Volume IX, Issue 1 Logistics Solutions for Telecom Professionals

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© Copyright 2015 Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. FUJITSU (and design)® and “shaping tomorrow with you” are trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries. All Rights Reserved. 2 In This Issue . . . Feature Articles Science fiction has always been a fascinating world where 4 Everything Broadband, Broadband Everywhere the technology to support gadgetry and ability required By Timothy Downs no explanation or sound logic. A writer can use terminol- ogy such as “flux capacitor” and suddenly the storyline 6 Net Neutrality Must Look Forward is supported. Though prior generations of science fic- By Scott Belcher, TIA tion can sometimes read like ads for the next Consumer Electronics Show, a sound basis for today’s technology 8 FCC Made All the Right Moves driven devices clearly exists. By Chip Pickering, COMPTEL 30 Why Leaders Fail Our editorial theme for this issue is “Deploying the By Mark Sanborn, Sanborn and Associates Everything Broadband, Broadband Everywhere Network.” Indications are that we are just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg as it relates to the network impact brought Resource Articles on by the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine (M2M), connected vehicles, wearables, smart meters, 9 Bringing Wireless Services to Large Venues smart homes, and more. Some are aptly describing it By Pat Thompson, TE Connectivity as the “Internet of Everything.” Network operators face increasing demands on their infrastructure to manage 10 Leave No Residential Customer Behind the additional traffic, while considering ways to monetize By Kevin Morgan, ADTRAN services, seeking solutions that lower operating costs, and 13 Realizing the Benefits Promised by NFV providing greater value to customers in efforts to curtail By Brayson Pate, Overture attrition.

15 Rethinking the Retry Consider some of these recent headlines: By Tim Bennington-Davis , SmartRG • Average household bandwidth requirements will 16 Delivering Dedicated Fiber Ethernet Performance increase 31% annually for the next 5 years according By Bill Beesley, Fujitsu to a report from ACG commissioned by Ciena 23 Secure High-Speed Connectivity • Carrier Wi-Fi equipment revenue will reach $8 billion By Michael Ritter, ADVA Optical Networking by 2019, says ABI Research • Manufacturing, utilities and transportation will be the top three verticals using Internet of Things devices in 27 SIP Has Evolved, Making Unified Communications 2015, with 736 million connected devices in use next Easily Accessible to All year, forecasts Gartner. By Phil Bowers, Grandstream Networks • IDC forecasts the IoT market to grow from $1.3 trillion in 2013 to $3.04 trillion in 2020, with a compound 28 Assured Networking annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 percent. By 2020, By Renee Reinke, Ciena Corporation there will be 30 billion connected “things.” 29 Attacks, Regulations Drive Utility Focus on Cybersecurity • Service providers will deploy more than 4 million By Dave Thomas, RAD public hotspots and 20 million homespots in 2015, according to a new report by Mobile Experts. 33 Using Virtualization to Reduce Business Risks By David Noguer Bau, Juniper Networks Equally compelling topics of policy, standards, the net neutrality debate, Title II ramifications, workforce readi- 37 As IoT becomes Reality, NFV and SDN Become Essential ness for the evolving ICT marketplace, and more are also By Michael Ritter, ADVA Optical Networking covered in this issue. As stated in the bio for new contribu- tor, TIA CEO Scott Belcher, the ICT industry is experiencing Walker News perhaps “the most dramatic change seen in decades.” The carrier community is challenged to keep pace with new 7 Mark Walker Named as TIA Board Chair technologies, rising consumer expectations, and changes 18 Walker and Associates Awarded NASA Enterprise-Wide in policy. In a world with a growing number of connected Procurement Contracts devices that require greater bandwidth and broader cover- 27 Walker and Associates Awarded Americas Telco Partner age areas, Everything Broadband, Broadband Everywhere of the Year by Juniper Networks is indeed a relevant concept that has little, 29 MHEC Contract Award if anything, to do with science fiction. 36 In the Spotlight 42 Upcoming Events Randy Turner Letters to the editor may be sent to [email protected] Editor, Skinny Wire Skinny Wire is a bi-annual publication of Walker and Associates, Inc. Director, Marketing Communications “Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer m/f/d/v” Walker and Associates 336-731-5246 [email protected] [email protected]

Opinions expressed by contributors and commentators do not necessarily reflect the views of Walker and Associates, Inc. 3 Cities, municipalities and metro areas are under pressure to maintain a competitive advantage in a new connected world in which knowledge workers manufacture digital applications and services; entrepreneurs collaborate over high-bandwidth networks and economic development stems from highly-connected ecosystems of people, things and services all connected ubiquitously. Some say it is a survival of the fittest ecosystem in the global competition for a share of the expected $9 trillion in annual GDP that will come from the Internet of Things.

By Timothy Downs Vice President Light Reading

Many are aware of what happened in competitive carrier C-Spire are deploying cess to high-speed Internet service has 2012. It was then that Google announced gigabit speed networks in their service become a major factor among site selec- it had selected Kansas City, Missouri as areas. tors or corporations in deciding where to the site of its inaugural Google Fiber de- relocate or expand. In a 2008 ranking of ployment, which promised gigabit speed In May 2015, the State of Connecticut top site selection criteria by Area Devel- connections to homes and businesses. took steps to be the first “Gigabit State” opment Magazine, broadband ranked as Less known is the fact that Google was with active interest from eleven private the 21st most important consideration not the first to promise 1Gbps broad- sector businesses, including two interna- in such decisions. By 2013, broadband band connection to homes and business- tional investment banks, the state’s larg- ranked fifth highest. es. EPB, the municipally-owned utility in est telecommunications company, and Chattanooga, Tennessee has that distinc- the leading telecommunications industry A study of 14 communities by the Analy- tion, launching in 2010. group. sis Group showed that, although gigabit broadband is in its infancy, the “com- Since Google’s announcement, service According to ADTRAN we are now en- munities with widely available gigabit providers of all types, including telcos, tering phase three of Internet access, broadband that we studied enjoyed over cable Multi-system Operators (MSOs), where we will once again see a 50x to $1 billion in additional GDP when giga- utility/municipalities, and even electric 100x improvement in access speeds. bit broadband became widely available, cooperatives have embraced the Giga- Gigabit broadband, the next generation relative to communities where gigabit bit movement. According to a February broadband, is enabling a new range of broadband was not widely available.” 2014 joint NTIA-FCC broadband data re- consumer and business applications that [“Early Evidence Suggests Gigabit Broadband port, there were 99 Gigabit broadband are redefining the broadband experience Drives GDP,” David Sosa, Principal] Accord- networks operating in the U.S. Today the and energizing economic development in ing to the study, Chattanooga attributed number of gigabit broadband networks the communities where it is present. 1,000 new jobs, increased investment is estimated to top 130. That same NTIA and a ‘new population of computer pro- report found 232 networks offering 100 For city and municipal government, eco- grammers, entrepreneurs and investors’ Mbps or faster (in the downstream). nomic development is foundational to to gigabit broadband. Washington State has the most Gigabit the improved digital infrastructure. “It’s networks at 17 and only two states, Mon- the fiber that sets us apart. Our county Jeff Smith, Co-Director of the New Econ- tana and West Virginia, have no Gigabit has mountains, forests, fresh water lakes omy Division for the Lansing Economic networks, according to the data. and a major river, but it’s the fiber that Area Partnership said, “Access to ultra- sets us apart. Our new economic de- high speed broadband networks is in- Tier 1 carriers have responded aggres- velopment plan will focus on attracting creasingly becoming an invaluable asset sively: Comcast currently offers 2 Gbps talented people who want to start busi- for innovators, entrepreneurs and com- service in Tennessee among other re- nesses or work from their homes and panies looking to compete globally utiliz- gions. AT&T has launched its GigaPower still enjoy the outdoors.” Jamie Wyrobek, ing the next generation of broadband en- service in Austin, Atlanta and other ser- Director, Pend Oreille County, Economic abled applications and software. Expand- vice areas. Regional carriers like Compo- Development Council. ing such networks in our region is critical rium Communications of Rock Hill, South to the attraction of world-class talent and Carolina and Blue Valley Tele-Communi- Gigabit Networks as Economic high tech businesses to the Greater Lan- cations of Home, Kansas, both of whom Development sing region.” are bringing Gigabit broadband to the According to the Wisconsin Economic heartland. Cable MSO Suddenlink and Development Corporation (WEDC), ac-

4 For Cities, Gigabit Broadband network equipment available in the early focused on increased economic develop- is the Ground Floor -- the Core 2000s was very expensive. The least ex- ment. Cost savings, resource efficiency Infrastructure pensive pair of P2P radios cost between and automation are critical drivers of a Ultra-high speed networks may be just $1,200 and $2,000, depending on the renewed interest in sensor networks con- be the prerequisite for city and municipal power and antenna combination. The necting city infrastructure and services. leadership to attract and retain residents least expensive APs cost between $225 and businesses. Wireless infrastructure and $499, and CPE costs between $195 Glasgow, Scotland, for example, has of- designed for capacity and deployed to and $225.” fered £24 million ($37 million) for tech- meet the exploding demand for mobile nology which will make the city “smarter, data is also an important consideration. Building and operating a fixed wireless safer and more sustainable.” Applications The third consideration is a sensor-driven broadband network in the early to mid- developed or planned for the program in- “Internet of Things” network that is de- 2000s, and as late as 2010, was a very clude intelligent street lighting which will signed to usher in an entirely new era of expensive proposition and had a return switch itself off to conserve energy when ‘smart city’ applications, automation and on investment timeline of a minimum of there’s no one around, mapping energy investment. five years. This timeline would increase if use around the city to better understand critical equipment malfunctioned or if the demand, and mapping how people get “The best of the new network administrator failed to capital- around to maximize the use of bicycle ize the software expense separate from and foot paths. Sensors attached to street community ecosystems the network expense. This cost structure lights and other outside urban furniture will be cities and towns contributed at least in part to a decrease will measure footfall, noise levels and air of wireless networks: of the over 4,000 pollution and this data will be used to pri- that combine a university, WiSPs in existence in 2000, about half re- oritize delivery of other services. an educated populace, main today.31 The Internet of Things has the potential a dynamic business In a relatively short period of time, how- to fundamentally disrupt the way we live community and the fastest ever, the cost of fixed wireless broadband and work. It offers organizations the op- networking equipment has dropped sig- portunity to transform how they operate: broadband connections on nificantly while its performance has im- improving their customer experience, ac- proved dramatically. As an example, a celerating growth, and managing evolv- earth. These will be the job small fixed wireless broadband network ing risk. It’s already transforming whole factories of the future.” might have two P2P radio pairs and six industries, from healthcare to retail. For APs serving 120 customers. city and municipal governments, the -Thomas Friedman, business case for a citywide Internet of Columnist, New York Smart Cities with the Internet of Things solution is strong. Even a small Things reduction in accidents and crime, can Times According to Verizon, today more than reduce the burden on emergency health- half of the world’s population lives in care, police and the courts. This can make A report by Freedman Consulting , LLC, urban areas; by 2050, that figure will be a major impact on public sector finances [Toward an Understanding of Best Practices in 70%. This trend is forcing local and fed- and on a city’s reputation as a safe place Community Wireless Networks] in May 2015 eral governments to reconsider how they to live, work, invest, and visit. and commissioned by the Ford Founda- deliver effective services to citizens, con- tion found that community wireless net- trol crime, protect aging infrastructures The convergence of ultra-high speed works have garnered renewed interest and keep core systems, such as power ‘gigabit networks’ in city and metro areas, from municipalities across the country and traffic running smoothly. Leaders with dense wireless infrastructure de- in recent years. City officials’ motivations must look to the future, building more signed for capacity and a sensor-driven for developing networks are varied, from sustainable developments with limited “Internet of Things” architecture means enabling mobile access to the Internet for resources. that city and civic leaders are poised on city departments to boosting local busi- the threshold of a new era in technology ness zones to helping bridge the digital Speaking at the PCIA Wireless Infrastruc- spending, development and disruption. divide. ture conference in 2015, Chris Stark, Chief Business Development Officer of Nokia The report cites Boston as an example of North America said, “A future of smart About the Author: Timothy Downs has been a wireless network that is being piloted mega cities where traffic, resource use, in the mobile, broadband and electronics in target areas with the explicit aim of emergency response latency and more industry for more than 15 years as an addressing the digital divide. In Corpus are problems of the past. Existing net- editor, publisher, conference director and Christi, a city-funded network began with works have to become significantly more consultant. the aim of enabling Automated Meter dense while technologies – WiFi, LTE, Reading and was subsequently augment- DAS, Small Cell – become significantly ed to include public access points. Okla- more interoperable. Once this happens, homa City’s network covers 555 square the end-user will see seemingly “infinite miles, larger than the other networks ex- bandwidth seamlessly connected across amined in the report. all these different technologies.”

Cost, according to the Freeman Consult- Cities and Metro areas stand at the being Report, is the major catalyst behind ginning of a new era of technology invest- new deployments of community wire- ment, deployment, operation and utiliza- less: “By today’s standards, the wireless tion. The business model is not solely

5 Net Neutrality Must Look Forward, Not Take Us Backwards By Scott Belcher Chief Executive Officer Telecommunications Industry Association

Unlike almost any other advancement in modern history, the Internet has moved us forward – creating new businesses, new ways of communicating, new opportunities for curing illness, and so much more. Given all that, it’s hard to understand why, when considering the best ways of ensuring an open Internet, government regulators have chosen to look backwards. Way backwards – all the way to 1934.

The Federal Communication Commis- sion’s (FCC) February decision on net neutrality applies “Title II” regulation to the Internet, using a law that was passed by Congress more than 80 years ago to reg- ulate wired telephone service. With the popularity of the TV series Mad Men, it’s certainly cool these days to be “retro.” But when it comes to today’s advanced, high tech economy, there’s just nothing good about being retro. Scott F. Belcher was named Chief Executive Officer of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in October 2014, following a seven-year tenure as President and CEO of We all understand that extraordinary the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America). problems sometimes require extraordinary government action. For this reason, As the information and communications technology (ICT) industry experiences the most it’s worth looking at how the Internet has dramatic change seen in decades, Scott’s leadership of TIA fosters adaptation and growth developed in recent years to understand to meet its members’ needs. He is responsible for managing TIA’s overall operations and what kind of regulatory action may be providing long-term strategic direction for the organization. Scott brings to TIA more than needed. A few facts: 25 years of public and private sector experience in Washington, DC. • The private sector has been investing in broadband at a rate of $73 billion Prior to becoming President and CEO of ITS America, Scott served as Executive Vice Presi- annually. dent and General Counsel at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washing- • Private sector broadband investment ton, DC. Before his tenure at ITS America, Scott held senior management positions at a in U.S. is more than double number of prominent trade associations, and worked in private practice at the law firm that of Europe, where there is a of Beveridge & Diamond, PC, and at the Environmental Protection Agency. burdensome regulatory environment ($562 per U.S. household in Scott holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia, a Master of Public Policy from 2012, versus $244 per European Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Redlands. Scott household). serves on the Boards of the Telecommunications Industry Association and the University • Connections speeds have increased of Redlands Alumni Association. He serves on the U.S. Department of Transportation Intel- 250 percent since 2010 – jumping ligent Transport Systems Program Advisory Committee and on the Advisory Boards of the from 4.6 Mbps to 11.4 Mbps. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the University of California Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center. The reality is, with a “light-touch” regulatory approach in place, the Internet has Scott resides in Alexandria, VA and is married with two children. thrived and driven tremendous gains for American consumers, businesses and our economy. Companies are investing at un- precedented levels to increase access, deliver faster speeds and meet the increasing demands of high-bandwidth video, music and more.

Of course, while it’s clear that these regulations were working, we have to look for-

6 “ . . . there is a real concern about whether investment will be able to keep up with demand.” ward to make sure they will continue to With Title II back in place, there is a real About TIA work. For this reason, we agree that some concern about whether investment will The Telecommunications Industry Association rules should be in place to keep the In- be able to keep up with demand. It’s sim- (TIA) is the leading trade association repre- ternet open and available to all, and that ple economics: companies will not con- senting the global information and commu- no one receives second-rate service. And tinue heavily spending on infrastructure nications technology (ICT) industry through in fact, our companies reap significant when the FCC can impose restrictions standards development, policy initiatives, benefits from a competitive marketplace preventing them from earning a return; business opportunities, market intelligence where a variety of customers can reach the risk with billion-dollars projects is just and networking events. With support from consumers with all types of content. too high. And, while the FCC has said it hundreds of members, TIA enhances the busi- will not use the full authority Title II gives ness environment for companies involved in To protect “neutrality,” the government them, the fact is, there is little to prevent telecom, broadband, mobile wireless, infor- has tried a variety of regulations over the future Commissioners from taking ex- mation technology, networks, cable, satellite, years – including pursuing a Title II ap- treme action. Title II could easily be used unified communications, emergency commu- proach many years ago. When that ap- to implement price controls, or to put in nications and the greening of technology. TIA proach was abandoned, the impact was place other extraordinary and severely is accredited by ANSI. immediate and dramatic. Freed from an market-distorting measures. outdated regulatory system, private sec- Learn more at http://www.tiaonline.org/. tor investment boomed, and tens of bil- It doesn’t have to be this way, and we lions of dollars were spent to build new remain confident that Title II will be re- Internet infrastructure. In a single exam- jected. Our organization, and the high ple, Verizon spent $23 billion to roll out tech manufacturers that make up our FiOS, the company’s fiber-optic commu- membership, strongly support the prin- nications network that now has millions ciples of net neutrality – they are good for of customers across the United States. consumers and good for business. For this reason, TIA is actively working with The U.S. needed this infrastructure as the Congress to pass sensible and effective Internet was becoming essential for both net neutrality legislation that looks for- business and society. Now, that infra- ward – to an even more robust Internet structure is vital to meet the extreme and that serves consumers and that drives rapidly growing demands being placed innovation, economic opportunity and on the network. According to the latest growth. forecasts from Cisco, global data traffic will increase eight-fold over the next four years. In addition, all Internet traffic will double by 2018.

Mark Walker Named as TIA Board Chair

Mark Walker, President of Walker and Associates, became Chair of the Board of Directors of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in January 2015 for a two-year term. He now leads a board that includes C-level executives representing a prestigious roster of technology companies, including Cisco, Dell, GM, Intel, Microsoft, LG, Panasonic and Qualcomm. Working with CEO Scott Belcher and other TIA executives, Mr. Walker is helping guide the organization in new directions. Mr. Belcher, who joined TIA in November 2014, said “As the ICT industry faces disruptive new technologies, quickly changing business models and a shifting regulatory landscape, we are very fortunate to have someone as experienced as Mark to lead our board. Mark is contributing his years of industry expertise and thoughtful guidance to TIA as we lead the industry during this time of significant change and opportunity.”

Mark Walker has been President of Walker and Associates since 1998. He has a broad range of industry experience in manufacturing, sales, operations and customer support. He formerly served as President of Evergood Fabrication, a subsidiary of Walker, which was sold to Reltec/Marconi in 1998.

7 FCC Made All the Right Moves on Open Internet Decision

By Chip Pickering Since the Federal Communications Com- 2014. Although the Court agreed with the CEO mission approved its Open Internet Order Commission’s assessment that the rules COMPTEL at its February Open Meeting on a party- were necessary to protect consumers, it Chip Pickering line vote and released the full text on determined that the Commission’s clas- became CEO March 12, there has been a lot of Monday sification of broadband Internet service of COMPTEL, morning quarterbacking about how the providers as information service provid- the leading trade as- decision will impact the market, including ers exempted them from the common sociation ad- the businesses of Internet services pro- carrier obligations that the no-blocking vocating for viders. and nondiscrimination rules imposed. competitive networks and Some pundits would have you believe Because of the court rulings, today’s Com- competitive that the Commission has overstepped its mission had no choice but to reclassify communica- bounds, and arbitrarily made these deci- Internet access service as a Title II service, tions policy, in sions without any sort of precedent. But so that it has clear and explicit authority January 2014. Pickering was those claims couldn’t be further from the to prohibit abusive ISP practices such as a six-term truth. blocking, discrimination, throttling and Congressman, representing Mississippi’s paid prioritization, and be able to quickly Third District. During this time, he served on In March, COMPTEL released a white pa- address consumer complaints and take the House Energy & Commerce Committee, per that illustrated the long history of bi- enforcement action as necessary. At the where he was vice chairman from 2002 to partisan support for a free and Open In- same time, the Commission’s decision to 2006 and a member of the Telecommu- ternet. You can download the white paper forbear from 27 provisions of the statute nications Subcommittee. He also was co- from our website, but in summary, it ex- and more than 700 regulations that are chairman and founder of the Congressional Wireless Caucus and an assistant minority plains how a Republican-led FCC originally not relevant to modern broadband servic- whip of the House. Previously, Chip worked established the principles that consumers es will ensure that broadband providers for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and served as should be able to access the lawful Inter- are not subject to onerous “utility style” a staff member on the Senate Commerce net content, applications and services of regulation that the naysayers claim will Committee, where he helped shape the their choice. In 2005, the FCC, under Re- burden providers and cause costs to rise. Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because of publican Chairman Kevin Martin, adopted The Commission’s Open Internet decision his role in drafting the 1996 Act, he became and released the original Internet Policy takes a prudent approach that both ad- well known as a Congressional leader on Statement. At that time, the Commis- dresses the court-determined shortcom- telecommunications issues. Most recently, Chip was a partner with Capitol Resources sion expressed the belief that it could use ings of the previous Internet rules and LLC, a public affairs and government rela- its ancillary authority under Title I of the continues to protect consumers’ access tions firm, where he represented an array of Communications Act to enforce the Inter- to the Internet content, applications and telecom clients, including wireless, cable and net Policy Statement and the principles services of their choice. A similar “Title II competitive broadband providers, as well as articulated therein. light” regulatory approach has been prov- non-profits and companies specializing in en effective in the wireless market. education, energy, technology and defense. The Commission’s Internet Policy State- There, he also played a vital role as one of ment was supported by then President Many ISPs have stated that the decision the principal negotiators in developing a wireless industry agreement for interoper- George W. Bush, who in 2006 issued a will not impact their investment decisions, ability in the 700 block. Statement of Administration Policy that and many more small businesses and expressed the Administration’s belief that consumers that rely upon the Internet ev- About COMPTEL - Based in Washington, D.C., the FCC had sufficient authority to ad- ery day will benefit. COMPTEL is the leading industry associa- dress potential abuses by Internet access tion advocating for competitive networks service providers. The Commission’s decision is consistent and competitive communications policy. with the comments it received from mil- COMPTEL members are entrepreneurial Comcast subsequently appealed the lions of consumers – regardless of politi- companies driving technological innovation and creating economic growth through com- Commission’s issuance of a decision find- cal affiliation. In its Open Internet Order, petitive voice, video, and data offerings and ing that it had violated the Policy State- the Commission made all the right moves the development and deployment of next- ment when it interfered with BitTorrent to ensure that consumers, start-ups and generation, IP-based networks and services. traffic. The Court of Appeals vacated the companies of all sizes can continue to use COMPTEL advances its members’ interests decision on the grounds that Title I did not the Internet to communicate, do business through trade shows, networking, education, give the Commission authority to assert and innovate without fear of discrimina- and policy advocacy before Congress, the jurisdiction over network management tion, blocking or having to pay exorbitant Federal Communications Commission and practices. In response to that decision, charges for specialized treatment. We do the courts. COMPTEL works to ensure that competitive communications providers can the Commission adopted Open Internet not believe these consumer protection continue to offer lower prices, better service, rules that most ISPs supported using its measures will adversely impact invest- and greater innovation to consumers. For Title I and Section 706 authority. Verizon’s ment, innovation or the growth of the In- more information, visit www.comptel.org or appeal of that Order resulted in the Court ternet ecosystem. follow us on Twitter @COMPTEL. vacating the Commission’s no-blocking and nondiscrimination rules in January

8 Bringing Wireless Services to Large Venues By John Spindler Vice President, Product Management TE Connectivity

The Environment Cost – Much of the cost of deploying a Capacity – An analog DAS requires an Large buildings and public venues need DAS in a large venue comes from the cost inordinate amount of traffic engineering DAS technology because the large num- of installation, not from the cost of the before deployment because they require ber of people in a space overwhelms DAS equipment. Traditional analog DAS more fiber than a digital system. Digital the macro mobile network, leading to systems require one fiber or fiber pair DAS) supports wavelength optical multi- dropped calls, or data sessions an inabil- between each head-end and remote an- plexing, allowing for less cable, a simple ity to connect, and service latency. Hun- tenna. This one-to-one requirement in a design and installation, and further reach dreds or thousands of visitors may be venue that may need dozens of remote of the DAS. simultaneously calling, texting, browsing antennas means that a lot of fiber must the web, or uploading or downloading be deployed. Use of existing fiber may Solution video. Handling these communications not be possible as analog signals have Specialty Fiber and DAS solutions miti- successfully requires a high amount of low loss tolerance (typically 3 dB) or can- gate the challenges of large venue de- mobile capacity over a large and complex not overcome losses from splices and ployment. DAS products that feature all- service area. patching. In many stadiums, for example, digital transport, enabling a single head- it is not uncommon for such a system to end to simulcast a signal to many remote A DAS consists of a main hub or head-end require 192 fiber pairs. Pulling fiber, con- antennas or radio heads and to deliver linked to a mobile operator’s base sta- nectorizing fiber and splicing it in the field the same, high-capacity signal at each an- tion. The main hub transmits the mobile is extremely expensive, running as much tenna are critical. In addition, you’ll want signal to remote amplifier units (RAUs) as $250,000 USD for this part of the de- head-ends that can aggregate the capac- and antennas, which amplify the signal ployment alone. ity from two or more base stations that in specific areas of the venue. Because of are on-site, off-site or even at different traffic demands, large venues are often Efficiency – A traditional analog DAS re- locations, so the mobile operator can in- divided into sectors, in which a specific quires the use of a separate main hub for crease capacity by simply adding another frequency band or operator’s service is each base station and a large amount of base station (no additional head-ends, distributed. There needs to be at least space for RF combining solutions. Base antennas, or radio heads required). one remote unit and antenna for each station shelters at arenas and stadiums sector. (Figure 1.) were not built to accommodate so much Finally, implementing fiber saving technologies such as coarse wave division Sector 6 multiplexing (CWDM) and dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), will reduce the amount of fiber typically needed in large venues by 80 percent or more, saving significant costs. Sector 5 John Spindler was named Vice President of Product Manage- ment for TE Connectivity’s wire-

Sector 1 Sector 3 less business in December 2007 through the company’s acquisition of LGC Wireless where he served as Vice President of Marketing. In his current role, Spindler is responsible for developing and managing an innovative wireless product portfolio for the company’s Network Solutions Business Unit.

During his more than 20 years of industry experience, Spindler has held a variety of Sector 2 Sector 4 product management positions with companies such as Nortel Networks, GTE and Inte- Com. In these positions, he had responsibility for the areas of networking, network management, computer telephony integration Figure 1: A stadium divided into six sectors per seating level. and wireless technologies.

Challenges equipment, so they must be enlarged, Spindler received a Bachelors of Arts Degree The main challenges in using DAS for leading to an extra expense and added from the University of California, Los Angeles large venue wireless service delivery are: time to the deployment. And all analog (UCLA) and an MBA from the University of cost, efficiency, and capacity. DAS RAUs need the fiber cabling “home Southern California, Los Angeles. run” connected to the main hub.

9 Leave No Residential Customer Behind:

Delivering Gigabit Broadband to By Kevin Morgan Director, Marketing Communications Multi-Dwelling Units ADTRAN

Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs), structures cess to the building and space for equip- tion to a dwelling, rather it is about find- with multiple living units per location, ment. ing the right solution based on the needs represent about 30 percent of the total of a particular project. US residential market for Fiber-to-the- Once the benefits of FTTH have been con- Home (FTTH). Clearly, a service provider’s veyed to the building owners, providers For example, working to have Optical Net- success in deploying FTTH and enabling would do well to educate the MDU resi- work Terminals (ONTs) fit a specific FTTH Gigabit service delivery in this residential dent community. Broadband community deployment should be a deliberative market depends upon having an effec- campaigns have grown in prevalence task. Low-density, low-story MDUs like tive strategy to tackle MDU opportuni- over recent years, hence it may be worth- duplexes tend to look more like single- ties. Among the most important consid- while to work in conjunction with such family homes from a FTTH perspective. In erations in weighing this market are un- efforts to showcase the unique value of such cases, if MDUs can be served with derstanding unique stakeholder interests your solutions and service offerings for Single Family Unit (SFU) ONTs, then that that exist in MDUs and bearing in mind the local market. is the best solution. Just as with SFUs, us- the demands of each MDU property in ing an indoor SFU ONT with these types determining the right technical solutions. Determining the Right Solutions for of MDUs carries benefits in cost, flexibil- Let’s take a closer look at the dominant the Job ity and ease of future improvements over factors involved in these areas. So you got the job, now what? Too often most traditional outdoor ONTs. service providers have in their mind that Understanding the Nature of MDUs certain designated equipment has to go Taking the indoor ONT value proposi- MDUs range from single-story buildings with a particular structure or customer. tion one step further, micro ONTs may with two to four tenants to much more The cardinal rule on FTTH deployment is present the ideal solution for the job. complex developments with hundreds that it’s not about force fitting a set solu- These devices, some of which are small of tenants. They primarily consist of either apartment units, typically rented, or condos, usually owned. This distinction is important since with tenant “turnover” higher for renters, a service provider is sure to have more chances over time to win or lose customers in the apartment MDU market.

Unlike the Single Family Unit (SFU) market, serving MDUs requires going beyond just knowing the building, to really understanding the interests of owners and tenants, both of whom have to understand the benefits of FTTH to reach a sales agreement.

The people that own MDU buildings tend not to be immediately sold on the benefits of FTTH. Instead, their primary interests lie with economic metrics such as rental rates, rental duration, occupancy levels and turnover. A service provider must address how FTTH translates into making those economic metrics improve for an MDU owner. For example, if there is local evidence that higher internet speeds translate into higher rental rates, this would be important data to share with residential building owners. More- over, it is equally important to explain to owners how FTTH as a service offering will surpass cable and satellite over time. Such metrics can also be a major asset to the service provider when negotiating ac-

10 enough to fit in the palm of your hand, case of wiring out only to wireless Access line for MDU owners and their tenants. offer a wealth of advantages for MDU Points, the service provider can provide MDU FTTH projects truly can be win-win applications. Micro ONTs can be left at ubiquitous Internet service (over Wi-Fi) for all involved, but it requires the service a residence, so when tenants change throughout the building. Simplicity of use provider forging a real partnership with there’s no need for a truck roll to retrieve and the ability to easily acquire custom- building owners and residents through- equipment. In addition to simplifying and ers (tenants and visitors) offer additional out the endeavor. streamlining installation procedures and benefit with this solution. offering better security, these ONTs are also independent of the wireless router. Key Takeaways Kevin Morgan This increases the life of the ONT and There are all kinds of MDUs in the US mar- currently serves as raises return on investment (ROI) be- ket: duplexes, apartment complexes, high the 2015 Board of cause the ONT does not have to be re- rises, etc. They may need to be served dif- Directors Chairman placed as Wi-Fi standards evolve. ferently but they all remain “residential” for the FTTH Council buildings and the services required (i.e., Americas. He was As we get into larger, more complex voice, video and data) are essentially the first elected to the MDUs, such as high-rises, the density of same. As such, service providers may do Board in 2010 tenants increases considerably. The abil- well to gravitate towards a smaller, yet and is past Chair of the Government ity to serve these types of MDU units with more versatile portfolio of ONTs or Cus- Affairs committee and Marketing FTTH raises the likelihood of more cen- tomer Premises Equipment (CPE) devices committee for the FTTH Council. He tralized solutions like Fiber Ethernet, Wi- for most deployments, since more ver- is the Director of Marketing Com- Fi and GPON. These three technologies sions of ONTs or CPE means more main- munications at ADTRAN and has represent varying levels of service and tenance and support costs. spent his career gaining experience in capital commitment. advanced communications technol- Remember that MDU owners are focused ogy, fiber optic systems, and business Let’s take for example a combination on providing tenants with reliable, solidly product marketing. He joined ADTRAN solution leveraging optical Ethernet and performing communications services re- after working in the Science & Tech- Wi-Fi—it has bandwidth superiority over gardless of the technology used. Own- nology department for several years using in-home copper wiring solutions, ers are motivated mostly by occupancy at BellSouth. but is more capital intensive. It requires and will entertain improvements at their a fiber-fed active device placed inside building(s) that can generate tenant sat- Kevin holds an Electrical Engineer- the MDU (typically in the basement or isfaction and growth in rent. Service ing degree from Auburn University equipment room) and CAT-5 wiring to all providers must translate the benefits of and an MBA from the University of common areas and/or each unit. In the FTTH into how it can improve the bottom Alabama.

The Need for Gigabit Gigabit networks are still in their infancy. Many question the Research is already heralding the impact Gigabit networks can need for Gigabit speeds, when we have not fully utilized the have on a community. David Sandel of Sandel & Associates bandwidth available today. But others have embraced the vi- developed a model for measuring the economic impact of a sion for Gigabit services, and are using it as a force for change Gigabit network. His initial study focused on a small area in the within the communities they serve. Gigabit services connect creative center of St. Louis and showed a significant impact of the citizens of a community and enable growth and prosper- a Gigabit network. His initial study focused on a small area in ity. Areas that were once desolate or dying have found new life the creative center of St. Louis and showed a significant impact: through the emergence of Gigabit services. These ultra high- speed broadband networks are also serving as a catalyst for the • 1,000 high-tech jobs paid at industry standard future, bringing new jobs, new innovation and new beginnings. • 972 additional jobs across a number of industries, including real estate, employment services, food service and drinking Drivers for Gigabit Communities establishments, hospitals/ health care providers, telecom- 1. Education munications and wholesale trade 2. Business and Job Growth • $132,590,000 in wages and benefits 3. Improved HealthCare • $172,227,000 in additional economic benefits 4. Civic Life 5. Connected Homes In summary, this study estimated a total annual economic 6. Municipal Services output in excess of $265 million derived from an initial investment of less than $3 million. To read the full report, go to http://bit.ly/1dhtAfH.

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By Prayson Pate There is no question that Network Func- customers. Chief Technology Officer tions Virtualization (NFV) is the key to fu- Overture Networks ture profitability for communication ser- New Revenue-Generating Service vice providers (CSPs). As I’ve talked with Opportunities our customers and others at industry Virtualization enables cost-effective ac- events, I’ve sensed a general consensus quisition of new and growing revenue on the anticipated benefits of virtualizing streams as CSPs respond automatically service delivery. and immediately to an end-customer’s opt-in for services. New On-demand Service Capabilities At the heart of NFV is the concept of re- How? By doing the following: placing single-function proprietary ap- • Leverage advanced orchestration pliances with standard servers running and network control techniques to software-based Virtualized Network dynamically construct services. Functions (VNFs.) VNFs can be designed • Use big-data analytics to measure to take advantage of horizontal scalability and assure SLAs. to support services that expand or con- • Take advantage of modern and tract with demand. open APIs to connect the virtual services to existing OSS/BSS By decoupling hardware and software systems. and making use of cloud technologies, • Update customer portals to present NFV enables cost-effective, highly scal- these new services to customers on able on-demand services. a self-serve basis.

Flexible Deployment Models Making NFV Real Separating the hardware and software From my conversations I’ve come to un- has some advantages in itself. The bigger derstand there is no “one-size-fits-all” ap- advantage comes when you use proper proach. Every CSP we know has taken a I am passionate about helping the telecom software design to build the VNFs, and unique approach. Each is leveraging dif- industry go virtual. I believe network functions advanced orchestration techniques to ferent parts of the Overture NFV offering virtualization (NFV) is the key to profitability place VNFs where they make the most with additional virtualized offerings from and at Overture we are making NFV real and sense. Doing so allows the operator to other industry players. profitable for communication service provid- construct valuable new services with the ers (CSPs) and mobile operators. Businesses VNFs placed at different locations based And THAT, to me, is the real benefit of and consumers are demanding a lot from on constraints such as utilization, band- NFV. It allows CSPs to pick and choose the providers of the data, communications width, latency and security. best-of-breed components to create an and media services that help us work well, live overall solution that works best for them. large and play hard. The telecom and mobile For example, a firewall VNF might need to industries are suffering from escalating oper- reside at the customer site to ensure pri- The good news is that you can deploy NFV ational costs while scrambling to scale for the vacy on the uplink, but a VPN VNF could and optimize profitability today! The right mad crush of on-demand services and to sup- be hosted in a metro datacenter. Flexibil- set of VNFs, coupled with open orchestra- port new paradigms like Internet of Things. ity like this maximizes the ability of ser- tion, analytics and control solutions turns vice providers to meet the needs of their the promise of NFV into real value. 2015: The year SDN and NFV go mainstream By Steve Alexander Network World According to Infonetics Research’s “2014 the globe. This will be a huge step and ware functions with virtualized equiva- SDN Strategies: North American Enter- could push SDN toward achieving criti- lents. Infonetics research backs up these prise” survey, which estimates that 87% cal mass; we expect to even see SDN de- predictions in its “Carrier SDN and NFV of U.S. businesses intend to have SDN ployed on global submarine networks to Hardware and Software Market Size and live in their data centers by 2016. From enable more dynamic services than any- Forecast” report, which predicts that the that perspective, SDN is well on its way. thing available in the past. NFV and SDN markets will reach $11 billion globally in 2018. Along with the ma- These deployments have kept the hype We will also begin to see NFV become a jor telcos announcing SDN deployments, somewhat subdued, but this is the most technology du jour. There were NFV whis- we’ll also see initial NFV deployments in transformative technology we have de- pers in 2014, but 2015 promises to put high-touch enterprises. veloped in decades, and 10 years down the discussion on the map in the same the line – maybe even sooner – SDN will way SDN was during the past 12 months. Reprinted from Network World. Read the full article simply be known as “networking.” In Once people see the tangible results of at http://www.networkworld.com/article/2858736/ 2015, the technology will begin the jour- what software can do for a network, it’s sdn/2015-the-year-sdn-and-nfv-go-mainstream. html ney down that path with the first deploy- only a matter of time before people be- ments of SDN in telco networks across gin to see the benefits of replacing hard-

13 Service Assured Networking for Power Utilities

RAD offers energy utility customers field-proven Service Assured Networking solutions over SONET/SDH and packet switched networks for the operational needs of their transmission and distribution (T&D) grids.

These include: • Substation multiservice connectivity and migration with Traffic Duplication • Distance and differential Teleprotection • IEC 61850-3 secure substation communications • Operational core network using carrier-grade Ethernet • Distribution automation and smart metering backhaul • Integrated security and firewall tools

Visit RAD in Booth #401 at APPA's 2015 Public Power Expo in Minneapolis (June 8-9)

Contact RAD today at: (800) 444-7234 [email protected] www.radusa.com 14 Re-thinking the Retry; Four Steps to Superior WiFi

Tim Bennington-Davis VP of Engineering SmartRG

We have all become dependent upon WiFi in homes and businesses, and have experienced the frustration when WiFi “doesn’t work” in the middle of a video chat session, downloading a video, or Service Assured making a purchase over the Internet. Want to know why? Retries.

The WiFi protocol is pretty straightfor- the transmission, the transmitter has to So, the key to best performance is to think Networking for ward. Every device, whether an Access assume that the reason for the failure is in terms of efficient communication, es- Point (AP) or client (STA), must share time that the receiver has or encountered in- pecially where there are many devices on the air. Only one device can be send terference. The transmitter is at a fixed and data-hungry applications. Situations a packet or packets at any point in time, power level, so the only option is to issue that cause retries and rate adaptation and every transmission requires an ac- a retry at a lower modulation rate, which need to be minimized, preserving airtime Power Utilities knowledgement (ACK) back from the re- amounts to sending exactly the same infor what really matters – successful trans- ceiver. Transmissions are randomized to formation out again more slowly, which mission of data. give all devices an equal chance, and all takes even more airtime than the original transmitters must listen for clear air be- transmission. This process is repeated • Work to maximize the probability fore transmitting. The devices communi- with successively slower modulation of success that each transmitted RAD offers energy utility customers field-proven Service Assured cating must get enough airtime to keep rates until the transmitter finally gets an packet will reach its intended desti- Networking solutions over SONET/SDH and packet switched networks for up with the needs of the application, such acknowledgement back. nation. Keep distances short. as a video stream. • Minimize the number of devices per the operational needs of their transmission and distribution (T&D) grids. If this were just one packet of informa- Access Point that are big consum- Faster modulation rates can shorten the tion, the application might not be impact- ers of airtime. Put multiple Access These include: amount of time it takes to move data, but ed by this delay. Applications streaming Points to work in your environment, only if the transmissions are successful. video or voice are constantly adding a on non-overlapping channels, so • Substation multiservice connectivity and migration with Traffic Duplication If a transmission isn’t acknowledged by “backlog” of frames that also need to be that all devices have a high probabil- the receiver, the data must be resent. In transmitted. While the retry process is ity of a short reach and little conten- • Distance and differential Teleprotection 802.11 protocol, this is known as a re- resolving logjam of frames builds up, and tion for airtime. try. It is the retransmission of a packet applications begin responding again only • Turn the power down on Access • IEC 61850-3 secure substation communications for which there is no acknowledgement after this logjam has been cleared. This Points to make a smaller service received. Retries are inherently undesir- causes the periodic “freezing” of video area. The devices that connect at • Operational core network using carrier-grade Ethernet able, because they waste airtime. Wasted and audio we often see, and lasts until the “fringe” edge of the service area the system has been able to catch up. will be the devices which suffer the • Distribution automation and smart metering backhaul airtime is undesirable because we tend to have many devices in our homes that highest number of communication need to move data, each needing airtime. As might be expected, if devices are problems (retries), and will create • Integrated security and firewall tools positioned near to the Gateway or Ac- congestion on the air for all con- However, faster modulation rates also cess Point, these problems are minimal. cerned. carry a risk. The higher the modulation When distances increase, so does the • Consider upgrading your legacy rate, the better the signal/noise ratio wasted airtime. The traditional approach devices to newer technology. The Visit RAD in Booth #401 at APPA's 2015 must be. Given that our homes are inher- to this problem is to think that just choos- slower devices consume much more ently noisy with many sources of interfer- ing Access Points with more transmit airtime per transmission. Public Power Expo in Minneapolis (June 8-9) ence from all our devices and neighbors, power will help. However, it is important often the higher modulation rates simply to remember that the communication A single access point in a large house don’t work. This causes the transmitting must be bidirectional, it only works if the with many data-hungry devices is sure devices to have to “hunt” for the right device and Access Point are equally loud, to create disappointing results for the modulation rate that enables success- and equally clear in their communication. end user. Look at things from the point ful reception. This is known as rate ad- This is practically impossible to achieve, of view of efficient communication, and aptation, and uses retries (airtime) while given that many of the devices are being make WiFi work well for you. hunting for a modulation rate that will held in our hands, up against our heads, work. Because a transmitter has no indi- or in our laps. cation as to why a receiver fails to hear Contact RAD today at: (800) 444-7234 [email protected] www.radusa.com 15 Delivering Dedicated Fiber Ethernet Performance at DSL Prices By Bill Beesley Principal Solutions Architect Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. to be superseded by EPON, which is a cal Network Unit (ONU). The majority of superior technology investment for de- GPON products available on the market livering residential and small-to-medium are FPGA-based, while EPON products enterprise Ethernet services. This means predominantly utilize lower-cost ASICs. EPON is the technology of choice for de- High demand for EPON in Asia, where livering large-enterprise quality Ethernet tens of millions of units have been de- services to small or medium enterprises ployed to-date, has allowed manufactur- and residential customers at a price they ers to amortize the initial ASIC investment are willing to pay. while continuing to lower the cost of the components as demand, and therefore Originally, GPON had a technical market volume, grew. The economies of scale advantage in that its transmission con- at higher volumes for ASIC manufactur- In North America, data services at symmetrical rates of over 100 Mbps have traditionally only been available to large enterprise customers because of the high costs of fiber construction and enterprise data equipment. Small-to-medium enterprise customers have been relegated to lower performance cable modem or DSL technologies that have proven unable to deliver high symmetrical bandwidth eco- nomically.

Passive Optical Networking As small-to-medium enterprise customers adopt bandwidth-intensive applications such as cloud services, demand for dedicated fiber Ethernet performance at a DSL or cable modem price point is increasing rapidly. This, in turn, demands technologies that can allow service providers to serve this profitable market. Existing dedicated enterprise Ethernet solutions, while capable of meeting the technology requirements, are too expensive for the small-to-medium business customer. Passive Optical Networking vergence layer natively accommodated ers suggests that it is unlikely the price (PON) offers promising possibilities in not only encapsulation of native Ethernet of GPON products will decline as EPON terms of both service quality and price frames, but also of ATM cells and TDM chipsets have done thus far (and will con- point, and is thus emerging as an appeal- services. This capability made it an ideal tinue to do as demand increases). ing option because of its use of low-cost choice for carriers wishing to deliver si- equipment to deliver symmetrical gigabit multaneous voice and data services. As The optical modules for GPON are also speeds, its support for multiple service telephony services have migrated from more expensive than EPON due to the offerings, and its immunity to radio fre- traditional TDM to IP, the original techni- faster on-off laser modulation and the quency impairments that can disrupt cus- cal advantage GPON held over EPON has multiple laser power leveling required by tomer quality of experience and inflate lost most of its relevance. the ITU-T standard. Additionally, the 2.4 operational costs. Gbps rate used by many GPON manu- The Economic and Technical Merits of facturers is non-standard to the optical EPON or GPON? EPON and GPON industry which limits the volume of de- Operators have two valid PON technology The costs of the optical distribution mand necessary to drive down manufac- choices to serve this market: EPON and equipment (fiber type, splitters, con- turing costs for those devices. It is very GPON. GPON is currently in wide deploy- nectors, and so on) are similar for both doubtful that the cost of GPON equipment by providers delivering Fiber-to-the GPON and EPON. The primary technical ment can ever be as low as that for EPON Home (FTTH) services in North America, and, therefore, cost variation between in the long term. but because of the increasing strategic the two standards is to be found in the importance of active Ethernet, it is likely Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and the Opti- EPON has a distinct technical advantage

16 in a network where services are defined as Ethernet or IP over Ethernet, in that Eth- ernet frames are carried natively on the passive optical network. GPON requires additional layers of encapsulation to carry the same traffic. In GPON, Ethernet data and TDM frames must pass through two encapsulation stages for transport on the PON. While this worked well where the need to carry native TDM and ATM traffic was required, in an all-Ethernet network the encapsulation needed for GPON adds unnecessary complexity and serves no real benefit in transporting pure Ethernet frames.

Additionally, GPON is architected specifically to support point-to-point connections and thus, where Ethernet bridging or LAN/VLAN support is required, overlay equipment is needed. Conversely, delivery of MEF-defined services is among the standard capabilities of EPON systems. Because EPON is built upon the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standards, it inherits the standard Ethernet Management Information PLANNING A Base (MIB), which is well supported by the OSS systems already deployed to manage carrier networks. MEETING? EPON’s Total Cost of Ownership Advantage In the late 1990s when ATM and SONET dominated carrier transport networks, few would have envisioned the position that Carrier Ethernet holds today. In the 40 years since its introduction, Ethernet has become the primary transport technology due to its flexibility, simplicity, and the economies of scale that have naturally driven down its cost. These same technical capabilities and market dynamics will continue to give EPON a total cost of ownership advantage over GPON. Clearly, EPON is quickly gaining both technical and economic advantages that will Receive two free reports: How to Get the further encourage operators to choose it Most from Your Investment in a over GPON. Just as Ethernet transport has eclipsed SONET and ATM and consequent- Professional Speaker and The Top Mistakes ly declined in cost, the manufacturing Meeting Planners Make! costs of EPON will continue to decline as this technology gains momentum in North Contact Helen Broder at (910) 256-3495 or America. Ultimately, products that provide email at [email protected] better features and lower costs dominate in the marketplace and EPON is clearly well positioned to become the dominant last-mile fiber delivery mechanism.

17 Walker and Associates Awarded NASA Enterprise-Wide Procurement Contracts

support and multi-functional devices The principal purpose of the SEWP V through small business set asides, and in contracts is to provide state-of-the-art Group D, which provides networking/se- information technology and computer curity/video and conference tools for full technologies, high-end scientific and and open competition. engineering processing capabilities, network equipment and peripherals. These All the awards are for firm-fixed-price, in- Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts definite-delivery/indefinite-quantity con- are available for ordering by all NASA tracts. Each contract will have an effective centers, all federal agencies and their ordering period of 10 years, consisting of contractors. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight a five-year base period from Nov. 1 to Center, Greenbelt, Maryland procures Oct. 31, 2019, and one five-year option and manages the SEWP V effort. to extend the period of performance through Oct. 31, 2024. More information about the SEWP V program are available at: https://www.sewp. Walker’s CEO, Chrystie Brown, states nasa.gov/sewpv/. SEWP V officially opens "Walker and Associates is excited to be for business beginning May 1, 2015. Walker and Associates, Inc. has been a part of the NASA SEWP program. The awarded multiple contracts under the DOD and other government agencies For information about NASA and agency NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Pro- will now have easy access to our broad programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. curement (SEWP) V. More than 233 pro- product selection and carrier grade dis- posals were received for SEWP V. Walker tribution services. SEWP V will just be an and Associates received status in the expansion of what we already do reliably Group C contracts, which provide server well."

18 Managing the Physical Layer Pat Thompson Director, Global Product Management TE Connectivity Markley One Summer Street is New Eng- each hold 3,072 strands of fiber, while with cross-connects and records are au- land‘s largest and longest operating mis- providing several key fiber management tomatically updated. sion critical and multitenant data center. features. The operator recently provided its cus- “I really like the physical layer manage- tomers with improved redundancy and The Q-Frame installed at One Summer ment capabilities that we have with the reliability from its more than 80 domestic Street houses TE’s Q4000 managed net- new cross connect room and the ability and international network providers us- work chassis and blades, which supports to track port-to-port connections,” says ing an innovative cross connect frame TE’s Quareo Physical Layer Management McLean. “If a jumper gets unplugged, and physical layer management from TE Solution. The Quareo-enabled fiber we’ll know immediately. The enhanced Connectivity. jumpers, record real-time data from em- record keeping will help us to continue bedded microchips at the time of instal- to maintain availability and reduce our The Challenge lation. This information is then utilized meantime to repair because we can find One Summer Street houses more than by TE’s Quareo Infrastructure Configura- ports extremely quick.” 200 clients, including industry leading financial, healthcare, academic, government, entertainment, and science and technology firms. The One Summer Street data center features superior redundancy with service entry at both ends of the facility, and Markley Group’s robust data center has never experienced a primary power outage throughout its more than a decade of operation.

“I’m all for adding redundancy wherever possible, and I felt that we could improve it within our own facility between the carriers and the customers by adding yet another level of redundancy to our existing fourth-floor cross connect room,” said William (Bill) McLean, director of telecom operations for Markley Group. “Cross connects are what enable us to hand off access from the carriers to our customers—the carrier cable is terminated there and then extended to our customers’ suites.”

Markley Group decided to add redun- tion Manager (ICM) software to explore, Pat Thompson is director of dancy by adding an additional managed discover and map all connections and global product management fiber cross connect room to the fifth floor automatically record any changes to the for TE Connectivity, responsible of their 920,000 square-foot data center. connections as they happen. With this for physical layer manage- With eight points of entry into the cen- system, Markley Group can view, man- ment solutions. In this role, Mr. tralized Boston location and the ability age and audit all of the fiber connections Thompson is responsible for to provide customers with cost-effective within the frame and beyond. This infor- indentifying, developing and cloud services, unlimited bandwidth, low mation provides them with unprecedent- introducing new solutions that address the latency and direct connection to any car- ed security and business continuation by customers need to grow and operate their rier or enterprise, Markley Group needed making every interruption, intrusion or networks in a faster and more cost effective an all-inclusive system. outage instantaneously visible via graph- manner. ic display and reporting tools. The Solution Pat has more than 20 years of experience in Markley Group chose to provide im- Quareo physical layer management re- the telecom industry, he has held a variety of proved redundancy, reliability and diver- duced time-to-service for new clients Mechanical Engineering, Design Engineering, sity throughout the building utilizing cut- and those adding circuits. Because the Systems Engineering, Product Management ting-edge optical cabling from TE’s Cross network technicians can now see which and Business Development positions and Connect Frame (Q-Frame) system, com- ports are activated and open, they no has worked with service providers around plete with Quareo physical layer man- longer need to spend 2-3 days deploying the world to design, engineer, and manage agement. Specifically designed for fiber technicians to validate network data. To- fiber optic networks. Mr. Thompson holds a intensive data centers, the four Q-Frames day, there is real-time visibility to activate Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical En- selected for the new cross connect room circuits quickly, minimize human errors gineering from the University of Minnesota.

19 COMPLETELY COVERED COMPLETE COVERAGE Quareo Physical Layer Management Know, in real time, when and where connectivity changes take place in the network. End-to-End Digital DAS Solutions FlexWave products support multiple technologies and multiple frequency bands, addressing coverage and capacity needs for wireless networks.

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TE Connectivity is revolutionizing the way networks are maintained and controlled. With Quareo, network administrators A leader in digital DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems), TE is helping revolutionize the way people communicate through now have instant visibility to unauthorized physical intrusion, activity awareness control, and automatic documentation high performance and scalable wireless networking. FlexWave Prism and Spectrum offer mobile operators flexible changes. All of this while reducing troubleshooting time and expense by up to 68%. solutions for extending macro network coverage for 2G, 3G, and 4G services more cost-effectively than ever before. See how implementing a Quareo system can save you time and money at te.com/quareo See how our Digital DAS Solutions can increase your coverage and capacity at te.com/DAS

20 COMPLETELY COVERED COMPLETE COVERAGE Quareo Physical Layer Management Know, in real time, when and where connectivity changes take place in the network. End-to-End Digital DAS Solutions FlexWave products support multiple technologies and multiple frequency bands, addressing coverage and capacity needs for wireless networks.

Broadband Wireless Access

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REDUCE SLA UP TO IMPROVE UTILIZATION % REDUCE SERVICE UP TO PENALTIES BY 80% OF ASSETS BY 90 TURN-UP TIME BY 50%

21 Hot Swap Rectifiers

AC-DC Voltage/Power Range: 120/240 VAC Input 12, 24, 48, or 110 VDC Output 150 Watts - 14 kW Power Modules Components: Rectifiers, Battery Chargers, Power Modules, Power Supplies, Power Management, Rack Mount, Wall Mount, Desktop Systems: Hot Swap Rectifiers Shelves with Distribution and Monitoring Power Plants: Rack Mount Systems with Batteries

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22 Secure High-Speed Connectivity Protecting Critical Data in Motion without Compromise

By Dr. Michael Ritter VP. Technical Marketing & Analyst Relations ADVA Optical Networking

Cybercrime and espionage are on the rise measures within the walls of their data and set to intensify. IT decision makers centers. Encryption is the most effective are therefore not only concerned about way to increase the level of security and protecting data inside their own corpo- safeguard external network connections rate walls. They also look for solutions to against unauthorized access and us- protect their data when transported be- age of internal assets. While algorithmic tween their own locations and those of data encryption is a straightforward and their business partners. well-understood process, network-wide introduction of cryptography poses new Fiber-optic networks have long been con- challenges on enterprises and service sidered to be the fastest and most secure providers. method of moving information for just about every industry. Verticals including Network infrastructure providing scal- finance, telecommunications and health- able connectivity between locations and care as well as government sectors in- points of presence is at the heart of ev- terconnect their critical data appliances ery communication network. Securing with fiber-optic networks. As data theft data in motion by encryption at the con- and hacking technologies have become nectivity network layer ensures superior less expensive and easier to obtain and network performance, simplifies network use, fiber-optic networks have become operations and reduces the overall cost increasingly vulnerable. Cybercrime con- of data protection. Data encryption at the Enterprises of all sizes have been adopt- tinues to be on the rise and all industries lowest network layer also protects data ing cloud-based applications, in which fall victim to it. Industry research reports at all layers in the network stack, as ev- company data constantly interacts with conducted by organizations such as the erything must flow through the connec- customers, partners and suppliers and Ponemon Institute underline that corpo- tivity layer before going anywhere. ADVA where the cloud architecture takes on an rate and commercial espionage is real Optical Networking offers field-proven important role. The cloud has proven its and must be considered in the security and widely deployed network solutions ability to offer flexibility, scalability, ease plans for every organization. Focusing on for secure optical and Ethernet connec- of use and lower costs. As a result, more internal network security alone is not suf- tivity services. The ADVA ConnectGuard™ and more data is flowing outside of tradi- ficient as information traveling between security portfolio is designed for maxi- tional enterprise networks. But as cloud sites can be intercepted without a great mum security and highest transmission computing technology grows in popular- degree of difficulty. performance. ity, IT professionals are increasingly wor- ried about the data security threats that With security concerns increasing, most could jeopardize their company’s future. companies are focusing on preventative

Cybersecurity and UTC

UTC believes that of utilities telecommunications environment. tifies cybersecurity educational and certifica- cybersecurity is the UTC participates in a number of leading cyber- tion opportunities to help our members stay 21st century reliabil- security standards bodies to ensure that there current in the field. We also work to facilitate ity challenge. To help are useful and usable cybersecurity standards collaborative dialog among utilities, vendors our members address this challenge, we are that can help manage cybersecurity risks in and regulators to share best practices. implementing a comprehensive holistic strat- practical ways. UTC focuses on reducing dupli- egy that provides practical tools and informa- cation and facilitating harmonization of stan- Practical Tools tion about handling cybersecurity challenges dards to help our members streamline their UTC is developing and identifying practical in a utilities telecommunication environment. cybersecurity policy and standards implemen- tools that can help reduce cybersecurity risks tation. to critical infrastructure. We work with a va- UTC Cybersecurity design includes three ele- riety of partners across critical infrastructure ments: Education and Awareness industries, government agencies, standards Policies and Standards UTC’s facilitates cybersecurity awareness and bodies, and other industry associations to UTC helps create effective and practical cyber- information sharing among the critical infra- identify, tailor, or develop specific practical so- security policy environment globally. UTC is structure industry and with the policy makers. lutions to help our members manage cyberse- actively engaged in educating legislators and UTC helps share cybersecurity best practices curity risks. regulators on cybersecurity-related aspects and solutions to common problems and iden- (source; UTC.org)

23 Data Privacy for Mobile Backhaul Pete Moyer Principal Solutions Architect Brocade

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, it is Embedding security into the overall mo- providers use; with specific security for said that security is at the top of minds bile network architecture is critically im- devices, backhaul networks, EPC, ser- for most CIOs these days. The article stat- portant; as this network is based on IP vices and applications, and OSS/BSS. In ed that Piper Jaffray surveyed over 100 technologies for both the network con- this way, security and defense-in-depth CIOs and found that 75% plan to increase trol plane and user data plane traffic. In can be provided within each security do- security spending in 2015, up from 59% contrast, the previous 2G systems did main which allows greater control and last year. not have IP-based security mechanisms easier manageability. The question then [Reference: http://blogs.wsj.com/ embedded into the core of the network becomes: How does the provider secure cio/2015/01/07/piper-jaffray-security- as the 2G system was not based on IP the communications between the securi- again-the-top-cio-spending-priority/] standards. The 3G/4G adoption of packet ty domains? The NDS specifically requires switching and IP technologies requires a Security Gateway (SEG) node on each This survey result shouldn’t really sur- that the open and accessible protocols side of the security domain to concen- prise too many people in the networking associated with IP be specifically ad- trate and protect all traffic entering or industry. But what does this mean for dressed in the security architecture. The leaving each security domain. mobile providers; particularly the Tier 2 security specifications create a defense- & 3 mobile backhaul providers, in terms in-depth strategy, as security is enforced That is a somewhat simple use case for of network security? This article will take at multiple points and layers in the overall security services. A more interesting use a look at the requirements, challenges 3GPP architecture. It is well understood case involves LTE subscriber roaming and use cases for security services in this that security cannot be a bolt-on after- and true inter-domain communications market. thought; it must be embedded into the between mobile providers. system from inception. Security services The LTE network architecture project be- that are required include authentication, As depicted in Figure 2, below, home gan with 3GPP in 2004 to enhance the confidentiality, and integrity. routed roaming architecture diagram, UMTS architecture and optimize the ra- the roaming subscriber is attached to dio air interface and access architecture. he 3GPP 33.102 security specification a visited Public Land Mobile Network What is commonly referred to as “LTE” defines five functional areas for secur- (PLMN) but requires authentication, pol- today is actually standardized as the ing the mobile network: Network Access, icy, and PDN/IP services from its home Evolved Packet System (EPS), consisting Network Domain, User Domain, Applica- PLMN. The inter-domain connectivity of two distinct architectures – the Evolved tion Domain, and also includes the vis- between the Serving Gateway (SGW) and UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network ibility and configuration of security. This the Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) (E-UTRAN) addressing the radio aspects, article will focus on Network Domain becomes a critical interface for encryp- and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) ad- Security (NDS), specified in 3GPP 33.210, tion services. This S8 interface provides dressing the non-radio aspects. Togeth- which defines the features needed for se- the inter-PLMN reference point for the er, the E-UTRAN and EPC provide the net- curing the communications between EPC user data plane traffic. The traffic on this work system that enables mobile devices, nodes, including the backhaul links. The connection should be encrypted since or User Equipment (UE), to access various NDS is clearly focusing on the security as- the S8 is an external interface and this network operator and non-operator ser- pects of the IP network layer. encryption capability must perform at vices, including voice, video, and general a high level of performance, so as not Internet services. Here is a simple dia- The NDS specification introduces “secu- to negatively impact real-time applica- gram showing this architecture. rity domains” to the 3GPP EPS. While a tions and the associated user experience. single mobile provider manages its own There are additional challenges in terms Included in the 3GPP standards is a clear- domain from an administrative perspec- of scale and ease of deployment for pro- ly defined security architecture. This is tive, the mobile provider often divides its viding this aggregated data plane encryp- documented in the 3GPP Technical Speci- network into multiple security domains. tion; including the additional cost for pro- fication 33.102. This includes IP network These security domains typically align viding this type of inter-domain security. security and network element security. to the operational domains that mobile

24 This inter-domain use case for encryption each MNO network aggregates its traffic However, ‘not mandatory’ should not be services in the mobile EPC is very similar into a Diameter Edge Agent (DEA) to sup- mistaken for ‘not beneficial’. Encryption to the enterprise and service provider port scalability, resilience and maintain- is always beneficial; the question is one use case for encryption services on Inter- ability. The DEA is the only point of con- of “What are the trade-offs for providing DC connections. Most of these Inter-DC tact for traffic entering and exiting the encryption services in the mobile EPC connections are now being encrypted operator’s network. If the assumption is network when they are not outright re- due to the high degree of sensitivity of that the external interface from the DEA quired”? the traffic that is transported between to the IPX is not trusted, then security data-centers. This Inter-DC traffic is typi- policies and enforcement mechanisms Tier 2 & 3 mobile backhaul providers cally a mixture of customer user data should be applied here. could offer encryption as part of their traffic and internal enterprise application backhaul service to the Tier 1 carriers. traffic. Both of these traffic types benefit So, what does the IP network domain se- This could possibly be a differentiator from encryption services if they can be curity specification [3GPP Technical Spec- from the competing Tier 2 & 3 mobile provided at the required scale and per- ification 33.102] actually require for en- backhaul providers. formance levels, while meeting an ac- cryption services? The 3GPP security ar- ceptable price point. chitecture specifically calls out IPsec [IETF One additional EPC interface, the SGi, RFC 4301] for providing IP level security would also benefit from the encryption While the direct inter-PLMN use case may in the EPS. IPsec provides a wide set of services that IPsec provides. This is the require encryption services on the S8 external interface, a more interesting mo- bility roaming scenario is when a GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) is involved. The GRX network connects many Mobile Net- work Operators (MNO) together and provides a hub inter-connection service for the aggregation of roaming subscribers. In this use case, the roaming subscribers’ data traffic does not traverse a dedicated inter-PLMN link as in the use case from the previous blog. Another example of an exchange service between MNOs is the IP Exchange (IPX); which is a multiservice, enhanced IP exchange service that provides inter-domain connectivity for not only the MNOs but also for Fixed security services; such as, data integrity, external interface that connects the mo- Network Operators. [It is an interesting data origin authentication, anti-replay bile EPC to the Internet and other exter- side note that the IPX provides a similar protection, and confidentiality. The NDS nal domains and this interface should service for connecting mobile networks specifically requires IPsec with Encapsu- not be considered a trusted interface. It together as the Internet Exchange Point lating Security Payload (ESP) in tunnel is shown in Figure 2, below. (IXP) does for connecting ISPs together.] mode, where the entire original IP packet The widespread use of these roaming is encapsulated with a new packet head- So, there are several use cases and EPC exchanges raises yet another question: er added. The Internet Key Exchange (IKE) interfaces that would greatly benefit How does the security posture change v2 protocol [IETF RFC 5996] is required to from the encryption services that IPsec when the roaming exchanges are in the set up the security associations between provides. A few of these have been dis- middle, as compared to the direct inter- the nodes in the EPS. cussed in this article. In addition to IPsec, PLMN connections? MACsec is another possible encryption In addition to the inter-domain communi- services that could be deployed in mobile When comparing this IPX-based intercon- cations that may require IPsec encryption backhaul networks. MACsec operates at nection to the simpler direct inter-PLMN services, the internal mobile backhaul Ethernet Layer-2 while IPsec operates use case, the addition of the IPX cloud links also require integrity and confiden- at IP Layer-3. They are not mutually ex- in the middle poses some interesting tiality protection. The NDS specifies that clusive technologies; however, enabling security questions. The Stream Control all traffic in the mobile network requires both of them on the same links would not Transmission Protocol (SCTP) [IETF RFC security services; including control / man- be a common deployment scenario. 4960] based Diameter Base Protocol agement and user data plane traffic. [IETF RFC 6733] for control plane traffic There is one exception to this rule; that and the GPRS Tunneling Protocol for user is, when the network interfaces for user data plane traffic must both be secured data plane traffic are within the same through the external IPX network. In the domain and are trusted (e.g. physically Diameter traffic scenario depicted above, protected), then IPsec is not mandatory.

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CMY

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SIP Has Evolved, Making Unified Communications Easily Accessible to All -SIP offers a platform that easily integrates all UC technologies onto one easy-to-manage solution By: Phil Bowers Global Marketing Communications Manager Grandstream Networks, Inc.

If you ask most non-engineers what they to registered phones when a guest ap- know about SIP, their answer will proba- pears and allows the door to be opened bly involve the terms “VoIP” and “internet directly from the phone. Use the existing telephony.” Launched in the early 2000s, SIP network to create an intercom sys- SIP has primarily been seen as a voice tem – either through the SIP cameras transmission protocol (VoIP), though it and their audio inputs/outputs or built-in has always had the ability to do so much speaker/microphone – or through the SIP more than just voice. SIP – and SIP hard- telephony system. Through use of analog ware – has evolved to integrate all sorts telephone adapters and/or IP video en- of communication technologies and ap- coders, you can even integrate existing plications in addition to voice. Where analog phones or cameras that you may separate networks (sometimes propri- already have. etary) and complicated installations used to be needed for every communication Who does this integration benefit, you technology, from video conferencing to ask? Everyone. End-user customers re- C voice calls to video surveillance, SIP of- ceive a state-of-the-art unified communi- M fers one simple platform that easily con- Figure 1: SIP Unified Communication Network cations platform that is fully future proof verges all of these communications into and allows them to communicate and Y one easy-to-manage solution. For these phones, and workers can make video calls keep in touch like never before. Install- CM purposes, “SIP” might as well stand for to employees or clients using the same ers and integrators are able to offer their

MY “simple integration process.” Thanks to extension without any configuration. customers more communication options the evolvement of SIP, unified communi- You can fully customize a voice network than ever before, which are all easily and CY cations have never been as accessible, as to route calls in a variety of ways to the efficiently installed and can be managed

CMY easy to use or as easy to install. appropriate contact. Easily add video sur- remotely. This simply expands the value veillance protection using the same net- of any resellers’ business. Finally, dis- K Let’s take a look at a detailed example of work infrastructure already in place and tributors and service providers are able this integration in Figure 1. You can de- allow those cameras to proactively send to expand their offerings to include more ploy a SIP network that allows employ- out alerts when security events occur. in-demand technology that their custom- ees to make and receive video confer- You can integrate a door access solution ers can quickly and easily take advantage. ences while allowing in-office or remote into the same network, where door ac- employees to call in using voice or video cess cameras make SIP voice/video calls In case you could not tell, SIP has evolved.

Walker Awarded Americas Telco Partner of the Year by Juniper Networks Randy Turner Director, Marketing Communications Walker and Associates

Walker and Associates announced that it “Walker has a successful record in the ceive this award, which recognizes sig- has received the Americas Telco Partner telecommunications market and this nificant collaboration and teamwork be- of the Year Award from Juniper Networks, award is further validation of their com- tween Juniper Networks and Walker on the industry lead in network innovation. mitment to Juniper and our mutual cus- behalf of our customers,” stated Lisa Smi- Walker and Associates was recognized tomers. We look forward to continued ley, Marketing vice president at Walker. at IDEAS/Connected 2015 by Juniper ex- growth by jointly solving challenging cus- “Through our strategic alliance with Juni- ecutives for outstanding overall perfor- tomer problems,” said Jonathan Belcher, per, we offer robust technical solutions mance and its ongoing commitment to vice president, Americas Partner Sales, that match emerging growth areas in the providing market-differentiating, value- Juniper Networks. all IP network, including virtualization.“ added services and resources to the service provider market. “Walker and Associates is pleased to re-

27 ASSURED NETWORKING A Critical Foundation for Today’s Networks

By Renee Reinke Sr. Advisor Industry Marketing Ciena Corporation As evidenced by the increasing number of media reports about massive cybersecurity breaches at corporations—from Anthem to Sony, Target, eBay, and others—information security is now a board- room issue.

The steady stream of bad news under- scores the difficulties inherent in protecting organizational information and maintaining data privacy. Cybercrime, ‘hacktivism,’ and advanced persistent attacks continually threaten enterprise networks. Preventing attacks by keeping bad guys out using traditional techniques such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems are no longer enough.

Today, more than ever, networks play a critical role in creating a more stable, safe, and resilient enterprise infrastructure. Three essential technology ele- the lowest levels of the OSI stack, Layers previous year, reaching $3.5M . Breach- ments are key to protecting critical in- 0-2.5, and can be architected to deliver a es are practically inevitable, but data frastructure: availability, encryption, and very high degree of resiliency. Networks can still be protected in flight by utiliz- authentication. based on Ciena’s 6500 Packet Optical ing FIPS-certified encryption solutions. Platform leverage various protection, Network-level encryption solutions like For many large enterprises, sudden or restoration, and control plane technolo- Ciena’s 6500 4x10G encryption card de- unexpected downtime is considered gies to deliver up to six-9s (99.9999%) livers wire-speed throughput with a low- more than inconvenient, as network dis- availability, meeting the requirements of latency AES-256 encryption solution that ruptions can wreak havoc on ‘business today’s enterprise networks. supports a variety of communication pro- as usual,’ resulting in revenue losses tocols, helping enterprises better protect and damaging customer loyalty. Packet- According to a 2014 Ponemon Institute personal or confidential information and optical network technologies function at research study, the average cost of a ensure full compliance with legal and fed- data breach rose 15 percent over the eral privacy and security mandates. See Figure one.

Finally, organizations must be able to authenticate network elements in their network to ensure only authorized devices are present and that they can only be managed by appropriate personnel. Integrating within existing enterprise PKI infrastructures, Ciena’s 6500 solution simplifies this task.

Information security requires the protection of network infrastructure and the in-flight data transiting the network. Network availability and resiliency ensure the performance of the network. Encryp- tion and authentication ensure data privacy is maintained across the network in spite of cyber breaches of in-flight data. Ciena’s 6500 is well-positioned to support enterprises as they strive to shore up network availability and information security on daily operations.

28 Attacks, Regulations Drive Utility Focus on Cybersecurity By Dave Thomas Business Development Director RAD violation are Systems Security Manage- A dynamic cyber risk management ap- The alarming increase in cyber attacks ment and Electronic Security Perimeter. proach, likely to become the norm, puts a on critical infrastructure poses new risk Systems Security Management focuses premium on the capability to adjust con- management challenges for utilities. At on port control and access, patch man- trols to new threats, requiring security the same time, the need to comply with agement, malicious code detection and managers to invest in highly adaptable the North American Electric Reliability prevention, incident log capabilities, and security solutions. NERC CIP 5, the latest Corporation's (NERC's) latest Critical In- access controls; Electronic Security Pe- series of standards, aligns with that ap- frastructure Protection (CIP) require- rimeters are aimed at managing elec- proach. ments is focusing utilities' concentration tronic access by guarding against com- on the problem, at the risk of significant promise that could lead to misoperation An ideal NERC CIP 5-compliant solution fines for non-compliance. or instability. Additionally, provisions should include a SCADA-aware firewall, have to be included to insure protection dynamic configuration for detecting and The latest detailed reports from the De- against internal breaches whether acci- deep analysis of various SCADA pro- partment of Homeland Security note dental or intentional. tocols, anomaly detections for traffic that some 40 percent of cyber attacks on spikes, failover communication redun- U.S. targets were aimed at energy sector To address these two areas in particular dancy, and automatic detection of "nor- companies. This poses major risk-man- requires a solution that provides resilient mal" baselines. agement issues for utilities, among the cybersecurity controls for remote substa- most challenging of which is the need to tions in compliance with the NERC CIP Of course, introducing new security mea- improve security in remote substations. standards. sures to remote locations adds to the strain on already overburdened utility By definition, remote substations are of- An optimal solution, for example, would IT staffs. In an increasingly hostile cyber ten difficult to access, making timely and function as a comprehensive SCADA se- landscape, security managers need solu- effective response difficult for even the curity appliance, with security and ef- tions configured with a hardened security most qualified cybersecurity and SCADA ficiency advantages, such as the ability baseline for resilience, as well as ease of network experts. This drives the need for to dynamically reconfigure each SCADA configuration modification and change solutions that can be monitored, man- device within a remote substation. This management to increase efficiencies. aged, and reconfigured as needed from would include IPsec VPN tunnels, sepa- a central site. rate access controls, whitelisting, and re- Dave Thomas is Business Development Director for mote collection of logs. RAD, provider of security and migration solutions NERC data shows that the top areas for for power utilities. MHEC Contract Award Ciena available from Walker and Associates, Inc. Colleges, universities, K-12 districts and compacts in the United States, MHEC works. The contract also features value schools in 41 states can use national dis- serves approximately 1,000 public and added services such as custom cable as- tributor Walker and Associates, Inc. for private nonprofit institutions – more than semblies, kitting, material management, less, thanks to an agreement with the 4 million students. The agreement also integration, and installation. Midwestern Higher Education Compact extends to the Southern Regional Edu- (MHEC) for Ciena wavelength divisional cation Board and the Western Interstate The competitively awarded contract es- multiplexing products. Commission for Higher Education – 41 tablishes ceiling pricing for wavelength states in total. division multiplexing equipment, soft- Colleges and universities have seen the ware, and related services. increased growth in communications on Walker and Associates is an authorized their campuses simply because everyone telecommunications distributor for Ci- Questions: is connected in some fashion through ena’s wavelength division multiplex- John Lackey their electronic devices, Many campuses ing equipment and software. Ciena’s Sr. Sales Executive underestimate these fiber optic needs Packet-Optical Platform converges three P: 800.840.2259 and multiplexing has been proven to be comprehensive networking layers into a D: 336.731.5474 a more cost effective solution. single platform to provide customizable F: 336.731.1647 services from the access edge, along the [email protected] One of four regional higher education backbone core, and across regional net- Contract: MHEC-02262015

29 Headlines regularly inform us of the pub- usually a result of who the leader is. What derlying clarity of purpose is the starting lic downfall of leaders from almost every the leader does then flows naturally from point for all effective communication. It’s area of endeavor--business, politics, reli- inner vision and character. It is possible only when you’re absolutely clear about gion, and sports. One day they’re on top for a leader to become too action ori- what you want to convey that the hard of the heap, the next, the heap’s on top ented and, in the process, lose touch with work of communicating pays dividends. of them. the more important development of self. Warning Sign #3: Risk Aversion Of course, we think that such catastroph- What is your primary focus right now? If ic failure could never happen to us. you can’t write it on the back of your busi- Third, leaders at risk often begin to be We’ve worked hard to achieve our well- ness card, then it’s a sure bet that your driven by a fear of failure rather than the deserved positions of leadership--and we leadership is suffering from a lack of clar- desire to succeed. Past successes cre- won’t give them up for anything! The bad ity. Take the time necessary to get your ate pressure for leaders: “Will I be able news is: the distance between beloved focus back on what’s important. to sustain outstanding performance?” leader and despised failure is shorter “What will I do for an encore?” In fact, the than we think. Further, would you describe your thinking longer a leader is successful, the higher as expansive or contractive? Of course, his or her perceived cost of failure. Ken Maupin, a practicing psychotherapist you always should be willing to do what- and colleague, has built his practice on ever it takes to get the job done, but try When driven by the fear of failure, lead- working with high-performance person- never to take on what others can do as ers are unable to take reasonable risks. alities, including leaders in business, re- well as you. In short, make sure that your They want to do only the tried and prov- ligion, and sports. Ken and I have often focus is on leading rather than doing. en; attempts at innovation--typically a discussed why leaders fail. Our discus- key to their initial success--diminish and sions have led to the following “warning Warning Sign #2: Poor eventually disappear. signs” of impending failure. Communication Which is more important to you: the at- Warning Sign #1: A Shift in Focus A lack of focus and its resulting disorien- tempt or the outcome? Are you still tak- tation typically lead to poor communica- ing reasonable risks? Prudent leadership This shift can occur in several ways. Of- tion. Followers can’t possibly understand never takes reckless chances that risk the ten, leaders simply lose sight of what’s a leader’s intent when the leader him- or destruction of what has been achieved, important. The laser-like focus that cata- herself isn’t sure what it is! And when but neither is it paralyzed by fear. Often pulted them to the top disappears, and leaders are unclear about their own pur- the dance of leadership is two steps for- they become distracted by the trappings pose, they often hide their confusion and ward, one step back. of leadership, such as wealth and noto- uncertainty in ambiguous communica- riety. tion. Warning Sign #4: Ethics Slip

Leaders are usually distinguished by their Sometimes, leaders fall into the clairvoy- A leader’s credibility is the result of two ability to “think big.” But when their focus ance trap. In other words, they begin to aspects: what he or she does (compe- shifts, they suddenly start thinking small. believe that truly committed followers tency) and who he or she is (character). They micromanage, they get caught up in automatically sense their goals and know A discrepancy between these two aspects details better left to others, they become what they want without being told. Mis- creates an integrity problem. consumed with the trivial and unimport- understanding is seen by such managers ant. And to make matters worse, this ten- as a lack of effort (or commitment) on the The highest principle of leadership is dency can be exacerbated by an inclina- listener’s part, rather than their own com- integrity. When integrity ceases to be a tion toward perfectionism. munication negligence. leader’s top priority, when a compromise of ethics is rationalized away as necessary A more subtle leadership derailer is an “Say what you mean, and mean what you for the “greater good,” when achieving re- obsession with “doing” rather than “be- say” is timeless advice, but it must be pre- sults becomes more important than the coming.” The good work of leadership is ceded by knowing what you mean! An un- means to their achievement--that is the

30 moment when a leader steps onto the tiring. Leaders who fail to take care of Heed the Signs slippery slop of failure. their physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs are headed for disas- The warning signs in life--from stop lights Often such leaders see their followers ter. Think of having a gauge for each of to prescription labels--are there for our as pawns, a mere means to an end, thus these four areas of your life--and check good. They protect us from disaster, and confusing manipulation with leadership. them often! When a gauge reaches the we would be foolish to ignore them. As These leaders lose empathy. They cease “empty” point, make time for refresh- you consider the six warning signs of to be people “perceivers” and become ment and replenishment. Clear your leadership failure, don’t be afraid to take people “pleasers,” using popularity to schedule and take care of yourself--it’s an honest look at youself. If any of the ease the guilt of lapsed integrity. absolutely vital to your leadership that warnings ring true, take action today! you continue to grow and develop, a task The good news is: by paying attention to It is imperative to your leadership that that can be accomplished only when your these signs and heeding their warnings, you constantly subject your life and work tanks are full. you can avoid disaster and sustain the to the highest scrutiny. Are there areas kind of leadership that is healthy and ful- of conflict between what you believe and Warning Sign #6: Lost Love filling both for yourself and your follow- how you behave? Has compromise crept ers. into your operational tool kit? One way The last warning sign of impending disas- to find out is to ask the people you de- ter that leaders need to heed is a move pend on if they ever feel used or taken away from their first love and dream. for granted. Paradoxically, the hard work of leadership should be fulfilling and even fun. But Warning Sign #5: Poor Self when leaders lose sight of the dream that Management compelled them to accept the responsi- Mark Sanborn is an acclaimed bility of leadership, they can find them- speaker, bestselling author and Tragically, if a leader doesn’t take care of selves working for causes that mean little president of Sanborn And Associates him- or herself, no one else will. Unless to them. They must stick to what they Inc, an idea studio for leadership a leader is blessed to be surrounded by love, what motivated them at the first, to development. For more information more-sensitive-than-normal followers, maintain the fulfillment of leadership. about Mark’s work and related nobody will pick up on the signs of fatigue resources, visit www.marksanborn. and stress. Leaders are often perceived To make sure that you stay on the track com. For information about booking to be superhuman, running on unlimited of following your first love, frequently ask Mark, please contact Helen Broder at energy. yourself these three questions: Why did 703-757-1204. I initially assume leadership? Have those While leadership is invigorating, it is also reasons changed? Do I still want to lead?

1.866.TR Y.GLCC

31 32 Using virtualization to Reduce the Business Risks of Launching New Services

Launching a new service by the telecommunication industry is not an easy task: it requires a lot of research and planning in order to make sure the huge investment is safe. Profits come from taking business risks, but in front of a huge investment, corporations prefer to take calculated risks. The dependency of telecom services to heavy network investments, limits the amount of innovation they bring in the portfolio, specifically when compared with the Over-the-top OTT providers.

Those Telecom Providers looking to reduce their investment risk while continuing to innovate in new services, should introduce the following technologies in their processes: • Virtualization in x86 compute platforms to reduce the dependency on dedicated infrastructure • Build a common platform for innovation After working with some customers, we • Automated network analysis and have identified some key advantages: optimization • Building an Open platform reduces • Automate the service provisioning the vendor lock-in risks. with NFV MANO • Each new service will be based in • DevOps to accelerate the VM instances with no hardware development of new services dependencies. • Transforming the Service Provider • Rapid time-to-market with simplified Organization integration. • The fixed cost of launching a new The new culture helps Service Providers service is limited to the integration to innovate faster over a common to the platform. Variable costs platform and reduce the upfront costs in include compute, bandwidth usage launching a new service. and each individual software license. • Working on a common platform Where do we start? and variable costs model, allow A good place to start experimenting using service providers to maintain a large the new techniques for service-creation is number of services portfolio with in areas of real potential revenue growth lower penetration ratios. with high uncertainty. • Service providers can fast-fail non profitable services with limited loss Many service providers see the and use the learning to plan future potential of the ICT services market for services. enterprises. The traditional approach requires sophisticated CPEs but the It is true that the price/performance ratio scope of services is too limited, expensive for some services is better in physical and inflexible. With infrastructure infrastructure than virtual. Virtualization virtualization, carriers could build a mitigates the risk by allowing carriers to modular platform with lots of options to experiment with new services, and if they the market. A customer can personalize are successful in the market, they can be services through a self-service portal with transferred to a more scalable physical ‘instant’ activation. infrastructure.

33 Tal Strolicht recently Craig T. Feigh joined joined Walker and As- Walker and Associates as sociates as Regional Ac- Regional Account Man- count Manager for the ager for the Heartland BlueSteel Territory, cov- Territory, covering Cen- ering TN, OH, MI, IN and turyLink, Sprint, Charter KY. Over his career he Communications, and has taken on a variety of Zayo. I also cover all ac- roles in sales, engineer- counts in the states of Arkansas, Kansas, ing, marketing, strategic planning and Missouri, and Oklahoma. product management, working for some of the leading companies in the telecom- He has been in the telecom industry for munications industry including ADTRAN, over 30 years and was fortunate to work Nortel, Lucent, Symmetricom, and Calix. for such great companies as Tellabs, Cerent/Cisco, Redback, and Fujitsu. His- “I look forward to working closely with my background and areas of expertise are in customers to add value and help in net- optical transport, access data, broadband work design options. I am very excited to wireless, and taking great care of custom- join the team of experienced profession- ers. als at Walker,” stated Strolicht. He can be reached by phone at 615-427-8280, or by Feigh stated “I am very excited to join email at [email protected]. the team of experienced professionals at Walker and Associates. As a Value Added Distributor, we offer everything from product selection and advice to stocking, Trevor Reynolds re- inventory management, engineering sup- cently joined Walker port, as well as many EF&I Services. and Associates as Re- gional Account Man- He can be contacted by phone at 913-908- ager for the Northwest 9082, or by email at craig.feigh@walker- territory, covering Alas- first.com. ka, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Over the past 14 years Reynolds has- worked with Alcatel-Lucent as a Systems Micheaux Simmons has Engineer. His background and areas of joined Walker’s Engineer- expertise include microwave, optical, IP, ing/Tech Service depart- LTE, cell site backhaul and a number of ment as the SmartRG other technical disciplines. OEM Development Man- ager. His responsibilities Trevor states “I am honored to join the include network design team of experienced professionals at and engineering, pre- Walker. Earlier in my career I was one of sales support, configuration manage- Walker’s customers while working for a ment, product market support, brandi- CLEC. Walker has a great reputation for ing and more. Micheaux most recently combining best of breed technologies worked as an installer/technician for with best practices to provide solutions residential gateways at AT&T. He and that give customers a maximum return his family recently relocated to Winston- on their investment.” Salem, NC. Micheaux can be reached at 336.731.5362, or by email at micheaux. He can be reached by phone at 509-990- [email protected] 3661 or by email at trevor.reynolds@ walkerfirst.com.

34 Reggy Jones has joined Annette Bittner has been Trey Hall has been pro- Walker and Associates, promoted to the posi- moted to Vice President effective May 1. Reggy tion of OEM Development of Marketing and Tech- has over 10 years of Manager with Walker, nology at Walker and specific SEWP sales ac- moving from her role as Associates. Trey joined count experience with Inside Sales Executive. Her Walker in late 2013 as SEWP III and IV and experience in sales spans the Director of West Re- a total of 22 years in nearly a decade, and in- gion Sales for Walker Federal Sales and Procurement. He has cludes work with strate- where he successfully led a sales team worked for both small and large com- gic carrier accounts in the northeast responsible for growing market share panies supporting Federal government US. She is a past recipient of the Inside throughtout western North America. purchases. Prior companies include PC- Salesperson of the Year Award, in addi- Mall-G, Northrop Grumman IT, and Gov- tion to having received several sales per- Trey has worked in the telecommunica- ernment Micro Resources (GMR). He has formance awards from Walker manufac- tions industry for over 16 years, previous- a degree in Business Administration and turer partners. ly working at Fujitsu Network Communi- Finance. cations where he served in various roles Her new role involves building and main- including channel sales, business man- Reggy’s background includes enterprise taining relationships with targeted management, and operations management. equipment sales, such as HP, Dell, Cis- ufacturers, forecasting sales, running Trey holds an MBA from the University of co, Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, VMWare, marketing campaigns for those manufac- Texas Dallas and an Industrial Engineer- Oracle/Sun, Synmantec, APC and Xerox. turers, contract and pricing negotiations, ing BS from Texas A&M University. Walker looks forward to adding his expe- assisting with resolving customer issues, rience and professionalism to its current and more. Her manufacturer accounts Trey can be reached at 336-731-5275, or Federal group. include Tellabs, Telco Systems, Overture by email at [email protected]. Networks, Coriant America, Polycom, Mi- Reggie can be reached at 336-731-5239, tel, Grandstream, Digium, and ZyXEL. or by email at reggie.jones@walkerfirst. com. Annette can be reached at 336-731-5378, or by email at annette.bittner@walkerfirst.com.

ADVA ConnectGuard™ Private and Secure Connectivity for Cloud-Based Applications

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35 Walker and Associates-1.pdf 1 3/26/2015 3:51:51 PM

Innovative Unified Communication Solutions

GXP1610 GXP2140 GXP2160 C

CMY

K UCM6102 IP PBX

GXV3240 HT702 ATA GXV3275

All Grandstream products are available at:

www.grandstream.com [email protected] Walker and Associates-1.pdf 1 3/26/2015 3:51:51 PM

As the Internet of Things Becomes Reality, SDN and NFV Become Essential By Dr. Michael Ritter VP. Technical Marketing & Analyst Relations ADVA Optical Networking

The Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved compete for connections. New methods And SDN and NFV can be instrumental to be more than a vision. It is being built to monetize the relationship between in other ways too. The IoT will be real- today. Cisco predicts that 50 billion de- endpoints and the network need to be ity soon but we’ll need to be wary about Innovative Unified Communication Solutions vices could be connected to the IoT by developed and designed to supports mi- putting our trust in each and every thing. 2020. When you consider the 8 billion gration and evolution in order to enable Hyper-connectivity will threaten us in phones already in existence as well as applications beyond the imagination of an entirely new way, creating the need the rapid adoption of wearables such as today. for more secure network architectures activity wristbands and smart watches, it and services. Things cannot be secured. appears that this forecast could well be- SDN and NFV are core technologies on There are far too many devices with an come reality. this evolutionary path. Defining functions incredible variety of operating systems in software and decoupling them from and hardware configurations. The best The IoT’s value proposition seems hardware means that architectures can hope for preserving end-user privacy, for straightforward and the stakeholders are be more easily tweaked as IoT require- ensuring data integrity and for protecting known. The debate about what it means ments evolve. The implementation of devices against intrusions and corruption to our communication and control net- SDN and NFV technology will radically is adopting SDN and NFV in our networks. works has yet to start. It is common sense improve service agility, operational effi- that our networks have to evolve to be ciencies and innovation capabilities. This As the IoT gathers speed, software- able to collect, analyze and share data in will create a foundation that can meet the defined SDN and NFV approaches will GXP1610 GXP2140 GXP2160 real-time between appliances that tradi- challenges and requirements imposed by become integral. Through them we will C tionally have lacked IP connectivity. the IoT. achieve the agility and security needed M to support billions of connected devices So what will really happen when things, and services and only then will the vision Y “New methods to homes and cities become smart? The In- become reality. CM ternet of Things Council predicts that the monetize the relationship MY result will probably be a tsunami of what between endpoints and at first looks like very small changes. 50 CY billion devices will generate a staggering the network need to be CMY amount of data and data without analyt- developed and designed K ics is fairly useless. Our networks are cru- cial when it comes to enabling real-time to supports migration UCM6102 IP PBX analysis of sensor data. And they’ll need to become much more agile to enable and evolution in order hyper-scale distributed processing at af- to enable applications fordable cost. beyond the imagination of It’s easy to imagine that today’s networks today.” are unprepared for it. They are skeptical, even hostile when it comes to connecting new devices. Their focus is on proof-of- compliance involving devices, the user and many other parameters that make it difficult for endpoints to add themselves GXV3240 HT702 ATA GXV3275 and communicate with service, data analytics and control instances hosted some- where in the cloud. What the IoT needs are networks that welcome endpoints. In the future, successful networks will even All Grandstream products are available at:

www.grandstream.com [email protected] 37 As an active member of multiple state, regional and national industry associations, Walker and Associates is strategically engaged with organizations supporting telecommunications markets. We demonstrate our commitment through event sponsorships, exhibiting at conferences and expos, and directory advertising.

Look for us at the events listed here, and refer to the Upcoming Events section of our website, www.walkerfirst.com, for additional details.

We look forward to seeing you at these events!

JUNE Proud Member of: * TIA Future of the Network 2015 Dallas, TX TTA Annual Meeting Franklin, TN * NYSTA Annual Conference Clayton, NY OTA 120th Annual Convention Columbus, OH OTA-WITA Joint Annual Meeting Gleneden Beach, OR ITA Annual Convention - Illinois French Lick, IN MEMBER TAM Annual Convention Rockport, ME * Tri-State Meeting Charleston, SC JULY * PTA’s 113th Annual Convention Hershey, PA CTA Summer Convention and Showcase Breckenridge, CO AUGUST Tri-State Telecommunications Conf. Jackson Hole, WY Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers TTA Convention & Product Showcase San Antonio, TX ACTA Cable Show Orange Beach, AL NCEC/NCAEC Technology Conference North Myrtle Beach, SC TechNet Augusta Augusta, GA SEPTEMBER * OSP Expo Denver, CO * UTC Regions 1 & 2 Meeting Galloway, NJ ITA Vendors’ Showcase East Peoria, IL Northeast Telecommunications Showcase Binghamton, NY (NETS) OTA CO-IT Seminar Florence, OR Great Lakes Technology Showcase Cleveland, OH

* - Indicates Walker and Associates is an event sponsor

38 Networks that know all the shortcuts.

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Contact your Walker and Associates account manager to start your trial today.

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