by Peter J. Brown
The satellite industry is looking for new opportunities while trying to keep up with the demand for more services. A steady proliferation of robust fixed, portable and mobile terminals, and the ongoing attempts by network operators and service providers to squeeze as much revenue as possible out of every link on the network are two of the elements impacting on network management systems (NMS).
Convergence is ongoing, and as enormous amounts of voice, video and data traffic flow seamlessly over hybrid networks, the NMS has to respond quickly, and grow with each new addition to the network at hand. Responsiveness, adaptability and agility matter when it comes to NMS. With more and more 802.11 wireless links in the mix in particular, the complexity of the networking environment as a whole is steadily increasing at the same time.
"The satellite network operator has to have his eye on advances in network management for any communications network," says Mark Krikorian, chief operating officer at Atlanta- based ILC Corp.--formerly Industrial Logic.
"Customers want to minimize operational costs, minimize operator intervention, increase efficiency, and increase reliability, which can only be found by utilizing specialized components and remote-capable systems," says Dewayne Gray, president of Plano, TX-based M&C Systems.
In the background, a lot is unfolding quickly with respect to digital video compression, and Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), to name just two areas that could have a tremendous impact on NMS in the not too distant future.
How to best handle HDTV from the standpoint of video compression is definitely a network management issue, for DBS providers and TV networks alike. A new video compression standard is about to be approved. It is known as H.26L, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 10, AVC (Advanced Video Compression or Advanced Video Coding), and even JVT after the Joint Video Team, which is nearing completion of its work.
"Whatever the name, everyone agrees that the H.264 compression algorithm offers video quality equivalent to MPEG-2 at one half to one third the bandwidth," says Rob Robinett, CEO of Modulus Video Corp." Satellite broadcasters know they need it, but not when."
As for MPLS, it has already been implemented on the ground, and now satellite network engineers and designers are scrutinizing it as well for a variety of reasons.
The word "IP switch" is sometimes used to describe MPLS switching because MPLS enables IP routing protocols to be used on Layer 2 switches, making the Layer 2 switch (ATM or Frame Relay) an IP switch, according to Dr. Tolga Ors, principal network/systems engineer at Intelsat. He serves as rapporteur for a group probing satellite and terrestrial interoperability at the ITU, which is in the process of standardizing MPLS, among other things. See http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com13/index.asp
"It is not a big challenge any more to ensure the interoperability of satellite and terrestrial networks, but it is a challenge to do it efficiently," says Dr. Ors. "This efficiency is from a bandwidth and application performance point of view. ATM signaling, for example, is very heavy so using it for IP/ATM over satellite generates a lot of overhead. Standard MPLS signaling on the other hand is 'light'."
"From a traffic engineering standpoint, MPLS could have a major impact. It is becoming increasingly apparent that satellite networks cannot exist in isolation," says Dr. Catherine Rosenberg, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "I think MPLS over satellite is a very good idea. If you want to migrate ATM over satellite to something with an MPLS flavor, this can be implemented quickly."
She suggests that a lot of convergence between ATM and MPLS is taking place in terrestrial networks, and the same could be happening in satellite networks without much fanfare.
"An ATM-based satellite network architecture could be transformed relatively easily into an MPLS architecture," she says.
In a moment, we will visit a company that is implementing MPLS over satellite.
Seeking Power Across Boundaries
While the market for satellite NMS is not immune to the tough times that have descended on much of the rest of the satellite industry, this sector is not stuck in neutral. As far as sales are concerned, the curve has flattened considerably. However, some companies have suffered more setbacks than others have over the past 18 months.
Is the NMS sector seeing as many new large-scale start-ups today as it did a few years ago? There are numerous projects underway, but many involve expansions and network upgrades.
"The point you make is true. New start-up projects do not seem to be publicized much at all these days," says Krikorian. "That is why we are happy to be an exception. We have had 100 percent growth in 2002, with 14 new projects representing over 85 per cent of our revenue."
By the way, Crystal Computer Corp. and ILC have gone their separate ways after an attempted combination, which we reported on last year.
NBC is tapping ILC for backhaul management. MaxView will be used to simplify link scheduling to NBC affiliates, and to streamline data feeds.
"We can coordinate any number of remote sites, and then overlay a scheduling system on top of the NMS," says Krikorian, who adds that by combining subsystems, broadcasters can enjoy the added advantages of MaxView such as event correlation across technologies, and precise transmission plan scheduling.
At Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, for example, the expansion of its MaxView NMS will now include monitor and control of all the digital transmitter sites throughout the state. The project began with the M & C of the satellite uplink facility, and then expanded later to include distance learning equipment.
"This latest expansion further illustrates MaxView's versatility in managing virtually any type of network equipment. It allows broadcasters to bring transmitter sites into the same system with the other components they want to manage," says Krikorian.
Telmex has embraced the MaxView Dominion in order to manage its data, long distance and switching networks. The project is part of a broad Telecommunications Management Network initiative to provide fault management, provisioning, performance management and security management.
"The Telmex project does not include satellite. However, the relevant point here is that they are using MaxView, the same exact product as our satellite customers, to manage equipment through other network management systems," says Krikorian.
"This speaks to a trend that has just begun--satellite network managers cannot afford to seek solutions that are targeted purely to satellite networks because truly universal network management systems will answer the needs of telecom, cable, wireless and satellite networks. Its power is transferable across sector boundaries," he adds.
ILC will provide a turnkey Manager of Managers for Telmex with regional network operation centers located throughout Mexico. The Manager of Managers will attach to various element managers, and perform fault management, configuration management, performance management and security management, according to Krikorian.
"The distributed architecture of the Dominion product will be used to reduce network bandwidth utilization, and permit the system to be scaled as the network continues to grow," he says, adding that with Dominion, all sorts of equipment using a range of standard--SNMP, Q3, CORBA--and non-standard or proprietary TCP/IP, serial and discrete interfaces can be managed.
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