Architectures for Broadband Residential IP Services Over CATV Networks Enrique J
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12 Architectures for Broadband Residential IP Services Over CATV Networks Enrique J. Hernandez-Valencia, Bell Laboratories, USA Abstract The current state of the art in digital broadband access technologies to support emerging telecommunications services makes imminent the introduction of interac- tive broadband services — including data, video and the Internet — into the resi- dential market. Over the last few years, much attention has been paid to the development of media access control protocols for cable TV networks that will allow the immediate support of broadband data services as the first step toward enhanced communications services for residential users. Here we review some of the architectural options that must be carefully considered in order to deliver IP ser- vices to such users in an efficient yet flexible manner. uture residential cable data services are expected to • Support for data forwarding/routing services, including IP deliver Internet access, work-at-home applications, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and the Internet Con- small business access, local area network LAN-LAN trol Message Protocol (ICMP) interconnect, and LAN emulation services over cable • Host address configuration TV (CATV) networks. These services are anticipated as a • Subscription FFnatural extension to the residential consumer market of the • Security data networking capabilities in the business sector today [1]. In addition, any proposed access architecture for broad- Although related residential Internet Protocol (IP) services band residential data services will be expected to support are already being trialed in the marketplace, substantive existing IP services such as the Dynamic Host Configuration standardization efforts in this area did not materialize until Protocol [6], Domain Name System [8], IP Multicasting and quite recently. So far, the reference service model for such Internet Group Management Protocol [9], Resource Reserva- data services has been loosely fashioned from an initial tion Protocol [10], Integrated Services [11], and IP Security request for proposals (RFP) by Cable Labs [2]. Over the last [12], without much (if any) modification. couple of years the IEEE Project 802.14 Working Group has High-level system architectures for residential data services been developing a set of specifications for physical and data over CATV plants are depicted in Figs. 1a and 1b. On the link layer protocols [3, 4], including ADAPt+ [5], which will customer premises side, a cable data modem (CM) with either be applicable to supporting data service over cable networks an Ethernet or any other suitable PC interface provides the and other broadband access infrastructures [6]. More recent- access interface to the CATV network. The CM connects the ly, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has created customer premises equipment to the standard CATV radio the IP over Cable Data Networks (IPCDN) Working Group frequency (RF) coax drop cable. On the carrier’s headend, to address data service architectural issues similar, if not (HE) the cable modem data termination system (CMTS) ter- identical, to those applying to the initial Cable Lab’s propos- minates the CATV RF link and implements the data link al. In order to ensure interoperability among vendors, a layer protocols in support of residential service. Given the common data service framework that clearly specifies how broadcast characteristics of the RF link, multiple residential IP-based services could be implemented over CATV and customers, and hence potentially many home-based LANs, other similar access networks will be required. This service will be serviced from the same CMTS interface. specification would be expected to identify required hard- The asymmetric nature of the CATV network, in terms of ware/software components, signaling interfaces between both access network topology and link rates, places special them, and IP transport/routing services over the access net- constraints on conventional point-to-point IP access models. work, as well as network provisioning, configuration, and Particularly for the so-called one-way CATV plant in Fig. 1a, management. Among the data networking issues, special the CATV access network would only deliver one-way (down- attention should be paid to: stream) data transport services from the HE equipment in the • Configuration of the physical and logical (IP) subnetworks cable data network (CDN) to the subscriber’s home LAN. In 36 0890-8044/97/$10.00 © 1997 IEEE IEEE Network • January/February 1997 Corp. Corporate CMTS HE router intranet such a scenario, a public switched telephone net- PC router work (PSTN) link could be used to transport any IP (upstream) traffic from the subscriber to the CDN CM service service provider. (Obviously, other residential access PC provider technologies may be used in place of the PSTN.) network From the CDN service provider viewpoint, it is POP NAP imperative that in this scenario most of the sub- PSTN NAS router Internet scriber’s downstream traffic is in fact relayed to the home LAN over the CATV access network, rather than the PSTN link (some two-way traffic may be (a) CDN over 1-way plant required for connection initialization and control purposes). Additionally, as an enhanced service for Corp. Corporate one-way CATV plants, it may also be envisioned NAS intranet that the two-way PSTN link could be used as a PC router CDN’s access backup in the event of a CATV plant IP failure. In any event, it is further envisioned that the CM service PC HE provider initial cable data service should be able not only to CMTS router network reuse exiting Internet technology, but also to pro- vide a simple migration path to a two-way CATV NAP Internet infrastructure. (b) CDN over 2-way plant The traditional point-to-point dial-up access service model can more readily be adapted to the two-way ■ CATV plant scenario. The main architectural differ- Figure 1. a) A cable data network (CDN) over one-way plant; b) a CDN ence from the conventional dial-up service is in the over two-way plant. broadcast nature of the downstream RF link. Although the potential lack of privacy has never been of much concern when surfing the Internet, it is certainly troublesome and secure data traffic to corporate Intranets. We will explore when access to a company’s private database is desired or some of these issues below. when providing commercial transaction services over the Internet. Privacy has not been a showstopper with plain old telephone service (POTS) or integrated services digital net- Generic IP Access Model work (ISDN) access to private networks since the link from he generic access model envisions IP services over CATV the subscriber home to the corporate Intranet is over a dedi- T networks as a one-to-one high-speed replacement of con- cated circuit. For the existing CATV networks, enhanced data ventional IP dial-up services. For the two-way cable plant encryption capabilities will be required at either the media depicted in Fig. 2a that would certainly be the case, except for access control (MAC) layer or higher layers (e.g., IP). For the i) traffic filtering capabilities at the CMTS to eliminate broad- one-way CATV plant, however, in order to provide such an casting messages over all RF interfaces (this is certainly not a extra level of privacy, a mechanism is also required to identify requirement, but it is highly desirable; otherwise, there could which cable modems are attached to a given RF link. (This be significant throughput degradation), and ii) the potential information would not be self-evident to the CMTS because the support of data encryption at the MAC layer for improved upstream traffic from the CMs will go to the homing CMTS data confidentiality. We will discuss security considerations over an interface other than the RF link.) later in this article. The next generation of IP (IPv6) is already being rolled In a one-way cable plant, however, the point of presence out. An even more ambitious goal would be that the same (POP) of the network access server (NAS, i.e., terminal server broadband residential service architecture could be equally and related logical link control functions) controlling access to applicable to networks based on the current version of IP the networking facilities of an IP service provider (ISP) need (IPv4) and to IPv6 networks. However, since the IP service not be collocated with the HE equipment controlling access to models are somewhat different, it is natural to expect that the CATV network. If only one IP address were given to a their corresponding service framework over CDNs may also CM to support this service, an architectural choice must be differ. Most of the discussion below is geared toward IPv4 res- made between placing the home LAN under the NAS’ IP sub- idential services. Notice, too, that any IP service model over network or the HE/CMTS’s IP subnetwork. Obviously, the one type of CATV plant, say hybrid fiber coax (HFC) access choice would determine the path taken to forward data traffic networks, will share significant commonality with other asym- to the home LAN. metric access infrastructures. Therefore, it can also be antici- pated that the same service framework will be equally Cable Modem in the NAS Subnetwork applicable to residential access technologies such as asymmet- In this model, traffic to the home LAN would be forwarded ric digital subscriber link (ADSL), passive optical networks first to the homing NAS in the ISP network. Since the CATV (PONs), wireless networks, and satellite networks. Similarly, it network is the desired last hop to the home LAN, down- can also be envisioned that the PSTN fallback mode would stream traffic would need to be redirected to the CMTS on make use of IP encapsulation and routing techniques akin to the carrier’s HE. Thus, some additional functionality would be those under Mobile IP [13, 14].