Tutorial: The Mature Competitive Environment: Regional Rings and MANs
| This tutorial is part of the most recent update to Course 101, Chapter 3, October 2008. |
| Competition today means much more than the 1984 idea of LECs, competitive IXCs and switched access charges or subcontracted dedicated access lines. Competition today includes competitors providing various services to residences and business customers using a mix of switched access, subcontracted dedicated access, plus colocation and bypass on the “last mile”.
Paying the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) for tariffed services, either switched access or dedicated lines, to connect the last mile from a competitive carrier’s Point of Presence (POP) to the competitive carrier’s customer started to become widespread in 1984. Subsequent legislation and regulatory decisions unbundled the ILEC’s physical access network from the ILEC’s services provided on that network. This enabled competitive carriers to lease just the ILEC’s physical cabling to the customer instead of paying for a tariffed service. If the ILEC is providing copper wires without electricity on them, i.e. not attached to a CO switch line card, this is called a dry circuit. A fiber not attached to a line card is called dark fiber. In addition to being required to lease dry copper or dark fiber to their competitor, the ILEC is required to build colocation facilities in its COs. These are rooms, often with separate entrance doors, where the competitive carrier can locate their own circuit-terminating equipment like modems and line cards, and network equipment like switches, multiplexers and routers. When a company collocates equipment in the CO and connects it to the ILEC’s cabling, the competitive carrier is said to be acting as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). Going even further, the competitive carrier can simply lay their own fiber from their POP to their large customers and bypass the ILEC altogether. |
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Mature Competitive Carrier Network: Regional Rings, POPs and MANs
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| A current model for a competitive carrier’s network, depicted above, now includes the POPs in cities connected together to form a “long distance” backbone, plus one or more Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) built out from the POP in each city.
To ensure high availability in any kind of network, more than one physical connection is required to every station, on different cables, to protect against cut lines. It turns out that the cheapest way to do this is to connect them neighbor-to-neighbor-to-neighbor to form a ring. The competitive carrier’s POPs in cities are connected to form regional rings, which are interconnected at multiple places to implement national communications. Within a metropolitan area, a competitive carrier will install or lease fiber to connect their POP to the ILEC’s toll center, to the ILEC’s COs where they have collocations, and to their large customers. These physical locations are also connected neighbor-to-neighbor to form a ring for redundancy; the ring is the MAN. |
| From Course 101: Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers, rev 2008-10 pages 3.14 and 3.15 |
Course 101 certification exam (auto-scoring) free sample
We’ve posted a new free online resource: a portion of the
Course 101 online certification exam.
To access this or any of our vast selection of free samples,
you may be asked to sign in or sign up for myTeracom.
It’s free, easy, secure and confidential.
It gives your score automatically!
This sample certification exam is part of Teracom’s quality all-inclusive training
- along with the course pages previews and/or DVD-video and CBT previews,
it is a good way to assess the level and quality of Teracom Training
- plus, assess your current knowledge level to help you decide you do need training!
New schedule - Spring 2009
We are finalizing the new schedule for Spring 2009.
Check out the new sessions scheduled so far:
Course 101: Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers
Course 130: Understanding Voice over IP
BOOT CAMP: Course 101+130 together - save 30%
Course 110: Understanding IP Telecom: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers
Don’t miss Course 101 and 130 together in TRINIDAD being held in conjunction with
CANTO, the Carribean Association of National Telecommunications Organizations
Is the Internet a Public Utility?
Reading articles and blogs about Net Neutrality, one often sees the justification for government interference in the operation of IP networks to allow people stealing copyrighted works using bittorrent (the net neutrality advocates) to consume bandwidth 24/7 at line speed “because the Internet is a public utility.”
It ain’t. The Internet is a business.
Net neutrality - not. VideoTutorial on Service Level Agreements, traffic shaping and traffic policing
watch in higher quality on youtube’s site
When someone demands “net neutrality”, they usually mean that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them. They claim (correctly) that this is not the case at present, that the network service provider is “throttling” certain applications, “slowing down” or “shaping” traffic (the correct term is “policing”) and that this, in their opinion, must stop.
This video tutorial explains Service Level Agreements, traffic profiles, transmission characteristics, and how Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) is implemented to be able to provide different transmission characteristics for different kinds of traffic - the EXACT OPPOSITE of net neutrality.
It is taken from Teracom’s DVD video V9 Understanding Voice over IP 2: Voice Packetization • Voice Quality • Codecs, Jitter and Packet Loss • Diff-Serv • Network QoS with MPLS
ALL “NET NEUTRALITY” ARTICLES:
Net Neutrality - Foolish, ignorant or disingenuous?
Net Neutrality II: If the power company allowed this, your electrical bill would double
Is the Internet a Public Utility?
Visit Teracom Training Institute for more information on telecommunications training and voip training
New session: IP Telecom - with certification - November 12-13-14 in Washington DC
| New session of Course 110 Understanding IP Telecom: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers scheduled:This is the “next” course, building beyond our core training course 101, for those who need to get up to speed on new IP telecom technologies like MPLS and VoIP. Like all of our training, we concentrate on explaining the jargon, buzzwords, fundamentals, mainstream technologies and most importantly, the underlying ideas, and how it all works together. | ||
| This course will give you the solid, vendor-independent foundation knowledge necessary to deal with IP telecom network projects and IP voice and data applications with confidence. | ||
| - Join us in Washington DC, steps from the White House November 12-13-14 for this IP certification course for non-engineers. |
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| - Course fee includes certification exam and Certified IP Telecom Analyst (CNA) diploma. Framed diploma is available. |
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| - Earlybird special: register and pay by September 30 and we’ll ship you a hardcopy of our very popular 400-page reference book Telecom 101 3rd edition in advance of the course. |
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Net Neutrality II: If the power company allowed this, your electrical bill would double.
Following up on a previous discussion, a demand for “net neutrality” usually means a demand that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them.
But a demand for “net neutrality” is usually also wrapped together with a demand by these same people for no metering, no usage charges. This would mean that users who are continuously transmitting and receiving packets would pay the same flat rate as someone who is paying only for a typical traffic profile.
If this principle were applied to electricity, it would be like having no electricity meter. Everyone pays the same, regardless how much power they use. The problem: if you’re one of the 99% of normal users, you would have to pay DOUBLE what you normally would, to cover the costs of the 1% of users constantly drawing 200 amps 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Here’s how that would work:
Read more
Net Neutrality - Foolish, ignorant or disingenuous?
The popular press and news feeds have been full of stories about advocates of “net neutrality” testifying to congressional committees, lobbying the federal government and railing against the big ISPs over the past while. Not much mention of arguments against net neutrality, though. It’s hard to decide whether those arguing for net neutrality are foolish, ignorant or disingenuous.
Let’s begin with some definitions. When someone demands “net neutrality”, they usually mean that the network must not discriminate between applications being carried in IP packets; that identical transmission characteristics (throughput, delay, number of errors, etc.) are to be provided for all packets regardless of what is being carried in them. They claim (correctly) that this is not the case at present, that the network service provider is “throttling” certain applications, “slowing down” or “shaping” traffic and that this, in their opinion, must stop. They sound the rallying cry “the net should be free”.
What a load of hogwash.
But are these arguments foolish, ignorant or disingenuous? Hard to decide:
Updated courses
Continuous quality improvement! We have updated Course 110 and Course 150, updating the content, course titles, web pages and brochures. And we’re putting on some great specials to mark the occasion!
Seminar Specials in June
Course 110 - Understanding IP Telecom: IP, VoIP and MPLS for Non-Engineers: 2-for-1. Two people can attend for the price of one, June 17-18-19 in the Washington DC area.
Course 150 - Understanding IP Contact Center Technology:
bonus DVD-video course “Understanding Networking 1″. Receive as a bonus DVD-video course DVD-4 Understanding Networking 1, a $239 value, free with your attendance June 18-19 in Santa Clara CA (Silicon Valley).
Read more