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Value-Added Management Applications

Most vendors provide value-added appli-

cations for managing their own networks

and network components.Very few vendors

however provide the full suite of function-

ality necessary for managing a network,i.e.,

network design,network simulation and

validation,network visualization,and net-

work operations tools.Most vendors focus

on network operations, i.e.,providing appli-

cations that help keep their devices or

elements up and running.The vendors who

do provide a broader range of functionality

typically offer standalone,proprietary appli-

cations.Before choosing a Dial VPN vendor,

examine their network management prod-

uct line and strategy closely.Assess how well

the vendor addresses all of your network

management needs.Make sure they offer

some level of integration with best-of-breed,

standards-based vendors for functionality

such as multi-vendor billing applications,

network design and validation tools,

along with typical monitoring and trouble-

shooting capabilities.

Service Provisioning As with element-level

configuration,simplicity in provisioning is a

key factor.One additional requirement, how-

ever,is the flexibility of the system,including:

• The degree to which the provisioning

system is extensible to an existing

customer and service infrastructure.

• Its ability to provide true “end-to-end”

provisioning.

• The number of different platforms

supported by the provisioning system.

• Its ability to submit and schedule

batch changes to the network.

• Its support of multiple authorization

levels.

Many service providers are already

using sophisticated Relational Database

Management Systems (RDBMs) to store

and manage customer data for operational

and marketing purposes.These systems

often include powerful forms generation

tools that can be used to build graphical

configuration or service provisioning tools.

These RDBMs also support built-in features

like automatic and programmable database

replication and synchronization crucial to

supporting large distributed networks.

When possible,provisioning tools should

h ave the ability to wo rk within the co n s t ru ct s

of these systems.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting When one

thinks about network management,moni-

toring and troubleshooting typically come

to mind first.The ability to look at the state

of a connection,the number of packets that

are traversing a port (in either direction),or

a table that describes the networks visible

to a networking device are all critical to the

operation of any network,including one

that is being used for VPN services.

To help tro u b l e s h oot and diagnose pro b l e m s,

equipment must have extensive logging

capabilities and allow the user to filter out

unwanted or unneeded log messages.

More than anything else, logs can tell the

real story about what is happening within

a network.

Equipment must also have the ability

to support monitoring and diagnostics

from remote locations.Graphical interfaces

will not typically suffice for monitoring and

troubleshooting.Network devices must pro-

vide Telnet and/or asynchronous te rm i n a l

co n n e ction — in addition to GUI interfaces

— for monitoring and troubleshooting.

Accounting and Billing The network

management service must provide both

user and subscriber accounting.The

system must generate reliable billing

output efficiently,and feed it into the

service provider’s billing system easily.

User accounting generally refers to the

amount of time each user is connected

to the VPN.Subscriber accounting tracks

data such as the subscription beginning

and ending dates and the number of simul-

taneous connections (tunnels) allowed for

that subscriber.

Many service providers,particularly regional

Internet providers,are now offering flat

rate access to the Internet.Most industry

experts agree that this model,while effec-

tive in attracting new users,could prevent

providers from diversifying their service

offerings.Therefore,usage-based accounting

will be important in the long term.

Industry analysts report that users of

Internet or VPN services will pay a premium

for high reliability,high performance,or

special service levels.Users will also pay

for guaranteed service quality.Quality

guarantees could apply to services such as

distance learning,online gaming,or multi-

media which require certain throughput

levels,latency,or multicast support.

A fully-featured network management

system will track packet counts and may

even account for packets of certain types.

For example,a service provider may choose

to offer Bronze,Silver,Gold,and Platinum

levels of service which would assign all

users within a specific domain a certain

Quality of Service level.Packets marked

with specific Quality of Service values may

be used to generate separate byte counts

so that those packets are billed at a different

rate than unmarked packets.

Customization

Many vendors provide network manage-

ment software and hardware if appropriate,

but few address the fact that their custo m e r s

have existing network management oper-

ations centers.At a minimum,the vendor’s

products must fit into their customers’

environment without affecting the opera-

tions of the existing tools.Ideally,the

vendor’s network management products

would integrate into and leverage the

customers’existing tools.Some of this can

be predetermined and addressed,but each

network operations center is unique.Does

your vendor of choice have any resources

to address this issue?

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