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Multimegabit WAN technologies

S

spidey07

No Lifer
What options are there to build a decent sized WAN with speeds at each site from 1-4 Mbs?

Frame-Relay is an option, but can get pricey. Plus you're limited by the slow T1 access. T3s are just WAY too expensive.

Any options? DSL is kinda out of the question because it maxes out at T1.5 speeds (our preferred provider) and there is no way in hell I'm gonna have a different provider at different sites. It must be through a single company.
 
Whatever happened to SMDS?
How do you feel about inverse multiplexing?
Are there any cheap metro Ethernet / ATM providers in your area?
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
Whatever happened to SMDS?
How do you feel about inverse multiplexing?
Are there any cheap metro Ethernet / ATM providers in your area?
Click to expand...

IMA is alright, but you still have the lame serilization dely of T1s.

I'd entertain SMDS if I can remember what it is. 🙂

Its becoming a real challenge - Produce quality WAN at reasonable cost.
 
SMDS = Switched Multimegabit Data Service, basically Frame Relay but the speed scaled up. It came out in the same time frame as ATM was going to take over the world, and I don't know if it survived. Worth inquiring about though.

IMA does have its problems, but at least it makes life easier from a carrier perspective - just get T1s, which everyone seems to be able to deal with.
 
A quick Google search on SMDS shows that it's based on the same 53 byte insanity as ATM. Might as well get ATM instead of SMDS it looks like. Surprisingly, if you can stomach ATM, you can get it very cheap - providers with ATM infrastructure going mostly unused will sometimes all but give it away. Reliability wise, I'd take inverse multiplexing any day over ATM though 😉
 
Yeah, that's definitely NOT the sweet spot for WANs - Under 1.5 and over about 10 is where things work out best. My company uses T1 IMA all the time with frame relay. Not the best solution in the world, but it seems to do the trick for us.

- G
 
spidey07, that's what I'd do. T1s and frame T1s are very solid and well understood, and while they aren't the world's cheapest thing they're also not terribly expensive if you really have a business need.

Though do investigate metro Ethernet availability - worth asking about. Cogent, Yipes, and a few others provide this and might be able to cut you an especially interesting deal if you're all-private (not using outside-world bandwidth).
 
The problem really is that T1s are too slow. Even 50 people can fill a T1 for hours at a time.

Oh well, we'll see what I come up with.
 
Yeah, they are slow, but that's what IMA is for - Need more than 1.5? How about 3? Maybe 4.5? I've always seen the costs of T1 vs DS3 starts to get close once you're at about 6 T1's. I'm personally not a fan of using more than 4. If it's an office who needs more than 6Mb/s, go for the relability of the DS3.

- G
 
Is 802.11B not secure enough? My brother in law is using it to connect his network to the internet and then shares that connection by broadcasting through another antenna to a different site.
 
Originally posted by: ryandmiller
Is 802.11B not secure enough? My brother in law is using it to connect his network to the internet and then shares that connection by broadcasting through another antenna to a different site.
Click to expand...

Only real problem is reaching LA, new york, atlanta, dallas, chicago, etc. 🙂

WAN = wide area network, generally spanning the US.
 
Originally posted by: ryandmiller
Is 802.11B not secure enough? My brother in law is using it to connect his network to the internet and then shares that connection by broadcasting through another antenna to a different site.
Click to expand...


I believe you're referring to the industry term WLAN = Wireless LAN.

.. And 802.11B is not secure at all. Anybody with a reasonable amount of wireless savvy could probably sit in the parking lot and see his traffic. There are things to make it MORE secure like Cisco LEAP, but not very many.

- G
 
Have you looked into satellite? VSAT / USAT is capable of multi-megabit speeds, though there is some latency, for obvious reasons. I've used VSAT for VideoConferencing from a "boat" in the Caymans, it's not THAT bad. Depending on the time of day, bandwidth needs, number of sites, you may be able to negotiate a pretty good deal.

Check out Hughs (they own the birds, generally they contract out the bandwidth through brokers/contractors).

In the MAN for many of the large cities (SBC cities anyway) there's GigaMAN (Gigabit Ethernet out to ~100 miles).

SMDS may be nearly dead - it was primarily a MAN protocol.

Chances are you'll end up with IMA. Try different manufacturers, performance varies greatly from one guy to the next. We did some IMA testing in the Lab a few years ago. I think Marconi beat most everybody. SInce they've changed their focus, I'm not sure if they still offer IMA product.

FWIW

Scott
 
Satellite? Eww. 2,000 MS latency kills that for me, unless it's for large-scale data distribution and not for anything interactive.

- G
 
Well, NUTS! He ruled out all the normal stuff...

I figured it was time to venture into the world of the bizarre.... 😀

Finding a coast-to-coast dark fiber provider is a.) not easy and b.) not cheap (compared to what's available).

What's next? Point-to-point laser relay? (really cool, BTW), 2-3X DS3 Microwave private network? Make your investment back by selling off unused bandwidth.....that's how SPRINT got started (S.P.R.I.N.T = Southern Pacific Railway Information Telecommunications(?)(something that starts with a "T"))...

Data Telepathy is still another couple years off (also very cool...and there won't be any "Paper Certified Data Telepaths" - finally a cert that means something!).

Pigeons are still sub-sonic, smoke signals don't work in the rain ... Yodeling would work if there weren't all the damn community cerfew/anti-noise pollution laws.

I'm just out of ideas here; I've hit the wall. I'm thinking he's stuck with the traditional.....IMUX or Fract T3 (though the Frac T3 does offer some attractive options at the home office) ... go fully diverse routing, get some SONET action happnin' ....ya never know.

.02

Scott





 
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