Ethernet
BUSINESS INTERNET OVER ETHERNET
INEXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE
ETHERNET IS EMERGING AS A SMART, COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR HIGH-SPEED internet ACCESS
SHISHIR PRASAD
NETWORK engineer D. Jehangir and his cable operator Prakash Mody rarely meet. But the day Jehangir saw Prakash on his terrace, all he could blurt out was: "What are you doing with the CAT5?" CAT5 is the cable that runs the Ethernet protocol and connects computers within an office-bread and butter business for Jehangir. Jehangir looked down upon the simple, black 'co-ax' cable that Prakash used for piping mindless entertainment into his home. It turned out Prakash was handing out 24-hours-on Internet access to everyone for an unbelievable Rs 1,000 a month - using the CAT5, of course.
For an industry struggling to offer cheap Net access to homes, Ethernet has become a viable alternative to more-expensive options like DSL and Net-over-cable (See 'The Ethernet Advantage')
In Mumbai, where Ethernet is being used for the last one year, the number of such homes has crept up to 30,000 or 11% of the total Net subscribers in the city. BSES Telecom uses Ethernet to provide Net connections to almost 1,600 homes; Satyam Infoway, too, is using Ethernet. Cisco, D-Link, and Nortel, the makers of LAN switches, mandatory equipment for such a network, say that their sales have increased almost 30%.
Nowhere else in the world has Ethernet been put to such creative use. So why is it happening here? "I connect to the Net for a few hours every day sometimes even more. M
Kohli believes that as the demand for always-on connections at affordable prices goes up, cable, which reaches 37 million homes today, has to look at cheaper technologies. "To implement cable modem technology, almost the entire cable layout will have to be fitted with new amplifiers which allow two-way traffic. It could cost Rs 7,000-10,000 per subscriber to do it for most homes," he says.
For ISPs like BSES Telecom and Sify, the issue is the last mile connectivity for their fiber optic networks. "DSL has been a non-starter for us. In any case, we think it's better if MTNL and BSNL to do it," says Prakash Chaukar, vice-president (technology), BSES Telecom. Two related technology developments led him to use Ethernet. One, CAT5 can now handle data traffic at speeds close to the speed of traffic on fiber. So no expensive equipment to synchronize data flow is needed. Two, the network equipment used per subscriber is cheaper. "What you need are switches and transreceivers. You can reach a subscriber...for Rs 2,500 worth of extra investment," says Prabodh Vyas, director (sales), D-Link.
But Ethernet was perfected for small networks. As it is taken on a wider scale, network design becomes important. Most cable operators haven't thought through that. They have 'daisy-chained' or connected one building after another in a series with only switches separating them. "So...the guy closest to the cable operator gets a disproportionately large bandwidth and the last guy in the line is left sucking his thumb," says Jehangir.
Moreover, when the Ethernet loop faces heavy traffic, it starts to drop data packets. It may even function at 40% of its peak capacity. "We are aware of the problem and have decided to fix the throughput for most subscribers at 4-7 kbps. The flip side is that whenever we want to increase the throughput we can do so without any additional investment as there is no modem at the customer end. This allows us to scale the network quickly," says Chaukar.
BSES and sify may do a reasonable job with Ethernet implementations, but for the large majority, Ethernet is an ingenious solution that is so Indian. "This is an intermediate technology that will perhaps fade out once more reliable and efficient technologies kike DSL and cable become more cost-effective," says a network analyst. Till then, watch a thousand CAT5s bloom.
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Ethernet Advantage
Businessworld
June 10, 2002
DSL and Internet-over-cable are like the Porsche and the Ferrari; to get full value, you need free highways and never-ending roads. Ethernet is like an Ambassador: sturdy, reliable and fit for congested roads.
Ethernet is a simple technology. It does not require expensive network equipment, just a LAN card costing Rs 700-800. But it does not prioritize traffic or control its flow like DSL and cable do. DSL and cable also handle traffic over larger distances of a few kilometers, but require complex algorithms and expensive equipment costing Rs 5,000 and above at the consumer's end.
So, as long as the transmission distances are short and data traffic does not need prioritization, Ethernet does the job efficiently.
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BUSINESS INTERNET OVER ETHERNET
INEXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE
ETHERNET IS EMERGING AS A SMART, COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR HIGH-SPEED internet ACCESS
SHISHIR PRASAD
NETWORK engineer D. Jehangir and his cable operator Prakash Mody rarely meet. But the day Jehangir saw Prakash on his terrace, all he could blurt out was: "What are you doing with the CAT5?" CAT5 is the cable that runs the Ethernet protocol and connects computers within an office-bread and butter business for Jehangir. Jehangir looked down upon the simple, black 'co-ax' cable that Prakash used for piping mindless entertainment into his home. It turned out Prakash was handing out 24-hours-on Internet access to everyone for an unbelievable Rs 1,000 a month - using the CAT5, of course.
For an industry struggling to offer cheap Net access to homes, Ethernet has become a viable alternative to more-expensive options like DSL and Net-over-cable (See 'The Ethernet Advantage')
In Mumbai, where Ethernet is being used for the last one year, the number of such homes has crept up to 30,000 or 11% of the total Net subscribers in the city. BSES Telecom uses Ethernet to provide Net connections to almost 1,600 homes; Satyam Infoway, too, is using Ethernet. Cisco, D-Link, and Nortel, the makers of LAN switches, mandatory equipment for such a network, say that their sales have increased almost 30%.
Nowhere else in the world has Ethernet been put to such creative use. So why is it happening here? "I connect to the Net for a few hours every day sometimes even more. M
Kohli believes that as the demand for always-on connections at affordable prices goes up, cable, which reaches 37 million homes today, has to look at cheaper technologies. "To implement cable modem technology, almost the entire cable layout will have to be fitted with new amplifiers which allow two-way traffic. It could cost Rs 7,000-10,000 per subscriber to do it for most homes," he says.
For ISPs like BSES Telecom and Sify, the issue is the last mile connectivity for their fiber optic networks. "DSL has been a non-starter for us. In any case, we think it's better if MTNL and BSNL to do it," says Prakash Chaukar, vice-president (technology), BSES Telecom. Two related technology developments led him to use Ethernet. One, CAT5 can now handle data traffic at speeds close to the speed of traffic on fiber. So no expensive equipment to synchronize data flow is needed. Two, the network equipment used per subscriber is cheaper. "What you need are switches and transreceivers. You can reach a subscriber...for Rs 2,500 worth of extra investment," says Prabodh Vyas, director (sales), D-Link.
But Ethernet was perfected for small networks. As it is taken on a wider scale, network design becomes important. Most cable operators haven't thought through that. They have 'daisy-chained' or connected one building after another in a series with only switches separating them. "So...the guy closest to the cable operator gets a disproportionately large bandwidth and the last guy in the line is left sucking his thumb," says Jehangir.
Moreover, when the Ethernet loop faces heavy traffic, it starts to drop data packets. It may even function at 40% of its peak capacity. "We are aware of the problem and have decided to fix the throughput for most subscribers at 4-7 kbps. The flip side is that whenever we want to increase the throughput we can do so without any additional investment as there is no modem at the customer end. This allows us to scale the network quickly," says Chaukar.
BSES and sify may do a reasonable job with Ethernet implementations, but for the large majority, Ethernet is an ingenious solution that is so Indian. "This is an intermediate technology that will perhaps fade out once more reliable and efficient technologies kike DSL and cable become more cost-effective," says a network analyst. Till then, watch a thousand CAT5s bloom.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet Advantage
Businessworld
June 10, 2002
DSL and Internet-over-cable are like the Porsche and the Ferrari; to get full value, you need free highways and never-ending roads. Ethernet is like an Ambassador: sturdy, reliable and fit for congested roads.
Ethernet is a simple technology. It does not require expensive network equipment, just a LAN card costing Rs 700-800. But it does not prioritize traffic or control its flow like DSL and cable do. DSL and cable also handle traffic over larger distances of a few kilometers, but require complex algorithms and expensive equipment costing Rs 5,000 and above at the consumer's end.
So, as long as the transmission distances are short and data traffic does not need prioritization, Ethernet does the job efficiently.
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posted by Krishnmurthy G.R at
10:43 PM
