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By Rudain Arafeh
November, 2003
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ATM networks today get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield, saddled as they are with the reputation of being inordinately expensive and all but obsolete in the IP era.
But ATM can be the architecture of choice for a variety of situations, particularly when a network must serve locations that are oceans apart geographically.
Case in point: Far-flung Finisar Corp. recently replaced an IP VPN with an ATM WAN to carry data, video and voice to the company's six domestic and four international
locations. The decision was made by weighing performance needs against cost, with the aid of San Jose-based channel partner Configure Inc.
Finisar manufactures Gigabit Ethernet fiber-optic solutions and test/monitoring systems for high-speed data networks, along with performance tools. The company focuses
on gigE local area networks, Fibre Channel storage area networks and MANs.
In 1999, when Finisar had no overseas facilities, the company built an IP VPN to link some 700 employees in multiple offices in the United States to the firm's internal
systems: an Agile Software Corp. enterprise resource planning system, Oracle Corp. database and Microsoft Exchange e-mail server. Since then, ongoing business growth and
the addition of overseas research/development and manufacturing facilities have driven the number of WAN users to 1,700. In tandem, the company has added Datasweep Inc.'s
Advantage plant management application to the data traffic.
Finisar long ago told Configure the IP infrastructure cracked under the pressures of the company's global expansion and efforts to add video conferencing to the original
data-carrying function. The company needed something to replace the VPN for most long-distance communications. Under network planning guidance from Configure, a neutral
network solution provider, an ATM network now connects LANs serving users in the United States and in Munich, Shanghai, Singapore and Malaysia.
THE TROUBLE WITH IP
Finisar's initial IP VPN implementation in 1999 was a quick fix for rapid growth. The company had mushroomed from 200 employees to 700 employees in a year's time, and
personnel inside and outside Finisar's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., needed easy access to enterprise data. A new IT director was hired, and he was an expert on IP
VPNs. Given the ubiquity of IP networks, it seemed a logical choice.
The first sign of trouble came when Finisar opened a manufacturing facility in Malaysia and turned to video conferencing to iron out the many issues that arose in launching
the new operation. Because of periodic Internet congestion, the virtual meetings were plagued by such severe latency and packet loss problems that video communication had to
be abandoned to the detriment of smooth information exchange.
As the Malaysia site went live and other overseas locations were added, the problems also began to affect data communications. Delays of 450ms to 900ms in overseas
transmissions were common because of fluctuations in Internet traffic, and packet loss hit an estimated 5 percent. This caused connections to fail regularly during batch
updates between the United States and international facilities, and it derailed attempts at audio conferencing because signal quality varied widely from one minute to the next.
The VPN costs only $25,000 a month for connection fees and local loop charges, but the combination of the constant troubleshooting, frequent downtime and inability to either
audio or video conference made the network all but useless at any price, Finisar concluded. To make matters worse, it was problematic to maintain the IP network at international
sites because responsibilities were divided among different telecom providers.
OPTING FOR ATM
By 2001, Gabriella McGann had joined Finisar as telecom manager, and one of her first responsibilities was to find a WAN alternative that could accommodate video, voice and
data. She began by making preliminary inquiries with AT&T Corp. However, the carrier referred her to Configure, one of 15 designated AT&T solution providers in the country.
Configure performed a thorough analysis of Finisar's situation, and agreed with the company's conclusion that the IP VPN was unsuitable for Finisar's needs.
After weighing the alternatives, Configure recommended an ATM network as the best fit. Private line was ruled out because the cost would be 40 percent to 50 percent greater
than an ATM solution. Frame relay had a smaller but still significant cost disadvantage because of the particular multinational network configuration required. On a performance
level, frame could not support Finisar's large volume of traffic, and lacked the ability to prioritize data, video or voice packets to ensure end user satisfaction.
"We had no internal expertise in this area, and having an outside consultant like Configure assured me that I was getting the right solution and not just a sales pitch," McGann
says. She accepted Configure's ATM recommendation and network design work-up, attracted by the fact that AT&T would be able to serve all Finisar locations worldwide. Then she
authorized the firm to negotiate pricing and service level agreements with AT&T.
Meanwhile, armed with AT&T's offer, McGann did her own comparison- shopping with other carriers. McGann says the research supported Configure's recommendations, and sealed
the deal with AT&T. McGann then assigned Configure to coordinate the installation at all locations.
LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES
The company and the consultant faced two major challenges in deploying the new WAN. On the company side, Finisar had to upgrade its network equipment to ensure its switches
and routers would support the ATM architecture. For its part, Configure had to manage the tricky task of juggling the schedules of the AT&T technicians and the Finisar network
engineer who installed the hardware and performed test and turn-up duties at each site. Scheduling the international facilities was a particular headache.
While 30-day lead times are the norm for circuit installations in the United States, Configure discovered overseas carriers schedule their work 90 days to 120 days ahead and
rarely are able to give firm live dates. If Configure inadvertently put the Finisar network engineer on a plane before the circuits were ready, his valuable time would be wasted;
if the engineer did not arrive shortly after the AT&T technicians, the deployment would be unnecessarily delayed. Making the schedules mesh required constant oversight.
ALL SYSTEMS GO
Finisar's Sunnyvale headquarters went live with the ATM WAN soon after the office's second DS3 circuit was installed in June 2002. Other company facilities joined the network
one by one until the final piece was put in place in Shanghai, in April of this year.
With the switch to ATM technology, the unacceptable experience the company had with the IP VPN became a thing of the past. The transmission delays and packet loss, the
application failures and video conferencing problems are gone. Packet throughput is now a near perfect 99.99 percent, and delays have been slashed to less than 70ms domestically
and 250ms internationally - well under the VPN's painful 900ms hiccups, and well within the guidelines established by the AT&T service level agreements.
The only network downtime to date has been due to a power outage in Malaysia that was out of Finisar's control. Most importantly, the video conferencing is functioning without a
hitch. "The acid test on video conferencing came last year when our CTO was at our Germany site," McGann says. "He had a five-hour video board meeting with key people in Sunnyvale,
and they never lost their connection."
The built-in quality of service capabilities of ATM technology permit packet prioritization for optimum service, and simplify network troubleshooting because AT&T now acts as
the single point of contact in the event of a problem. AT&T can troubleshoot the connection from end to end, including the local loop in the foreign country, where the vast
majority of glitches occur.
THE TRADE-OFF
The benefits come at a price. Direct network costs have climbed to about $75,000 a month - triple the price of the VPN. However, ATM offers significantly more bandwidth and the
ability to support additional locations. The leap in reliability, uptime and communication efficiency enabled by video conferencing also weigh in. The improved reliability is
particularly important in Finisar's manufacturing locations, where any disruption in network service can have serious repercussions on the production line.
The higher fees also are offset by the significant decrease in IT staff time dedicated to network crises, the elimination of firewalls and other security measures required on
the public network. Finisar also expects 60 percent savings on long-distance fees when the WAN's voice functionality is activated later this year.
"Spending close to $1 million a year on our WAN is hard to swallow, but our executives recognize that this is a necessary cost of doing business, and having a neutral third-party
source like Configure do the evaluation gave us the confidence that we were choosing the right technology for our purposes," McGann says. "We didn't have the expertise inhouse to
make the decision or design the network, and outsourcing the implementation process took a lot of burden off our staff. When you consider the cost of a bad design or a bad network,
it's a bargain at half the price."
Rudain Arafeh is CEO of Configure Inc., a network consultancy headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in Chicago and Austin, Texas. The firm handles network design,
implementation and optimization ranging from simple LAN configurations to complex international WANs. For questions and comments, please contact us.
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