Reducing Gigabit Leased Line Costs

Transcription

1 Reducing Gigabit Leased Line Costs Wireless gigabit point-to-point provides significant savings compared to leased line costs, and offers connection diversity for robustness and security. Tim Daniels 23 Nov 2011 V1

2 Contents Executive Summary Introduction Replacing Leased Line Services with High Capacity Wireless Links Free Space Optics Millimetre-wave Links Cost advantages of Wireless vs Leased Line Links Other Benefits of Wireless Point-to-Point Data Centre Centralisation Using Gigabit Wireless Links Speed of Installation Real Time Support Diversity of network and Resilience Types of Wireless Link Customers Healthcare Education Local Government Finance Summary... 7 About AIT... 8 Contact Us:

3 Executive Summary Wireless gigabit point-to-point connectivity provides significant cost savings over leased line costs in the UK. As a typical example of connecting two buildings, 700m apart, with a 1Gbps link, BT s 1Gbps Short Haul Data Service costs 40,355 over 5 years while the AIT s wireless point-to-point costs 24,245 a saving of 16,110. While up front costs of a wireless solution are greater the project would break even in under two years, even assuming the lowest cost 1Gps link options from BT. Many different organisation types can benefit from wireless point-to-point including local government, hospitals, financial institutions in the city and educational campuses. All organisations that need to link remote facilities or buildings should consider using wireless point-to-point free space optics (FSO) or millimetre wave solutions in favour of fixed leased lines to provide low cost, high-reliability network connectivity. 1 Introduction The need for high speed infrastructure across businesses continues grow with Ethernet/IP networks now being used for telephone, video, cloud based applications, remote working and other network intensive extensions to modern life. For businesses with multiple sites or multiple buildings across a single site providing this infrastructure bandwidth can cost money. The traditional approach to provide high-bandwidth between locations was to pick up the phone and call BT, or similar leased line providers, and order additional circuits. IT and facilities managers have long considered this the easy option, and so long as initial and on-going charges could be covered by the IT budget and the service provided was adequate, then a phone call to the provider was all that was necessary to resolve the bandwidth problem. With businesses under pressure to reduce costs however the price of providing gigabit connectivity between buildings on the same campus or between buildings across a city has come under increasing scrutiny. In today s cost constrained society government, local authorities, and businesses are now increasingly active in taking fixed recurring costs out of their budgets by installing wireless point-to-point links instead of continuing to pour money into leased line connections. 2 Replacing Leased Line Services with High Capacity Wireless Links Moving away from leased line to wireless point-to-point links can seem risky to IT and Facilities Managers but in fact microwave, FSO and millimetre point-to-point links have been used for decades to provide highly reliable, trouble-free transmission of voice, data, and video. Service providers use them extensively to connect mobile phone base stations in cities and along major motorway 3

4 networks and large businesses use them for backhaul of essential company network services between disparate facilities. As point-to-point technology has developed more choice has become available. AIT, for instance, offers two main types of point to point links offering Gbps speeds: 2.1 Free Space Optics Free space optics (otherwise known as FSO or laser links) links are easy to deploy, and license free, they are ideal for link connecting buildings up to 500m apart at up to 1Gbps duplex. FSO links are often used to provide a backup system to leased line connectivity, providing complete diversity of network, but can also be used as the main interconnect system. Being light they can be affected by heavy rain, fog and mist which limits their practical line of sight distance. Route diversity can be provided by installing two FSO links to provide a high reliability connection. 2.2 Millimetre-wave Links Light-licensed MMW (60-80 GHz) links easily handle 1Gbps duplex throughput and can function over several kilometres. In practice Light licensing means that getting the radio license is both fast and straight forward, whilst keeping the essential controls and checks in place to ensure businesses do not interfere with neighbouring line of sight links. 3 Cost advantages of Wireless vs Leased Line Links BT calls its leased line offering private inland circuits within which it offers a 1Gbps offering called short haul data services (SHDS). 1Gbps SHDS is offered in three formats: Service Description SHDS 1000 LA Local Access (same exchange/equipment) SHDS 1000 Standard (up to 25km) SHDS 1000 ER Extended Reach (up to 35km) Source: Nov 2011 The costs depend on the distance of the link and the exchange equipment through which the 1Gbps leased line must connect. The cheapest local access offering requires that the leased line can connect through local equipment, often limiting distances involved, especially in built up cities. The standard offering is for distances of up to 25Km and includes a distance line cost while the extended offering allows for connections up to 35Km. Since we are assuming local connections to buildings close to each other we shall assume the lowest cost option here, the SHDS 1000 LA. 4

5 Cumulative Costs AIT Partnership Group Ltd Relative costs for a BT SHDS 1000 LA and an AIT 1Gbps wireless solution (assuming a 700m link) are: Desk Survey Connection Fee (per end) Annual Costs (per end) BT LA , , Purchase Costs Annual Costs AIT wireless link - 13, , BT charge a connection fee and an annual rental per link end, i.e. costs above are doubled in reality. Initial costs are not huge but on-going OPEX costs are high. Conversely the AIT wireless link solution has a high CAPEX cost but lower on-going maintenance charges. Comparing these charges over the lifetime of the equipment, assumed at 5 years, provides cost savings of well over 15,000 for the AIT wireless point-to-point link solution: AIT BT LA Cumulative Cumulative Initial 13, , Year 1 2,125 15, , , Year 2 2,125 17, , , Year 3 2,125 19, , , Year 4 2,125 22, , , Year 5 2,125 24, , , Return on Investment Calculation When shown as a graph the payback period can be clearly seen to be under 2 years, after which annual savings are made: 700m, Local Access - Wireless vs Leased Line 45, , , , , , , , , Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 AIT 15, , , , , BT 10, , , , , Graph showing ROI in < 2 years 5

6 4 Other Benefits of Wireless Point-to-Point 4.1 Data Centre Centralisation Using Gigabit Wireless Links By connecting outlying facilities in a campus environment IT staff can centralise server facilities and provide remote users with a superior server access performance (equal to those of local users). Consolidation of IT facilities eliminates duplicated server hardware, software licenses, backup systems and server room costs at multiple locations, which can result in significant savings. Also, centralising servers greatly simplifies network administration and server management, improving service reliability and reducing the costs of deploying new applications and server capacity. 4.2 Speed of Installation Microwave and FSO wireless links can be installed and commissioned in days while installation of fibre leased lines often involve much red tape to gain the various permissions delaying construction work for weeks or even months. All installations first involve a detailed AIT site audit to ensure that any proposal will provide an effective solution. 4.3 Real Time Support Both leased links and wireless links provide highly reliable service that we hope never go wrong. However the reality is that you rely on your network to be 100% reliable. AIT provide 24/7 support for the FSO and MMW links that it installs and includes service checks to ensure continued trouble free network operation. Trained engineers are also available to answer any technical questions at any time during normal business hours. 4.4 Diversity of network and Resilience Many corporate clients use wireless links in addition to leased lines in order to have completely duplicated network connectivity. This ensures that if a major outage occurs, for instance a terrorist incident, then critical services across the private network can keep working. AIT can also provide duplicate wireless links, with live backup links, in order to provide resilient network connectivity in case of wireless link failure. 5 Types of Wireless Link Customers Gigabit wireless solutions are used in a variety of vertical markets including healthcare, education, local government and finance where users have benefitted from their fibre-like performance in terms of throughput and latency and their fast return on investment compared to leasing or implementing fibre connectivity. 6

7 5.1 Healthcare AIT provide wireless point-to-point solutions for hospitals across London in order to provide both connectivity and network resilience. During a major network outage in London the hospital network work well for two days while the Trust s fibre cables were repaired. Read more. 5.2 Education Universities like the London South Bank University, use wireless links across their campus to provide high-bandwidth connectivity at a controlled cost with low OPEX. AIT often installs FSO point-to-point links between buildings as a fast, low cost, high-reliability solution in such scenarios. Read more. 5.3 Local Government Government departments and local authorities often span multiple buildings and require large bandwidth to link user applications to the data centre. Point-to-point wireless links can be quickly installed as needs arise to ensure staff in peripheral buildings can access data as needed. 5.4 Finance The City of London is brimming with data and needs fast, high reliability connections that must often be quickly installed or expanded to suit evolving needs. Leased lines give connectivity to data centres based in Canary Wharf and the WWW beyond but there is often a need for internal connectivity between buildings and the data centre. AIT can install wireless point-to-point links to provide network diversity and connect buildings across the street or down the road enabling Corporate clients to have the secure, reliable and fast networks they need to be one step ahead of the market. 6 Summary This paper shows how wireless point-to-point links are a real alternative to leased lines (known as short haul data services by BT). For a 1Gbps link wireless point-to-point provides a return on investment in less than two years, providing a considerable cost saving ( 15,000) over a 5 year period. AIT can audit the site to provide recommendations as well as install and maintain wireless point-to-point links on your behalf ensuring trouble free operation and a single point of expertise for your organisation. 7

8 About AIT AIT is committed to providing the best impartial advice, competitive pricing and expert technical services in for Data Centre and IT infrastructure technologies. Services include; Data Centre Design and Auditing, and Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software, network switching, wireless LAN and point-to-point and multipoint WAN bridges and real time location asset tagging. Located in the UK, AIT has for the past 10 years built a successful business based on strong relationships with customers and suppliers by continuously improving the quality of our services and support. Contact Us: T: W: Contact Form 8