Building an Olympic-Grade Network Infrastructure

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1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Building an Olympic-Grade Network Infrastructure Sponsored by: Avaya Rohit Mehra January 2014 Nolan Greene IDC OPINION The Olympic Games bring the world together to celebrate achievement, excellence, and the beauty of sport. As athletes from around the world train and prepare for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, a team of dedicated enterprise networking professionals is gearing up to build a communications infrastructure that fosters collaboration and provides instant access to information for all participants, officials, visitors, and media personnel. The explosion of mobility that has transformed offices and universities worldwide has affected other areas, including retail, healthcare, hospitality, and, more recently, sporting and event venues. Naturally, one of the largest gatherings of athletes and spectators in the world is not exempt from this trend. The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will have thousands of attendees desiring seamless, high-throughput network access. The use cases for seamless wired and wireless access are many and varied. Members of the Olympic family will want to use their smartphones to tweet about the events and share photos of the competitions. International reporters will need to submit stories, photos, and video on the Games from their workstations or wireless devices to the media centers in their home countries. And for the first time, television broadcasts will be transmitted to the Olympic venues solely over IPTV. Given the demands that a large number of end users and devices will place on the network, the need for a resilient infrastructure is critical. Additionally, the network is being built from the ground up in a difficult and in some cases temporary environment. Clearly, this is a challenging feat to pull off. Building off of its success in deploying a network infrastructure for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, the team at Avaya has set out to design and implement a high-performing network for Sochi. This document explores the communication and networking challenges for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games bring your own device (BYOD); doing more with less; accommodating frequent moves, adds, and changes; integrating high-quality video over the network; and delivering a scalable, reliable, and secure backbone that meets strict demands for 24 x 7 availability in other words, issues that typical enterprises face virtually every day. This document also highlights how Avaya addresses these challenges through its Fabric Connect architecture for a network deployment of "Olympic" proportions. January 2014, IDC #246282

2 SITUATION OVERVIEW CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGES FOR THE SOCHI 2014 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES Challenge #1 BYOD and Secure Guest Access The BYOD trend has unquestionably elevated the role of wireless LAN in enterprise networks and the importance of security within the unified network. Sochi will be no exception. In Vancouver, 80% of devices accessing the network were connected via Ethernet ports. Expect a reversal of this in Sochi. Press, broadcasters, athletes, and officials will fuel a boom in wireless devices on the network, with many of them clamoring for bandwidth to tweet, text, and share photos and videos of the events in addition to the routine mobile browsing they would be doing anywhere else. More importantly, the greater number of mobile devices brought in from the outside means that network security will need to be tighter than ever. Avaya estimates that there will be as many as 120,000 mobile devices connected by members of the Olympic family at any given time. Additionally, all of these users will essentially be guests making this one of the world's largest guest environments. The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee will not have any knowledge of what devices will be connecting to the network until the day of the opening ceremonies when users will be requesting network access. All of these devices will have a context-based security policy applied and will need to gain access to the right network resources based on their credentials. This must happen quickly and efficiently without IT intervention. Challenge #2 Doing More Within Tight Budget Constraints Similar to any enterprise environment where IT budgets are expected to be relatively flat in 2014, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee found that having to direct much of its budget to the buildout of general infrastructure led to leaner IT staffing and operations a common issue for many enterprises. Furthermore, as in any Olympic Games environment, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee makes up 5% of the total staff, while partners and volunteers account for the remaining 95%. Therefore, paramount to the success of the Games was building a network that not only would meet the capacity, reliability, and security requirements mandated by the Games but also would be much easier to design, deploy, and operate. The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee chose to deploy a virtualized network infrastructure, based on Avaya Fabric Connect, to help it simplify the network and drive down its ongoing operational expenses. Not only was the virtualized network easier to design and deploy (critical in meeting the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee's tight deadlines), but it is also allowing the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee to be more agile by reducing the time it takes to deploy and make changes to new services. Challenge #3 Accommodating Frequent Moves, Adds, and Changes In an enterprise environment, implementing moves, adds, and changes can create significant headaches for IT staff. It might require submitting a change request, waiting for approvals, implementing the change during off-hours, and then carefully reconfiguring the network service hop by hop. Along with this, there is also the fear of the network not being configured correctly and that the changes may "break" something else IDC #

3 With a dynamic event like the Olympic Games, being able to simplify moves, adds, and changes was of great value to the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. One of the strongest values of moving to a virtualized network infrastructure is the ability to migrate away from the static networks of the past and evolve to a more dynamic network environment where changes can be made quickly with fewer risks. On the day of the opening ceremonies, if a media outlet wants to make a change to its dedicated service (e.g., adding connectivity between the Media Center and a competition venue), it can easily be accommodated by the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee without delay and without the risk of impacting other critical services. Challenge #4 Handling Converged Video In Vancouver, video was managed separately from the rest of the voice and data traffic on its own dedicated coaxial cable-based network. At the time, IPTV was deemed too complex to implement and not reliable enough for something as critical as the Olympic Games. However, the opportunity that IPTV presents in terms of cost savings and operational simplicity cannot be overlooked. Many enterprise IT managers can relate to this trade-off. Integrating video over an existing network can be a daunting task in terms of the demands on bandwidth and its potential to impact other applications. Furthermore, some types of video (IPTV and some video surveillance deployments) rely on complex IP multicast protocols (PIM) to distribute traffic. The challenge is that IP multicast can be complex to configure, manage, and troubleshoot. It can also lack resiliency and scalability. Sochi, in line with current enterprise IT trends and needs, wanted to deploy a converged infrastructure to avoid the costs of implementing and managing a separate network for video. A unique attribute of Avaya Fabric Connect technology is the ability to efficiently distribute multicast traffic with greater efficiency and scale and without the need to deploy any complex multicast protocols. Therefore, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee was able to easily integrate video along with its other traffic on a single IP-based network. This not only helps ensure a more seamless multimedia experience and a more efficient operational and management experience for IT but also allows for cost savings and a consistent, policy-driven implementation given that there is only one architecture to implement and support. Some additional benefits are the more efficient traffic flows and subsequent increased performance to allow enhanced video distribution and rapid channel changing. With 36 HD IPTV channels broadcasting the various events and proceedings, as well as selected commercial channels, Olympic Winter Games audiences will be better equipped to keep up with the Games from whatever venue they happen to be in. Challenge #5 Meeting Demands for Capacity, Reliability, and Security Like enterprises today, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee is faced with increasing demands for bandwidth because of the proliferation of mobile devices and their use for video, imaging, and social media. Beyond this, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee also has to factor in huge spikes in demand for network capacity for high-profile competition events when members of the media are simultaneously uploading their images and stories within seconds of the winners crossing the finish line. All enterprise environments are also faced with the increasing need to maintain 24 x 7 network availability as well as comply with increasingly stringent security and regulatory requirements. This is amplified for an event such as the Olympic Winter Games where the eyes of the world are watching and the threat of an attack is a very real and serious concern IDC #

4 OVERVIEW OF AVAYA'S SOLUTION FOR SOCHI The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee chose Avaya as the Official Supplier of Network Equipment for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games because of its highly differentiated networking technologies and its success at past Olympic Games. The cornerstone of Avaya's Olympic infrastructure is Avaya Fabric Connect, which is based on an enhanced form of IEEE/IETF Shortest Path Bridging. This open network virtualization technology transforms the network into an agile, cloud-based infrastructure that is easier to configure, manage, and maintain. It transforms today's static, complex network environments, which are based on myriad protocols, into a dynamic, simplified network environment that will allow the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee to be much more agile. Specifically, Avaya Fabric Connect eliminates complex protocol overlays and cumbersome hop-by-hop provisioning practices. Services can now be deployed at the edge of the network only, protecting the network core. Moves, adds, and changes can be implemented on demand without introducing risk. Furthermore, with a 54Tb-capable backbone and service scalability into the millions, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee has the foundation to deal with increased mobile video/social media traffic as well as any sudden spikes in bandwidth capacity. Avaya Fabric Connect starts in redundant datacenters and extends to competition venues, the Media Center, the Olympic Village, and other locations such as Sochi International Airport and Celebration Centers allowing for "Olympic-grade BYOD" and many other end-user services. Avaya Fabric Connect is unique in the industry with its ability to support Layer 2 and Layer 3 virtualized services along with optimized routing and multicast directly over the unified fabric without having to deploy additional protocols. The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee will be leveraging all of this functionality, with the benefit of maintaining a streamlined single protocol network that will be much easier to manage and troubleshoot. Over the converged backbone will be seven different virtualized networks. In their own private IP networks will be the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee's administrative network, which provides the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and its volunteers with the tools and applications necessary to put on the Games; the Wireless LAN, allowing for connectivity for BYOD devices; the IPTV network, which enables efficient and scalable distribution of multicast traffic without requiring any PIM-based protocols; and the voice network to enable secure communications. Media will be offered a suite of transparent LAN services from the converged backbone where they can select the bandwidth, parameters, and venues they want connected to the main Media Center. There are also separate networks for management as well as a completely redundant, isolated environment for the Games network, which supports the critical applications that measure and capture an estimated 200,000 time, distance, and scoring metrics for the various competition events. These applications are the heart of the Games and are some of the most mission-critical applications supported on the network. To address the most prominent change from 2010 the explosion of mobility Sochi will rely on Avaya WLAN 8100 to provide scalable WiFi access that easily supports the mobile video traffic increase that is expected in the Games environment. Working in tandem with the WLAN 8100 is Avaya Identity Engines (IDE), a platform that provides security and policy services based on various contextual criteria (e.g., user, device, and application). A unique feature that is enabled by IDE on Avaya's Ethernet Routing Switch series is the "Any Port/Any Service" capability, which enables any wired or wireless users to connect to any port on the network and based on their credentials be assigned the 2014 IDC #

5 appropriate network resources without the need for pre-provisioning of the port by IT. Identity Engines plays a key role in ensuring that all users connect seamlessly and efficiently to their applications regardless of where they are connecting from, when they are connecting, and on what device they are connecting from. With respect to capacity and reliability requirements, Avaya Fabric Connect technology is set to rise to the challenge to deliver the capacity required for the Games as well as handle sudden bandwidth spikes. It also offers lightning-fast recovery (20ms) in the event of a failure (e.g., a fiber cut at an outdoor venue) through a combination of load sharing and the elimination of protocol overlays (where top layers require lower layers to reconverge first). Moreover, the network will be secured end to end through appliances from technology partners as well as through the ability to isolate critical applications and user groups within their own private IP network across the Fabric Connect backbone. Having all of these features results in a simpler, single network architecture that can be provisioned in an automated manner. The inherent lack of complexity is a real advantage in a greenfield environment such as the Olympic Games where resources are thin and there is a strong reliance on volunteers and partners. Furthermore, where uptime is paramount, having a network that eliminates overlay protocols can lead to faster reconvergence times and much more effective troubleshooting. With a single architecture and a single network protocol, Avaya can deliver secure BYOD, seamless voice, and IPTV to Sochi on a flexible, extensible, virtualized network with the ability to manage and control each network independently. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES One of the enduring themes of the Olympic Games is to face challenges and overcome adversity to rise and compete on a global stage. While networking and communications infrastructure challenges may not make for compelling television, these are obstacles that Avaya has faced in the quest to deliver a gold-medal infrastructure. Perhaps the most prominent challenge was the lack of preexisting infrastructure in Sochi. Network planning and implementation needed to be conducted in conjunction with the construction of the venues. Therefore, the deployment needed to be as error free as possible because there was little time for correction. While much of the network is temporary, some elements, primarily the IP infrastructure for the skiing venue, will remain in place to serve future users, elevating the importance of this deployment. In addition, a consolidated network infrastructure raises concerns about having a single point of failure on the network. In theory, even a power source failure or surge in Sochi could black out critical applications. Moreover, outdoor venues are particularly vulnerable to fiber cuts. The network will be completely redundant with load-shared connections between each venue. Additionally, the use of a fabric network infrastructure relies on built-in redundancy across the entire hardware, software, and application stack, making the network more secure and resilient than ever. As was the case in Vancouver, the most important opportunity lies in proving the ability to deliver a gold-medal network infrastructure. If a network can handle the scale and time constraints of the Olympic Winter Games, that bodes well for everyday enterprise-class deployments. While Avaya succeeded in Vancouver, Sochi presents some new challenges as well as an opportunity for the team at Avaya to prove that it can successfully deploy another massive network for the Olympic Games IDC #

6 CONCLUSION The 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, represent a greenfield enterprise network deployment on a grand and highly visible scale. Many of the challenges of managing the Sochi network are representative of everyday enterprise challenges in a dynamic, highly visible environment. Through Fabric Connect, Avaya addresses the five extremely important challenges that most enterprises face today with regard to their IT and network infrastructures: BYOD; doing more with less; accommodating frequent moves, adds, and changes; integrating high-quality video over the network; and delivering a scalable, reliable, and secure backbone that meets strict demands for 24 x 7 availability. The focus on these challenges shows that Avaya and the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, much like most enterprises, are adapting to changing dynamics in the networking landscape such as the emergence and explosion of wireless devices and are turning to innovative technologies such as Avaya Fabric Connect to help address these issues. Avaya, which had to vie against other top-tier networking vendors to win its bid to compete at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, is poised to go for gold with Fabric Connect IDC #

7 About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make factbased decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Global Headquarters 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA idc-insights-community.com Copyright Notice External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Copyright 2014 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.