may leverageexistingprivatewanlinksinthenetwork,asshownin. With connectivity between two locations possible over at least two paths from different sources there is redundancy because of the diversityatthephysicalandnetworklevels. Figure3:ReliabilityofTwoPathsinParallel The probability of being able to get a packet from one location to another across at least one of these networks, in a timely fashion, is veryhigh.ifeachnetworkhasareliabilityof98%,thenthereliability ofthetwonetworkswhencombinedusingapntechnologywillbe1 ((1 0.98) * (1 0.98))= 99.96%. Similarly, two Internet connections thatare99%reliablecanbemade1 ((1.99)*(1.99)=99.99%or four nines reliable. APNBandwidthisInexpensiveandAbundant Broadband connections are priced and sized differently than private WAN offerings. With APN, a site with a DSL connection plus a Cable Modemconnection,togethercosting$100permonthcanachievefour nines reliable connection back to the data center. Compare this to using an MPLS network with a T1 link at the site costing $750 per month.thekeydifferenceisthattheremoteofficenowhasperhaps5 to15timesasmuchbandwidth! Thisisgamechangingforbusinessesthatrelyonapplicationsthatrun over the WAN. Now remote offices can benefit from an order of magnitude more reliable bandwidth at a fraction of the traditional cost. New applications such as VoIP & videoconferencing become 2009TalariNetworksInc.

6 6 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking economically feasible and IT infrastructure can be consolidated more aggressively. Real timetrafficengineeringfornetworkpredictability There are two key technologies that allow APN to deliver these benefits. MultipathNetworkSpectrometry WithMultipathNetworkSpectrometry,thecharacteristicsofevery WAN link, network path and traffic flow are monitored precisely and continuously. This yields detailed data about instantaneous loss,latencyandjitterthroughoutthenetwork. Figure4:MultipathNetworkSpectrometry 2009TalariNetworksInc.

7 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 7 ResilientMultipathConnectivity All of the possible paths through the network are monitored and utilized to improve the performance for all applications by maximizing the use of available bandwidth and mitigating the effects of packet loss. This delivers predictable performance throughout,regardlessoftransientcongestionornetworkoutages. To TCP/IP based applications, APN looks like a zero loss network withoccasionalboutsofjitter. Figure5:ResilientMultipathConnectivity With these two underlying technologies, APN appliances use end toend algorithms to match the state of the network with the needs of different traffic types and adapt using real time traffic engineering. Thisensuresthattheoptimalpathischosenforeverypacket. Even though packets can follow any number of paths to the destination,theconnectionbetweentwolocationsappearsasasingle highlyreliablelink.inapnterminology,thisiscalleda conduit. Like all good intermediate networking boxes, APN appliances implements QoS and use the class of service information associated with each flow or configured in a policy rule as part of the path selectioncriteria.unlikeotherboxesthatimplementqosandcanonly prioritize which traffic goes out on the local link first; APN uses this QoS information to chooses the path that gets the packet to the destination in the shortest possible time, which is ultimately what mattersmost. InaTalariAPNconduittherecanbeupto10classesofservice,and per flow classification inside the APN appliance determines which classtouseforeachtrafficflow.sothereisalotofflexibilityonhow the bandwidth is used among real time traffic, interactive and bulk transfer application flows. The packets within a conduit are also securedusing128 bitaesencryption. 2009TalariNetworksInc.

8 8 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking UsingAlloftheBandwidthMostoftheTime Unlike traditional back up circuits, all of the connections are used almostallofthetime.evenpacketsfromasingleipflowmaybesent to the destination over different paths and sorted by the APN appliance at the destination. If network impairments are detected along any of the paths, traffic can be moved to an alternate path in a fraction of a second. [The actual time is a function of the round trip time (RTT) between the two locations and is usually less than 2.5 x RTT.] Once a path returns to an acceptable level of performance, the APN applianceswillrespondwithinasecondortwotoaddthatbandwidth backintotheconduit. So APN uses all of the bandwidth most of the time, most of the bandwidth all of the time, while always maintaining predictable applicationperformance. Contrastthistoaback upvpnlinkforaprimarymplsnetwork,which isleftidlemostofthetimeandwhenneededmighthaveunpredictable networkcharacteristics. This real data taken over 60 hour period from San Jose, California to Raleigh, North Carolina illustrates how the performance of paths through the Internet varies over time. The state is logged down to the granularityof1minute. Good=AcceptablePerformance Bad=SignificantPacketLoss Dead=Noconnectivity Noticehowthestateoftheconduit marked with a black + remains gooddespitethedegradationinthe underlyingpaths. Figure6:PathandConduitState 2009TalariNetworksInc.

9 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 9 HandlingRealTimeTraffic Real time traffic such as VoIP cannot normally be deployed reliably over the public Internet due to the lack of end to end QoS and the major impact of relatively small amounts of jitter and packet loss on voice quality. Even with sophisticated voice quality software and adaptivejitterbuffersintheendequipment,itisalmostimpossibleto guarantee toll quality throughout the duration of a call. As a result, business VoIP solutions today run over private networks owned by a service provider or the enterprise themselves. This allows the traffic engineeringneededtoensurealowlevelofjitterandloss. WithAPN,thetransientproblemsontheInternetareavoidedbyusing APN srealtimetrafficengineeringtoselecttheoptimalpathbetween thesenderandreceiveronapacket by packetbasis. Atcallset upthepathwithoptimallatency,lossandjitterisselected.if thosecharacteristicsdegradeduringthecallpacketsareimmediately sentonabetterpath.withthesechangeshappeningsub second;the usermaynotbeabletoperceivethatthecallwasre routedoveranew path. APN can even go one step further; to provide platinum quality for voice, by replicating real time packets over two network paths and suppressing duplicates at the receiving APN appliance. Packets from thetworealtimestreamsarriveatthedestinationwithafewtensof milliseconds of each other, allowing the APN appliance to select packetsfromthesecondarypathifneeded.thishidesanylossorjitter onthepaththatwasformerlytheprimary/betterpath. This technique trades the cheap bandwidth made possible by broadband Internet combined with APN technology for highly predictable voice performance. The technique can be used for videoconferencingaswell. 2009TalariNetworksInc.

10 10 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking APNDeployment AnAPNdeploymentisanoverlaynetwork,soitintegratesseamlessly with an existing network in a similar way to two ended WAN Optimizationsolutions. Dependingonthebusinessneeds,APNcanbedeployedconservatively oraggressivelyalongone,twoorallofthefollowing3axes. InexpensivelyAddUseableBandwidth ReduceWANOperatingBudget IncreaseReliability InexpensivelyAddUseableBandwidth AsafirststepAPNcanbeusedtoaddinexpensiveInternetbandwidth toaremotelocation.oftenremotesitesalreadyhaveaninternetlink for local Internet access and/or for VPN backup for the primary private WAN connection. With APN this second link can be brought intoserviceallofthetimeratherthanjustforemergenciesoronlyfor localwebbrowsing. ThelowcostofbroadbandInternetlinksmakesitparticularlyeasyto addbandwidthinexpensivelyatremotesites.add,say,justone6mbps downstream, 768 Kbps upstream DSL to a 1.5 Mbps T1 MPLS connectionandthecorporatewanbandwidthmultipliesby5xatthat location.addingthreeofthose6mbpsresultsin12xmorebandwidth atthesite. Figure7:AddBandwidth 2009TalariNetworksInc.

11 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 11 ReduceWANOperatingBudget Onthisaxisthereareabroadrangeofapproachesdependingonhow aggressively the enterprise wants to capture cost savings. As a first step a business could downsize their private WAN commitments by eliminating backup FR or MPLS circuits and using APN to both add bandwidth and ensure service continuity. The next step might be to reducetheamountofprimaryfrormplsbandwidthateachsiteand use proportionately more of the less expensive Internet bandwidth, whichapnmakesbusinessquality. OneofthesidebenefitsofAPNtechnologyisthatitmustkeephighly accurate information on the real performance of the paths across the Internet and the private WAN circuits used in the adaptive private network. So it is possible for businesses to look at the real data that showsreliabilityofapnversusfrormplsintheirownnetwork. Figure8:UsingInternetBandwidthtoLowerCosts IncreaseReliability APN sabilitytousemultipleactive,loadsharingconnectionsbetween locations, with sub second response to failure, packet loss or other congestioneventsmeansthatnosinglewanlinkfailure,oranysingle probleminthenetwork,willcausealossofconnectivity. Even for those willing to pay for dual MPLS networks from different providers,apnprovidesalevelofnetworkreliabilityandapplication predictabilityunavailableusingstandardroutednetworksandrouting protocols.withapn smultipathnetworkspectrometrycontinuously measuring the state of all network paths, businesses avoid the possibilitythattheirbackupconnection,whichrarelyisneeded,itself 2009TalariNetworksInc.

12 12 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking has a problem or is incorrectly configured just when it is needed the most whentroubledoesoccurontheprimarynetwork. APN, in addition to reacting more quickly (sub second) to hard network or device failures, where routing protocols can sometimes requireupto30secondstoreact,alsoprotectsapplicationsfromthe performance problems which can occur due to loss or congestion on thewan.whileitistruethatthese networkbrownouts rarelyoccur on over engineered North American MPLS networks, they do occur with at least some frequency in international MPLS networks, especiallyintheasia Pacificregion. In fact, the inherent nature of APN to adapt in the face of WAN connectivity problems actually makes a WAN, once the APN solution hasbeensetup,incrediblyfaulttoleranteventoproblemscausedbya faultysoftwareupgradeorincorrectlyconfiguredrouteronabusiness ownnetwork. After analyzing the data, a highly conservative company might concludeitissensibletospend60%ofthewanbudgetonexpensive MPLS to provide 10% of the bandwidth, and 40% of their budget on inexpensiveinternetbitstoprovidetheother90% asolutionoffering much higher reliability than MPLS alone at a lower overall price and with more bandwidth. A more aggressive cost reduction plan would look to eliminate expensive connections at most or all of the remote offices. BeyondWANOptimization Many companies have deployed WAN Optimization as a way to improveperformanceanddeferbandwidthupgradesontheirprivate WAN. APN and WAN Optimization are different but largely complementary technologies addressing the issues surrounding to howtoimprovewideareanetworkperformance. At the most fundamental level APN is about improving the performance of all applications over the WAN, by making cheap and abundant bandwidth reliable enough to use for business. In contrast, WAN Optimization assumes that WAN bandwidth is scarce and expensive and focuses on compression, caching and application specifictechniquestoreducetheaveragebandwidthloadonthewan links.thesewanoptimizationtechniquesgenerallyonlyleadtoa2to 4 times improvement in the price per bit benefit, versus 30 to 100 timesforapn. 2009TalariNetworksInc.

13 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking 13 APNComplementsWANOptimization Figure9:APNasaComplementtoWANOptimization Since WAN Optimization uses existing WAN links it can only free up bandwidth using compression, it will not provide more bandwidth, lower costs or increase reliability. However in combination, the APN andwanoptimizationbandwidthbenefitsaremultiplied. Adding bandwidth using APN means that all data transfers go more quickly,whereaswanoptimizationisreallygoodatreducingthetime for a Warm Transfer where the data has all ready been cached or storedincompressiondictionaryatthedestination. APNdramaticallyimprovesperformanceintimeswhenthenetworkis havingissueswithlossandjitter.apnwillhidetheseissuesfromthe WANOptimizationdevice. More bandwidth generally improves performance for most types of traffic, and APN enabled bandwidth with predictable performance means that real time and interactive applications work even better. WAN Optimization devices greatly improve the performance of Microsoft scifsprotocol,whichoftenperformspoorlyoverawan. Therefore,enterprisesthathavealreadydeployedWANOptimization canstillbenefitfromthereliability,bandwidthincreasesandongoing monthlywancostsavingsinherentinapn. 2009TalariNetworksInc.

14 14 TransformingEnterpriseWANwithAdaptivePrivateNetworking Conclusion APNsolvestheInternet reliability problemthathasforcedbusinesses to continue to pay very high prices for fairly limited private WAN bandwidth from their telecommunication providers. When combined with the incredibly low monthly cost per Megabit per second of broadband Internet, APN technology can drastically reduce the ongoingmonthlywanoperatingexpenseforanenterprise. The market dynamics of broadband Internet have consistently improved Internet price/performance. APN s ability to aggregate multiplesourcesofthisinexpensivebandwidthcoupledwiththesubsecond response to network performance problems, delivers high reliability and more bandwidth to each site. Where once a branch officecouldonlyjustifya1.5mbpsmplsconnection6mbps,20mbps orevenmorecannowbeprovisionedatafractionoftheexistingcost, providingoverallhigherwanperformance. Since APN can utilize multiple sources of IP bandwidth and combine themtoprovideahighbandwidth,highlyreliableprivatenetworkitis possible to migrate gradually away from existing private WANs. An enterprise can address issues at groups of sites that perhaps have issues with reliability or simply don t have enough bandwidth, ultimately migrating partially or completely to APN to achieve significantcostsavings. Where APN replaces an existing private WAN circuit altogether, or enablesthereductioninhowmuchbandwidthisbeingprovisionedon anmplsorframerelaynetwork,itactuallyreducestheongoingwan operatingexpenseandpaysforitselfoutofhardcostsavings. Inacarrier pricingenvironmentwhereaprice/performancefactorof 2x is enormous, Talari s Adaptive Private Networking (APN) brings Moore slawandinterneteconomicstoenterprisewanbuyersforthe first time in 15+ years. Furthermore, an APN solution does this incrementally and seamlessly on top of existing networks, without requiring forklift upgrades, enterprises can take advantage of this powerfulnewtechnologyattheirownpace. TalariNetworks StevensCreekBlvd.Suite220, CupertinoCA V TalariNetworksInc.