Ship to Shore Communications Management for MTN Satellite Communications Inc.

Transcription

1 Ship to Shore Communications Management for MTN Satellite Communications Inc. with Distrix Software Defined Infrastructure A Distrix Networks Case Study November, Distrix Networks Ltd. All Right Reserved 1

2 The project outlined in this case study involves embedding Distrix software in the connectivity services provided by MTN Satellite Communications, Inc. (now a subsidiary of EMC) to cruise ships, yacht, and ferry vessels. The Distrix solution provides session continuity to end users on the ships regardless of the type of available network links. The rollout, which started in June 2013 is ongoing as the company continues to deploy to additional vessels as it grows its business. The Situation MTN provides data connectivity services to the marine and aviation industries. Originally these services were primarily over their VSAT (satellite) data connectivity service offerings. This strategy is evolving with changing expectations. Cruise ship, yacht and ferry passengers, and crew expect reliable mobile internet access for voice, video and data when they are on land, and they now expect the same quality and speed of access while at sea. As a result, MTN required a solution to improve the mobile internet access experience for their customers by supplementing their satellite links with wireless access when close to shore. MTN set up wireless access points that provided point-to-point Wi-Fi radio installations between ships and antennas placed at strategic locations along cruise line routes. The shore-side radios connect directly to the internet through local ISP connections. As ships sail along the routes, connections are made and broken with various shore-based antenna stations. MTN faced a significant technical challenge maintaining reliable client sessions over the dynamic Wi-Fi and internet access infrastructure. Reliable marine internet access required seamless handoff both between the shore-side base stations satellite and terrestrial hardwired infrastructures to maintain continuous connections for customers Distrix Networks Ltd. All Right Reserved

3 The Distrix Solution Overview Distrix provides a layered software infrastructure that abstracts the clients sessions from the transport technology, resulting in an enhanced and seamless internet experience for users. Distrix Software Defined Infrastructure helped MTN avoid costly up-front expenses and enabled cost effective expansion to additional network technologies by running on existing server hardware, and seamlessly integrating to existing network infrastructure. Distrix greatly increased connection reliability by providing redundancy, link aggregation, and security. As ships come within antenna range, point-to-point link quality improves, the connection is added to the list of available links and that connection is utilized by Distrix to transport client data. Conversely, when the ship moves out of range, traffic is automatically switched to the next best available link. This underpins the reliability that greatly enhanced the end user experience. 3

4 Multiple Simultaneous Connections The Distrix software solution for MTN supports concurrent connections that automatically and transparently distribute traffic over multiple connections of the same type, or between different types (e.g. Wi-Fi and/or satellite) without service impact. This is commonly referred to as both horizontal and vertical handover. Handover and striping between different types of connections with Distrix is both automatic and tunable, with no operator intervention required. Figure 1. Wi-Fi and Satellite Connections Distrix Networks Ltd. All Right Reserved

5 Distrix Communication Links Distrix Software Defined Infrastructure automatically aggregates multiple communication links between nodes into a single logical connection (see Figure 2). Communication links are established and supported connections between Distrix gateways. Distrix automatically stripes and load balances data sent through a logical connection over the available links. Figure 2. Distrix Logical Links 5

6 Terrestrial Bandwidth Aggregation In this installation, there are cases where the backhaul transport network from shore-side to the Teleport Datacenter would be bandwidth limited. To alleviate this, multiple backhaul transport links from one or more service providers have been combined for greater aggregate bandwidth. In this case, an additional Distrix gateway has been deployed at a shore-side location allowing connectivity to multiple backhaul transport links (see Figure 3). The Distrix gateway automatically reroutes the incoming data and load balances it across the backhaul transport networks to the Teleport Datacenter. Figure 3. Distrix Connectivity with Backhaul Aggregation Distrix Networks Ltd. All Right Reserved

7 Network Monitoring Support Distrix provides visibility into ship to shore connectivity for MTN Satellite Inc. This system allows administrators to remotely monitor which ships are connected and sending data, how they are connected, and when there are connectivity issues. Features of network monitoring include the ability to: Graphically view active ship to Teleport Datacenter connections. View the health of ship connections, including number and type(s) of connections. View information about each connection interface such as IP address and MAC addresses. Enable detailed auditing of link performance and utilization over time. Prioritization of Aggregated Links Available communication links vary greatly in cost. MTN is able to prioritize less expensive, or higher performing links over others when multiple options are available. Link usage can be determined by configurable parameter values. Using appropriate values results in only the most preferred link being used when available, and less preferred links not being used until the more preferred link is degraded. Multiple Datacenter Support Distrix has provided MTN Satellite Communications Inc. with the ability to provide support for multiple ships to connect to multiple data centers. Some specific features Distrix is used for in this installation include: Sending management traffic to the primary Teleport Datacenter while sending internet-bound traffic to the closest or best Teleport Datacenter. Providing automatic failover if the connection to a specific Teleport Datacenter is lost. 7

8 Summary The Distrix Software Defined Infrastructure enables the abstraction of the physical infrastructure from the data plane. In this case, Distrix simplifies the ship-to-shore wireless internet infrastructure for MTN Satellite Communications Inc., greatly increasing connection reliability by providing redundancy, automatic failover, and security, as well as increased manageability of the overall network infrastructure through a single pane of glass. Distrix helps MTN Satellite Communications Inc. provide session continuity to end users on the ships regardless of the type of available network links, thus helping to meet the increasing internet quality of service expectations of these mobile marine customers, and helping this business remain innovative and relevant in an increasingly demanding market Distrix Networks Ltd. All Right Reserved

9 About Distrix Embedding Intelligence into Complex Networks Distrix unlocks the benefits of advanced, integrated enterprise and operational systems to increase security, competitiveness and asset utilization while reducing initial and ongoing costs and risks. Distrix provides a secure, resilient and versatile Software Defined Infrastructure which interfaces with operational networks and overlays existing information networks, dramatically reducing the effort and cost of deployment and integration through its simple ease-of-use and ability to retain infrastructure investments already in place. With a remarkably small footprint, Distrix Networks centralize analysis where appropriate, and embeds logic and control at the edge when needed. Distrix currently delivers the enabling technology to give government and industrial enterprises a head start in the Industrial Internet revolution. To contact our offices: Distrix Networks Ltd West 1st Ave, Suite 200 Vancouver, BC V6J 1G5 Canada info@distrix.com 9