That is Half II of a three-blog sequence on options to beat challenges related to bridging the digital divide.
Within the earlier weblog (see Bridging the Digital Divide with Subscriber Edge), we mentioned the standard broadband community design. On this weblog, we’ll concentrate on a brand new structure for broadband networks, and the challenges that they deal with.
Transferring to a distributed structure
The power to allow subscriber features on totally different layers or units within the community supplies a chance to optimally place subscriber edge within the community to assist match economical and user-experience wants. For instance, on condition that video quantities to greater than 75% of the amount of whole subscriber visitors, versatile termination permits for the environment friendly offload of video visitors nearer to the subscriber via cautious placement of content material caches and the addition of peering factors. Distributed termination of subscribers improves the general person expertise because the visitors follows a extra perfect path that optimizes capability utilization and helps decrease latency for demanding purposes.
With this distributed structure, communication service suppliers (CSPs) can save prices by lowering unneeded bandwidth upgrades of all the community via visitors offload additional downstream. Nonetheless, with extra distributed placement of subscriber edge features utilizing totally different termination fashions, CSPs might face challenges with scaling, managing, and working subscriber companies networks.
To unravel these challenges, Broadband Discussion board outlined the Management and Consumer Aircraft Separation (CUPS) mannequin for the Broadband Community Gateway (BNG) in TR-459 (see Determine 1). CUPS allows distribution of person/information planes nearer to the subscriber, permitting the management aircraft operate to be centralized. This can be a important change from the standard BNG structure—the place management aircraft and person aircraft features are tightly built-in and carried out by the identical system. This new distributed architectural method takes benefit of CUPS to supply newer broadband companies and use circumstances which can be totally different from conventional choices.
Centralizing the management aircraft operate helps decrease operational prices in a distributed subscriber edge operate that may be non-uniform with various necessities on scalability, kind issue, and position.
CUPS additionally allows new income streams or fashions, which weren’t attainable with the standard structure, reminiscent of differentiated service plans. For instance, service suppliers can provide a day/evening plan, the place subscribers are provisioned or moved to a smaller set of person planes throughout the evening for price financial savings and potential sustainability advantages.
Prospects may also provide tiered plans with Platinum, Gold, and Finest-Effort, based mostly on redundancy capabilities to assist defend premium subscribers from person aircraft, entry, or web site failures. With the management aircraft not tightly built-in with the person aircraft, and full visibility of all person planes, CUPS allows greater flexibility for CSPs to seamlessly transfer subscribers to totally different nodes with out disruption.
The most recent growth by the Broadband Discussion board is Issue 2 of TR-459 Multi-Service Disaggregated BNG with CUPS specification (see Figure2), which allows improved resiliency, scalability, and sooner deployment occasions to assist present a greater end-user expertise with a extra dependable and constant service.
Within the third weblog, we’ll share particulars on the Cisco Subscriber Edge answer, together with the structure, technical benefits, and buyer advantages.
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