There was a time when organisations expected nothing more from their telecoms supplier than a reliable phone service. Today, expectations are much, much higher.
In the post-internet age we expect to talk to colleagues via video conferencing, to instantly transfer data between remote offices and to transact with customers via the internet. Even the humble telephone call isn’t immune from expectation creep: a growing number of businesses are turning to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions as a means of controlling costs and increasing flexibility.
The upshot is that, over the past few years, the volume of data transferred across public and private networks has risen to levels that would have been unimaginable 10 or 15 years ago. The response to this from service providers has been to move towards Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Though the title smacks of science fiction, it’s a simple enough concept. Rather than routing different types of data and service onto a range of dedicated networks – voice, video, transactional data and so on – NGN technology allows everything to be converged onto a single, universal network.
What will NGN technology really mean for business customers?
Fair question. After all, telecoms companies have managed perfectly well in the past with multiple networks. If you’re talking on the telephone while simultaneously accessing a database in New York from a desktop PC in Aberdeen, does it really matter that the call is carried on one system and the data on another? Should consumers really be as excited about the prospect of NGN technology as the engineers and strategists?
The truth is NGNs can deliver real benefits for us all. One of these benefits can be cost savings, as multiple networks are rationalised into single channels, generating savings in management and maintenance. And at least some of those savings should be passed through to the customer from the network providers. Industry regulator Ofcom is taking an active interest in ensuring that this is the case as BT, for example, progresses its own NGN project.
NGNs can also make a real difference in terms of reducing downtime. The benefit of the packet-switched environment is that each packet can find its way through the network in the most efficient way, avoiding areas in which there is high traffic or which have experienced a fault and are in need of repair. Referred to as ‘self-healing’, this architecture allows the network to recognise a problem and route around it automatically, meaning fewer, or potentially zero, service outages.
In an NGN, the transport layer (the connectivity component of the network) and the applications and services that run on it are treated as separate elements. The practical effect of this is that new services and applications can be quickly and easily laid on top of the network. In other words, the network is a track on which many trains can run. Changing the colour, length or speed of a particular train doesn’t require any physical change to the track. According to George Wareing, Head of Strategy and Marketing Communications, Virgin Media Business, networks based on packet-switched architecture enable much greater flexibility. “NGNs make it possible to give customers greater control of their solutions,” he says. “They’ll be able to scale the bandwidth of the services they use, monitor and control performance and enable applications remotely and seamlessly.”
This opens the door to sizing bandwidth up or down as it’s needed, perhaps as employees are added to a site or relocated to meet growth or decline in business activity. It could let you enable streaming video or other converged benefits for your workforce at the touch of a button, or to control any number of IP (Internet Protocol) CCTV cameras from a single location.
Where have I heard of this before?
In the UK, the most publicised NGN project is BT’s 21CN (21st Century Network). This will replace more than a dozen old systems with a single high-bandwidth, multi-purpose architecture based on packet-switching and fibre. BT expects to complete the project some time in 2012 and has put in a significant amount of effort, including a major marketing push to both consumer and business customers. Virgin Media Business is one of the many UK providers working with BT to ensure the smooth implementation of 21CN.
However, 21CN, once it’s up and running, will be only one of many options in the marketplace through which businesses can capitalise on packet-switched technology to provide innovative services and products.
While BT's project – and the full realisation of its benefits to business customers – is years away from completion, Virgin Media Business has invested over £13bn in building the UK's largest Next Generation Network, which is already illustrating how converged solutions can provide enhanced services to customers while maintaining affordable costs.
“We believe our customers are more interested in next generation services than the set-up of the networks themselves,” says George. “And many of our customers are benefiting from those next generation services today.” The Virgin Media Business offering has been designed with business users firmly in mind and is already enabling innovative converged solutions such as IP CCTV, IPVPNs (IP Virtual Private Networks) and IP Multimedia. A key part of these innovations is Ethernet, the technology that underpins local area networks (LANs) all over the world.
The evolution of Ethernet technology has allowed Virgin Media Business to build a national network. This Ethernet capability is intended to allow businesses to extend the network functionality they enjoy on internal LANs to remote sites. There are a number of Ethernet-based products on offer from Virgin Media Business, all operating on the same network architecture. Metro Ethernet VPN enables connections between two or more offices located in the same city. On a larger scale, National Ethernet is aimed primarily at larger organisations with operations that require a presence in more than one city. In the past, these businesses would have had to use Leased Lines to get this kind of high-bandwidth connectivity, and it would have come at a similarly expansive price. Now, because Virgin Media Business can connect them using its own Ethernet network, high-bandwidth networking is within the reach of many more businesses.
The future has landed
At the top-end of the Ethernet spectrum, a premium Wavelength product offers higher bandwidths of up to 10Gbs. This solution is particularly appropriate for organisations that deal with enormous volumes of real-time data, such as those in financial services. The product allows for a networking facility configured to the customer’s requirements. For instance, if certain members of staff move from office to office, not only can they plug in their laptops anywhere and log on, but their phone numbers can follow them around. If there is a requirement for audio/visual applications such as video streaming, bandwidth can be allocated accordingly.
So, while the route taken to providing next generation services may not be quite the same, the end product providers hope to offer is more efficient, more cost-effective networks, offering organisations and consumers an increasingly wide and flexible range of services. For customers of Virgin Media Business, the wait is over.
