NC1801

OPINION
TESTING MORE
WITH LESS
AS THE NUMBER OF IP
CONNECTIONS AND THEIR
DEPENDENCE ON PoE GROWS,
SO TO DOES NETWORK
COMPLEXITY. DANIEL KLIMKE,
SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER AT
NETSCOUT OUTLINES THE
CHALLENGE
Service delivery is a crucial business
enabler. Yet, as the Internet of Things
(IoT) grows rapidly, touching nearly
every point in our lives, the ability to test and
maintain the ever increasing cohort of wired
and wireless endpoints becomes a daunting
task on which service delivery depends.
Compounded by a shortage of skilled staff, it
is a mounting challenge. Reducing Mean-
Time-to-Knowledge and Mean-Time-to-
Resolution are important objectives -
reducing the impact of network problems on
service delivery and assuring the availability
of IP network elements is paramount.
As digital transformation takes hold it
creates network complexity. As more and
more things are connected, the reliance on
not only data but also power from the
network to support connected devices grows,
especially when the efficiency gains promised
by IoT are the goal. With the increased
demand on access networks and support
resources, cooperation between IT,
Operational Technology (OT), and other
technologies is crucial.
While certain devices with technologies like
ZigBee or Bluetooth 5 can be connected via
a field gateway to a pre-existing Ethernet
network, for the majority of the time, IoT
devices will be connected via 802.3 Ethernet
or 802.11ac Wireless LANs. With researchers
estimating that there will be 30 billion IoT
devices worldwide by 2020, there are
nowhere near enough engineers in the world
to monitor, troubleshoot and maintain each
and every device.
CHALLENGES ARISE
If a single device fails it will break down the
carefully orchestrated function chain, and the
difficulty in divining which device is causing
the malfunction can become a huge ordeal.
As service delivery relies on the operation of
these connected devices, the capability to see
which individual device is not performing
within a complex infrastructure and reducing
its impact on service delivery, has now
become one of the greatest challenges in the
modern IP connected organisation. The sheer
number of endpoints and the operational
challenge for those in charge of maintenance
is not helped by the fact that staff numbers
have remained the same or even been
reduced, and the availability of skilled
technicians has become an issue.
In digital-first organisations virtually all
capital equipment assets are now network
connected, and with the enterprise-wide
distribution of connected sensors and
controls, that means that many of them will
require Power over Ethernet (PoE) for their
operation. This creates a new and sometimes
complex need for the ability to measure
power throughput for such connections.
Instrumentation that can measure PoE under
load at the connection point and compare
requested and received power is now an
essential part of the network engineer's
capability, especially for those sent to
troubleshoot IoT.
The challenging combination of a growing
estate of connected devices and limited staff
to undertake installation and maintenance
means that automation of the testing,
maintenance and troubleshooting of
modern IP networks will prove to be
essential. Reporting on test results and
documentation of connections between
jack, slot, port or VLAN simply has to be
automated in the interest of time, accuracy
and collaboration. With an increasingly
digital world fast approaching, it's only
going to get more complicated.
THE DIGITAL ENTERPRISE DRIVEN BY IOT
The adoption and development of IoT-based
solutions continues to grow. Smart devices
will become more important and the need for
reliable PoE connections is essential. To
support this new IP-connected society, the
right tools and solutions must be available so
that networking professionals can deliver. The
ability to be platform agnostic and reduce
unhelpful finger pointing drives cost down
and boosts efficiency. Smart, multifunction,
flexible tools are the way to achieve this, and
they will replace the engineers multiple and
disparate toolset. NC
24 NETWORKcomputing JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 @NCMagAndAwards
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