Welcome to the Human Network - Light Reading

Connecting Customers with Services
Cisco ® IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN)
Carrier Ethernet Design
Welcome to the Human Network

The Connected Life
The Internet is not simply a network of computers; it is a network
of people who connect with each other when, where, and how
they want. Networking is the foundation for all of the collaboration
and co-creation that is happening online, and is the basis of a
‘Connected Life’ where empowered consumers receive many
services to many screens.
As wireline, cable, and mobile service providers strive to increase
revenue with new integrated data, voice, and video services, they
must transition from being service access providers to ‘experience
providers’ who offer compelling quadruple-play services
available anytime and anywhere. The Cisco ® IP Next-Generation
Network (NGN) enables service providers to efficiently make this
transition, and thus position themselves to deliver a Connected Life
experience to an entirely new generation of subscribers (Figure 1).

Watch shows on
demand, answer video
call on TV
Work from
home
Make wait
time productive
Competition, Convergence, and Change
The race is on to replace single-purpose networks with all-encompassing IP networks.
The benefits of an IP NGN are well understood: rapid delivery of rich multimedia services,
increased efficiency, enhanced resource management, and superior service and network
control—a complete business transformation.
IP service delivery has supercharged competition. Cable operators are offering voice over
IP (VoIP) and wireline operators are countering with video-on-demand (VoD) and IPTV
offerings. Fixed mobile convergence (FMC) is required to ensure transparent delivery of
mobile ‘follow-me’ services and revenue sharing across network boundaries. To complicate
things further, as all providers are working their own triple-play or quadruple-play strategies,
new competition is coming from non-facility operators who deliver services that will operate
over provider networks. The result is that service providers face constant pressure to
improve margins, reduce costs, and increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) with
integrated, higher-value multimedia services.
Flexible infrastructure is essential to meet these goals, but many vendor solutions require
experience providers to combine a diverse array of network elements that provide
much-needed service intelligence and monitoring capabilities. However, this approach
increases network complexity and drives up the cost of deploying services and managing a
multitude of network elements, which is at odds with the primary goal of simplifying network
operations and reducing capital costs.
Figure 1. The Connected Life Experience
Conference
face-to-face
Find Kid’s GPS
Location on TV
Conduct
Telepresence
meeting
Listen to latest tunes
Watch TV on
Train, Program
DVR for tonight
Schedule a
meeting

One Network for Residential and Business Services
Service providers that implement converged multiservice networks can anticipate cost
savings from integrated network operations. As in the past, the Cisco Carrier Ethernet
design supports a smooth integration of business and residential services over a single
architecture that allows for all business service-level agreements (SLAs) to be met. Today
this architecture has evolved to support more services, increased service flexibility, and
scalability, with carrier-class resiliency and availability.
The Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design (see Figure 3) supports all residential
quadruple-play services and the standard Layer 2 Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)
point-to-point and multipoint business services plus Layer 3 IP MPLS/Multicast VPNs
for business customers. Wholesale services are also supported for both residential and
business customers, whereby retail service providers are given interconnectivity to their
subscribers over a tunnel or VPN. In this case, the customer relationship is held with
the retail service provider but the access and aggregation network transport is provided
by the wholesale provider.
For managed services, the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design fully integrates
multiservice edge functions into the aggregation network, thus optimizing the cost and
operational effort required for business VPNs. Managed services can be Layer 2 or Layer
3 VPNs where each VPN supports access through Ethernet, DSL, and WiMAX, as well
as redundant customer premises equipment (CPE) options. Service providers can now
manage and offer business services with fully differentiated support that complies with
IETF (RFC-2475) and DSL Forum TR-101 requirements.

Optimize Quadruple-Play Services to the Home
IP customers transitioning from cable-based TV or circuit-switched voice have high
expectations of service reliability. Advanced features will not carry the market if the basics
are missing.
Edge infrastructure must accommodate complex service requirements that surpass
those for best-effort high-speed Internet services. Bundled IP triple-play services require
advanced policy management, service control, and granular quality of service (QoS) to
meet subscriber expectations. Moreover, wireline providers are beginning to implement
quadruple-play networks which support integrated IPTV video, voice, Internet access,
and mobility as a single service package. Mobile service providers prefer to deploy their
third-generation (3G) and WiMAX services, WiFi hotspots, and Hotzones over a single
scalable aggregation network that uses Carrier Ethernet for broadband wireless backhaul.
QoS, security, and resiliency requirements for these new residential services
closely approximate those of enterprise customers. Service providers need a stable
entertainment-grade network. At the network edge they must have a sturdy, flexible,
adaptable platform that can be easily extended across the network to successfully support
bundled residential services. Figure 2 shows how the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet
solution provides flexible integration of quadruple-play services.
Figure 2. The Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet solution provides
flexible integration of Quad-Play services.

The Cisco ® IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design
Transform Consumer and Business Services…
The IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design (Figure 3) uses key elements of the Cisco IP NGN
architecture to enable a best-in-class implementation for Carrier Ethernet. It is the end-to-end
transport layer from access, to edge aggregation, to intelligent services edge, to the
IP/MPLS core. This design incorporates the Service Exchange Framework (SEF) network layer
components and provides a flexible, scalable, and reliable network model to meet current and
future network service requirements.
One of the key principles of the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design is that multiple Layer 2-3
network technologies are used to provide optimal flexibility for current and next-generation
service offerings. These technologies and protocols include native Ethernet Virtual LAN (IEEE
802.1q), IEEE 802.1ad, Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS), Layer 3 Protocol Independent Multicast
(PIM) with Source Specific Multicast (SSM), MPLS VPN, and Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN
Service (H-VPLS). This allows service providers to support a broad range of applications while
minimizing the capital and operating expenses associated with the network infrastructure.
The IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design is the most scalable approach to delivering residential
IPTV because it uses standards-based IP multicast (PIM) to deliver broadcast video to the
edge of the network. This Layer 3 PIM-SSM to the edge design optimizes network bandwidth,
and is more reliable than alternative H-VPLS broadcast approaches, which have suboptimal
routing and bandwidth inefficiencies. In addition, PIM is the only multicast protocol that has
been proven to operate reliably on a large scale, and in particular, Cisco’s PIM implementation
has been optimized for IPTV and provides the fast routing convergence and rapid channel
change capabilities expected by business and consumer video service subscribers.
InfoVision Award
Winner 2006
Network Intelligence and Innovation
Frost & Sullivan Award
Winner 2007
Carrier Ethernet Marketplace

With Flexible and Scalable Provisioning…
The IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design provides a platform-independent architecture as well as a
common command-line interface (CLI) and Ethernet-based services model across all Carrier
Ethernet platforms. This allows for increased service flexibility and scalability across the network
whereby multiple point-to-point and multipoint Layer 2-3 service types can be provisioned over
the same physical port. Because VLANs have only port significance, scaling the number of service
instances beyond the traditional 4000 limit on a device or network is no longer a problem. This new
flexible provisioning also gives service providers a variety of VLAN translation mappings that help
to uniquely track and scale services for their customers. Scalability of the aggregation network is
augmented by new 20 Gigabit line cards that support enhanced queuing, high availability, and
Hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS) functionality.
… combined with Standards-Based OAM
The IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design also achieves carrier-class resiliency and troubleshooting
requirements. Standards-based OAM end-to-end across the access, aggregation, and
distribution components allow service providers to manage Ethernet connectivity all the way
to the customer premises. This includes IEEE 802.1ag for service verification, IEEE 802.3ah for
link-layer troubleshooting, and MEF E-LMI for service status and auto provisioning of customer
equipment. Cisco is unique in its ability to deliver Ethernet OAM all the way to the customer
premises and to link the access CPE to the intelligent Carrier Ethernet infrastructure.
The IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design is a highly available solution that supports sub-second
multicast convergence and link restoration across the end-to-end network. Using Fast Reroute
(FRR) for the aggregation and distribution EoMPLS tunnels, 50 millisecond (ms) restoration can
be achieved for link restoration. In the event of a node failure, recovery will also occur in less
than one second. Overall, the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design leads the industry in both
scalability and resilience.
Figure 3. Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet Design

Digital Video and the New IPTV Frontier
The Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design
supports numerous features for advanced video
service delivery by using state-of-the-art
multicast techniques. With this design, an IP
NGN can also manage oversubscription while
incorporating major innovations that enhance
the subscriber experience with IPTV.
Innovating to Preserve the Visual Experience
Video service delivery can be enhanced by employing Layer 3
intelligence in the aggregation network . As part of the Cisco IP NGN
Carrier Ethernet design, the Cisco 7600 Series Routers support
Cisco Visual Quality Experience (VQE) technology, a combination of
innovations that resolve many perplexing challenges to successful
IPTV delivery. Initially available as a network appliance with
functionality that integrates into the Cisco 7600 Series, the Cisco
VQE allows wireline providers to match baseline performance
expectations for picture quality and channel-change times that
are inherently difficult to achieve on copper-based transport while
maintaining the overall viewing experience.

Cisco VQE offers service providers the following benefits:
Video Error Repair
Cisco VQE enables providers to precondition DSL lines for advanced video services
such as IPTV by detecting and repairing packet loss on degraded copper lines. With
this technology, a set-top box (STB) detecting packet loss, requests a retransmission
while holding the video sequence in queue. The Cisco VQE technology automatically
repairs the error by transmitting the missing packet, which is re-sequenced by the STB
without interruption. The entire error repair cycle takes place in less than 100 ms, and is
imperceptible to the viewer.
Rapid Channel Change
A transparent channel-change experience is a critical determinant of the subscriber’s
visual experience. Cisco VQE standard-based fast channel-change technology
reduces channel-change times from several seconds to less than 1 second by initiating
video streams in less than 100 ms after a request is made. This technology works in
conjunction with STBs to detect and accelerate channel-change requests. The result is
totally transparent to the viewer, who sees an uninterrupted channel change followed by
successive video motion.
Video Connection Admission Control (CAC)
Occasional peaks in traffic usage can dramatically affect video quality. A single incremental
access request for high-demand broadcast channels or VoD, if permitted, can disrupt
the viewing experience for that entire community of viewers because network bandwidth
becomes oversubscribed. Comprehensive and reliable admission control can help
preserve the viewing experience for all subscribers.
By employing in-path utilization analysis that quickly and accurately tracks network
bandwidth, Cisco Video CAC prevents initiation of a request when it is determined that the
network lacks the capacity to carry the video stream to a subscriber. Subscriber notification
is provided to gracefully delay a service request, and simultaneously preserve the visual
experience for all other subscribers. A complementary off-path process prevents a video
on-demand stream from being sent if the access link to the subscriber lacks the capacity
to carry the stream. In this approach, the VoD server communicates with the Cisco BPM
(policy server), which keeps track of the subscriber access links.
Video Quality-Monitoring Module
The Cisco Network Analysis Module monitors video streams in real time and sends
proactive alerts to providers if picture quality is degraded, enabling them to determine the
cause of the degradation and correct it before call centers are overwhelmed.
Employing Layer 3 in the video distribution network takes advantage of Protocol
Independent Multicast (PIM) with Source Specific Multicast (SSM) and Interior Gateway
Protocol (IGP) enhancements that enable fast network-level convergence for greater
network efficiency and scale. More importantly, these Layer 3 fast convergence techniques
provide consistent subsecond network and application recovery for all failure modes,
further ensuring the visual experience for video subscribers.

Enhancing the
User Experience...

Industry’s First Subscriber- and
Application-Driven Solution
The close coupling of subscriber-aware and application-aware functions enabled by the
Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) and Cisco Service Control Engine (SCE) allows
service providers to dramatically enhance the quality of experience for triple-play services.
Traditional subscriber management systems can enhance the user experience through
pull-based techniques such as parental control, self-care, or turbo-buttons that accelerate
performance for a specific application in a specific timeframe based on a subscriber
request. The integration of the Cisco ISG and Cisco SCE enables new push-based network
features that are application-driven, allowing subscribers to select an application or set of
applications for automatic prioritization based on individual needs and preferences.
Personalized Subscriber Management
As service providers transform into experience providers, they must sufficiently control
network access in order to identify, in real time, subscribers and the services they use. To
do this requires a clear understanding of who subscribers are, what services they are using,
and what policies govern each account.
Cisco Service Control Engine (SCE)
This carrier-grade network element inspects packets within each traffic flow, making the
network application-aware and subscriber-aware. The Cisco SCE communicates with a policy
manager to differentiate between different types of traffic, prioritizes traffic flows, and thereby
optimizes the network to meet specific Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG)
This function, available in intelligent edge routers such as the Cisco 7600 and 10000 Series
platforms, automatically detects when users are accessing the network and determines
both the type of services each user wishes to access and the type of device that is being
used. The Cisco ISG has the intelligence to manage access for both IMS and other
non-SIP-based services, by many different types of devices.
Capabilities such as multidimensional identity simplify authentication, permitting
sign-on from any access point to a multitude of services. Subscriber profiles become
extensible based upon usage, enabling high-quality, tailored service delivery. Integrated
local policy management allows service providers to dynamically apply QoS on a
per-subscriber basis. By locally administering policy for well-defined services, the
Cisco 7600 and 10000 Series platforms empower experience providers to dynamically
personalize services and address subscriber-specific preferences that can enhance
overall application performance.
Policy Management
Cisco policy management uses intelligence in the edge routers for automatic detection when
users access the network and allows for the option of using authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA) servers for operational duties. Cisco allows the network or a centralized policy
management system to detect policy triggers or make policy decisions.

Optimized Mobility

Mobile wireless networks are poised to become a primary vehicle for a wide
variety of communications applications. Data is becoming a major force
behind the mobile operators’ efforts to significantly increase ARPU. Service
providers are focusing on building a network that is capable of delivering
a host of real-time multimedia applications in addition to supporting
business-class data application and services.
Extending the capabilities of the Cisco Service Exchange Framework, the Cisco IP NGN
Carrier Ethernet design supports service access control, deep packet inspection, Mobile
IP, security, and packet gateways for each of the major radio technologies. Packet gateway
options include the Cisco Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) for Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA), Cisco Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) for Global System for Mobile
Communications/Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (GSM/UMTS), and IP
Transfer Point (ITP) for offloading SS7 signaling onto IP networks. Cisco is also a leader in
the development of IEEE 802.x technology to support public wireless LAN installations and
Wi-Fi municipal mesh deployments in the unlicensed bands. The latter is an exciting new
area that promises very high data rates in metropolitan areas using unlicensed spectrum.
The next-generation mobile networks will make extensive use of both licensed and
unlicensed wireless technologies. Unlicensed radio technologies provide very high
performance over a limited area, whereas licensed radio technologies provide ubiquitous
connectivity across the wide area but offer less performance than is generally available from
an unlicensed service. Mobile IP is the glue that can bind them together into a transparent
service offering.
Metropolitan Wi-Fi Mesh Networking
The Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design is unique in its industry-leading ability to
converge services over Ethernet, including metropolitan Wi-Fi mesh networking. The
Wireless Services Module (WiSM), which is integrated into the Cisco 7600 Series, offers
integrated Wi-Fi access-point aggregation, enabling providers to scale and manage
metropolitan Wi-Fi mesh networks. The WiSM supports Lightweight Access Point
Protocol (LWAPP) while providing extensive integrated security capabilities such as Wi-Fi
Protected Access (WPA2) and various types of the Extensible Authentication Protocol
(EAP), including Protected EAP (PEAP).
The module also improves wireless security through rogue access-point detection and
containment and by supporting a wireless intrusion prevention system (IPS) to provide
consistent security-policy enforcement across the entire fixed and wireless network.
Providers can use the WiSM to enable convergence of Wi-Fi, mobile (IP Radio Access
Network, PDSN, and GGSN), and fixed (Layer 2 and 3) networks for flexible advanced
service aggregation.
PDSN and GGSN Integration
The PDSN and GGSN packet gateway options allow service providers to reduce the costs
associated with deploying and operating mobile wireless networks by consolidating
the switched systems required to converge applications across multiple transport
technologies (SONET, time-division multiplexing [TDM], ATM, etc.) to a single Ethernet and
IP/MPLS network This integration allows providers to use lower-cost alternative access
technologies such as broadband Ethernet, DSL, and IP wireless radio based on the best
available cost on a market-by-market basis.
Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design supports integration with PDSN and GGSN
networks, enabling providers to further reduce costs by using IP networks to backhaul
wireline and mobile traffic, avoiding the need to build out additional capacity of costly
TDM networks.

Figure 4. The Cisco IP NGN Carrier
Ethernet Design Product Portfolio
Ethernet and IP/MPLS
Cisco
12000/XR 12000
Cisco 10000
Cisco Catalyst
3750 Metro
Cisco Integrated
Services Router
Cisco
Catalyst 4500
Cisco
Catalyst 6500
Cisco CRS-1
Cisco 7600
Cisco 7200/7300
Cisco ME 3400
Cisco ME 4924
Cisco ME 6524
Ethernet/SONET/SDH
Ethernet/DWDM
Cisco ONS 15600
Cisco ONS 15454
Cisco ONS 15300

Welcome to the Human Network...
Realizing the Promise of the IP NGN
The potential of the Internet is being fulfilled by more than the physical network alone.
Today, it is about the power of the human network where end users are creating
collaborative Websites, mixing content, and deciding how companies will interact with them.
Today’s consumers demand a unified, personalized, high-performance experience for data,
voice, and video services at home, at work, and on the move—and the Cisco IP NGN is the
fundamental platform that enables these rich Connected Life experiences.
This means service providers can now apply Cisco IP NGN and partner technologies
to blend and integrate data, voice, and video services to create unique ‘connected
experiences’ for their residential and business consumers, and in doing so, transform from
being a service provider to an experience provider.
With the Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design, residential and business consumers are
able to personalize and define their connected lives using the next-generation services that
experience providers deliver. With ubiquitous mobility for home- and office-based services,
consumers are never out of touch with friends, family, or business associates; nor are they
ever disconnected from their business networks and tools or unable to view and listen to
their preferred entertainment. This is the Connected Life delivered by experience providers
and enabled by Cisco IP NGN technologies and solutions.
Figure 5. Experiences on the Human Network
Integrated service delivery requires a network infrastructure that can converge functions
and decrease costs so that providers can successfully—and profitably—deliver on the
promise of quadruple-play services. The Cisco IP NGN Carrier Ethernet design offers
service providers the most extensive set of configurable options to meet evolving needs
while enabling unsurpassed cost savings.
An end-to-end Cisco IP NGN extends from the Cisco 7600 Series at the edge to the Cisco
CRS-1 Carrier Routing System at the network core. Scalable end-to-end multicast, QoS,
management of network oversubscription, and Layer 2 and Layer 3 flexibility with Ethernet
OAM all work together to form a cohesive solution that delivers service intelligence and
unsurpassed performance.

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