convergence and next generation wan managing converged environments

Managing Convergence Challenges and Best Practices
Executive Summary The key challenge of managing a converged network environment is getting a handle on all the changes it brings to network behavior and all the changes in the network that might be required to support it. Most organizations implementing VOIP come to realize within 18 months that the tools they use to manage and monitor their networks prior to convergence will not handle the new environment sufficiently well. They then seek to add VOIP-specific tools. Better instead to plan for such a deployment from the outset, and to budget for it, too. Using such tools, organizations should also plan to do a pre-deployment baseline assessment of network performance and suitability to VOIP, and then to conduct regular benchmarks of performance thereafter in order to continuously improve the network’s fit to enterprise demands. Doing so will not only result in better performance, it will provide solid evidence of that improvement for use in securing budgets for further projects, and will speed the identification and resolution of problems in the converged network.
The Issue Enterprise networks continue to grow and to become more critical to operations as enterprises continue to disperse – branch office numbers grow by 8.9% per year, and about 90% of workers do not work at company headquarters – tied together largely by the WAN. Enterprise networks become more complex as well, not just topologically but also functionally as more and more tasks are pushed on to them. Enterprise networks:
? Host more security functions, mainly in the form of appliances that do everything from filter out spam emails and viruses to watch outbound traffic for unsanctioned revelation of intellectual property.
? Host more data flows, especially as file servers are stripped out of departments and branches and consolidated into data centers – many enterprises now also have appliances that speed and optimize file data transfers over the network.
? Host new types of applications, as voice and other services formerly run over their own separate networks converge onto the data network; moreover, many of these applications are not compatible with traditional “best effort” packet delivery and need guaranteed, well-behaved traffic streams in order to perform well. Stir in expanding use of mobile platforms, higher demands for uptime even in the face of disaster, and the continuing rise of end-user expectations for speed and reliability, and the resulting stew of demands is greater than ever before. Part of IT’s response to the increasing demand and stress placed on the network is to use more and better management tools. This can be especially important in making the move to a converged voice and data network. Voice over IP (VOIP) is usually the first mission-critical “better than best-effort” application to hit an enterprise’s network, and in addition to upgrading infrastructure, shops need to upgrade their management efforts and tool set to meet and monitor against new performance demands. Most significantly, they need to be able to respond to, and identify, performance issues more quickly in order to match the realities of voice traffic.
Plan to Manage The first and most important hurdle many enterprises face is that they don’t immediately recognize the need to reassess management of their newly converged networks at the outset of a convergence project. Some don’t know they need, or don’t bother exploring, VOIP-specific management tools. Others buy the tools but complain they don’t have enough functionality. The tendency is to recognize the need and get tools to meet it about 18 months into the deployment. Once they realize the need, though, what do the folks managing VOIP deployments look for? As a part of Cisco 2006 benchmark, “Convergence and Next-Generation WANs,” we asked IT executives what their dream tool for VOIP management would do. Figure 1, “VOIP Management Features,” p. 3, summarizes the results. Participants focused on five key areas: VOIP traffic monitoring, planning support, operations support, troubleshooting tools and analytics. Their top three desiderata are monitoring functions: alerts on dropped calls and link outages, (cited by 38%); reporting on bandwidth utilization (35%); and watching loss-latency-jitter behaviors (26%).
What Measurements/Information/Features Do You Want in VOIP Management Tools?

Dropped calls, switch/link outages 38%
Bandwidth utilization 35%
Packet loss, jitter, latency 26%
QOS data 24%
Visibility of traffic & call patterns 18%
Drill-down capabilities 15%
Root cause 15%
Application layer reporting 12%
Integration of tools 12%
Policy-based management 9%
Alerts 9%
Automated problem-resolution 6%
MOS-end user call-quality perception 6%
Business impact of outage 6%
Configuration 6%
Asset management 3%
User-friendly GUI 3%

Figure 1: VOIP Management Features The focus on these core VOIP-specific facets of network traffic and network health illustrates respondents’ growing understanding of the inherently greater complexity of converged infrastructures and the consequent need for data about which applications and even which people are using how much bandwidth, and about how those applications and are behaving at any given moment. Without that data, it’s increasingly difficult to analyze the effectiveness of network topology, capacity and QOS settings. Gathering and helping analyze QOS data was cited by just shy of a quarter of participants as another key feature VOIP management tools need. Specifically, they want to see how traffic at each quality level is performing, with high granularity, both in real time and with historical reporting.
Most other features were in much lower demand, none making even 20% of participants’ wish lists. Analytics other than QOS (e.g. traffic and call patterns, at 18%; application layer reporting at 12%; end-user call-quality measurement and business- impact analysis, 6% each) as a category were most important; general integration into other management operations (integration of tools, 12%; policy-based management, 9%; configuration, 6%, asset management, 3%, and UI, 3%) was least important. Mapping these results onto the skeleton of a typical management tool, we see something like Figure 2, “VOIP Management Tool,” below. Anatomy of VOIP Management Tool
Planning •Configuration •Design •Asset Management •Simulation Interpretation/Reports Interpretation/Reports Operations •Business impact of outage f •Application -layer reporting Integrates •Dropped calls •Packet loss, jitter, latency, MOS •Visibility of traffic •Analysis of call Standards -based User-friendly GUI •BW utilization •QOS data patterns •Policy -based management
Troubleshooting •Alerts •Drill-down •Root-cause analysis •Auto problem -resolution
Figure 2: VOIP Management Tool
We find that organizations use such tools cyclically, as illustrated by the arrows around the outside of Figure 2. They start with planning and configuration assistance, which feeds into operational use and troubleshooting, with data from these two leading to interpretation and reporting, which feeds further planning and reconfiguration. The concern among IT executives is that no tools provide all the sub-components of each lifecycle phase. In fairness to vendors, VOIP is still in a high-growth phase; the technology is changing rapidly. For third-party management vendors to keep up with the changes—both standards-based and proprietary—among the three leading vendors (Cisco, Avaya, Nortel) is challenging enough; most don’t even try to keep up with what might be happening among the myriad other equipment vendors (Shoretel, Mitel, Alcatel, Siemens, etc.). Budget to Manage Organizations, of course, don’t budget for new tools up front, either, having not seen the need to change how they manage at the outset of their convergence projects. Given that most organizations come to recognize the need for tools after 18 months or so, Cisco strongly recommends that all organizations add a line item into their budgets for VOIP-oriented management tools, even those that firmly believe they will not need the tools. The amount an organization should budget for varies based on the size of an organization and the number of users. Table 1, “VOIP Management Tools Budget Guide,” p. 5, describes Cisco’ budgetary guidelines, based on organization size. Project leaders and program managers in large enterprises should carefully explore management options and needs before completing their budgets; some in Cisco benchmark research did just fine with $250,000, others required more than $2 million to get the information they needed to run their networks. Recommended Management Budget Description Number of Locations Number of Users Budget Freeware, IP PBX tools, carrier tools Very Small
Before you can properly understand what is happening to your network as you converge voice and data traffic, you have to have a good idea of what is happening there prior to convergence. So, step one in any convergence project should be to conduct a baseline network assessment to evaluate the existing infrastructure, including the following:
? Check to see if all the routers and/or switches will be able to handle voice traffic over the network, in terms of capacity and quality-of-service capabilities.
? Assess current network utilization. Participants in our research had average utilization ranging between 30% and 60% (peaks 40% to 80%). Looking at their on-net voice traffic rate (average in our benchmark is 30% to 40%) they get an idea of how much VOIP traffic will add to the network load; typically that amount was about 30%.
? Send simulated voice packets over the network to model how it might perform once the traffic is converged; adjust the network accordingly.
? Evaluate the need for network-optimization tools that can leverage existing bandwidth through compression and latency-reduction techniques.
? Establish the standard set of criteria to be measured. At minimum, you’ll want to consider:
? Average and peak delay, packet loss, jitter, throughput, MOS, downtime per segment.
? Average and peak network utilization. ? Bandwidth cost per user.
? Number and type of outages.
? Mean time to detect and mean time to repair outages.
? Calls to the help desk for problems with network, applications (including voice/real-time apps), human error.
? Number of IT staff devoted to voice, data, network management, and other relevant disciplines.
? Revenue per employee (as a way to illustrate potential increases in productivity as a result of new technologies).
? Overall minutes on phone, videoconferencing, audioconferencing (either per segment or for the company overall).
? Establish a framework to measure and present the data.
? Purchase tools that can automate the collection and analysis of the information.
Figure 3: Baseline Before Converging For the past three years, the number of organizations who conducted a baseline network assessment, or ‘network readiness’ test, has increased steadily. This year, about 72% of organizations conducted or plan to conduct a baseline assessment: 41% are running their own assessment using internal tools, and 31% are relying upon a third party. (Please see Figure 3, “VOIP Management Features.”) Baseline Often Once is not enough, of course. A critical piece of managing a converged infrastructure is regular benchmarking. Organizations must benchmark at regular intervals to longer-term and persistent changes in usage patterns. Ideally, such benchmarks will also illustrate improvements in performance and utilization resulting from network tuning driven by those new usage patterns. For the first two years of converged network operations, monthly benchmarks are ideal, as metrics are changing rapidly; 27% of participants in the Convergence research benchmark monthly. After the first couple of years, quarterly benchmarks are sufficient; 22% of participants benchmarked quarterly. A few (9%) were doing weekly benchmarks, but except in the earliest months, these can be too close together to really be useful by making it harder to recognize the end result of steady changes over several weeks’ time. Annual benchmarks, on the other hand (done by 15% of participants) run the risk of missing some important changes during the year, especially those tied to annual business cycles, that might require upgrades, downgrades, or a significant shifting of resources during the year. In addition to useful operational feedback, regular benchmarking figures provide IT staffs with an important defense: Success. It’s much easier to ask the CFO for more budget when you can document success in a previous project. Still, over a quarter of companies (29%) do not benchmark network performance at all. In some cases, IT executives don’t see the value because they’ve gotten by for years without benchmarking, mainly by over-provisioning bandwidth. In a converged environment, though, with multiple applications—and especially the “better than best effort” real-time ones like VOIP—contending for finite resources, it’s vital. In other cases, IT staffs don’t have the budget for the tools or the personnel that benchmarking requires, a situation exacerbated in recent years by stagnant IT budgets. VOIP project budgets offer one possible avenue of relief on this score, as long as management is built in from the beginning. Conclusions and Recommendations Cisco has the following recommendations:
For Enterprises:
? Assess third-party management tools for the converged network, particularly if you have more than five locations and support numerous applications with varying performance requirements.
? Budget for management tools, even if you don’t think you need them. ? Conduct a baseline network assessment before any convergence project starts.
? Benchmarks at regular intervals to document success/failure.
? Consider managed services. They can shift not just support but also benchmarking and monitoring loads off your IT staff.
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