* Posts by boony

32 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Nov 2009

Multipath TCP speeds up the internet so much that security breaks

boony

Re: Madness

Not really madness. When engineers like myself talk about sniffing traffic, we are more interested in the performance of the underlying network.

The probes in question are really more for Service Assurance as opposed to intercept - probe vendor examples are Accedian, JDSU, Spirent etc. We are talking different things.

Intercept is typically done at CLI level i.e. lawful-intercept command, built into most Internetworking OS systems.

One Vendor example of this is below:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios/12_2sb/feature/guide/ht_ssi.html

Other Vendors are of course available (Juniper, Alu, Huawei et al), but all must enable the same thing in the OS with no exception.

The challenge we face on the Service Assurance front with MSTCP is correlating the streams to understand how the underlying network is performing. The probe vendors will eventually suss this out via standards and the security guys will also need to do the same.

Those of us in the OSS space ingest all of this probe data and conduct analytics on it to correlate network events. The ISP or CP can then act accordingly; network config, billing rec, SLA management (i.e. am I claiming or paying credits) etc.

Challenges in networking always exist, this is just another that is aimed to the probe vendors, security guys and the network guys.

Network Guy

EE boffin: 5G will be the LAST WORD in mobe tech – literally

boony

Not quite wifi hotspot

though part of the mix for some operators....

They are actually small eNodeB's in LTE language that are installed on Street Furniture. Ericsson, Huawei, Samsung & Alcatel Lucent all have variants with live trials going on at present in many markets. In the UK, trials have started with greater rollout over 2015-2018 timeframe.

Can't wait for 4G? Take heart, 5G is on the way

boony

It's a consultation

Not sure why people are getting bent out of shape because Free View Spectrum is being looked at some time in the next 16 years or so. Spectrum is a finite resource that has to be efficiently used.

Small Cells are very useful in this regard, as when used in those heavily attenuated edges of a Macro cell, can provide the lacking coverage. MNO's are in the process of releasing RFP's for these and expect developments in the coming years. For rural area's, an amount of tax payer or EU subsidy may be needed to make the business case work.

TV Broadcasters are trialing IP only networks at present, from capture to production through to distribution. It will take sometime and clearly infrastructure to reach every household currently able to receive a TV broadcast. The access mechanism to enable the TV services of the future are going to be a hurdle the country must overcome and I suspect the answer will be fibre or techniques utilising copper pairs. It is not beyond the realms of imagination that LTE-A and whatever comes after will also be a valid mechanism.

Ofcom have put forward a consultation paper for the industry and consumers to respond too and given a realistic timeframe to plan for changes. Nobody is going to refarm the spectrum until costs, impacts and technology allows it to happen.

Just my 2 penneth from within the industry.

Think you're ready to make a big career bet? Read this first...

boony

Re: As always, enjoyable

This is something a little different. My customers and ourselves will still have seperate guest and corp WiFi.

By adding a NAC overlay to the LAN infrastructure we untrust all devices until user authentication takes place, before being trusted. This is pretty much the way BYOD works. A rogue black hat can't just rock up in the car park and gain access - that black hat will need to attack in the manner they always have in the past, they just get the luxury of sweet talking somebodies credentials out of them. Nothing particularly new here.

Guests will still be on the "dirty" side so they can still VPN into their own networks.

Just because you haven't seen it (yet), it will come to a work place near you given time.

boony

Re: As always, enjoyable

Yep - consumerisation of the work place, as it is being badged by marketing types is happening. Some of the teams at my biggest customer are bringing MACs and PC's and connecting to the corporate network via NAC. My place also has a strategy for this. This is any computing device and is seen in some circles as a way to reduce IT costs longer term.

BT to rent cheaper FTTP lines to ISPs - if they stump up £1k a go

boony

Re: 300Mbps?

If that is what you want and need, then you can buy this now. It will cost c£20,000 - £30,000pa. For the IPSLA feature to work properly to measure RTD and , you will need a managed IP service, which costs more, unless you have your own PE router somewhere in a Telehouse and Network Reporting Tools. There is a reason consumer broadband is cheap.

To be fair, you can form a community broadband scheme and buy an Ethernet service from a CP. You can then pay an SI to manage layer 3 for you including IPSLA features. Can cost in quite well, but you will need buy in from said community.

boony

Re: Adsl - stops you running a web business at home.

You can buy EFM from many providers for business purposes. You will be looking at around £200 - £400pm depending on speed and pairs.

boony

Re: but can you pull a fibre through the existing BT conduit?

You can in theory and indeed utilities and telcos have tried this approach over the years. However, in reality, a great deal of the fibre access ducts of both BT and Virgin are near capacity in urban areas, with overbuild a common factor. This is common accross most developed countries.

boony

Re: I am currently pricing up for new offices

Yep - the £12K pa would be your 100Mbps, not a shared WBC (Wholesale Broadband Connect) contended offering. If your requirements are not business critical, then go for a xDSL or PON link, but if they are business critical go for your £12Kpa quote. Alternatively you can get a bonded EFM service from many players for about £2Kpa with all the lovely SLA figures required.

Quantum crypto - with nothing more than STANDARD broadband fibre

boony
Boffin

Re: Needs more work

Erm - A 100Gbps DWDM / OTN system will send 100Gbps (plus FEC Overhead - usually between 11-16%) to line of traffic and receive 100Gbps per wavelength. No Service Provider would accept anything less.

WTF is... RF-MEMS?

boony

Re: Quick question

Cheers Kristian - you beat me to the answer :o)

boony

RF-MEMs

Hi, RF-MEMs does band switching in the low micro seconds, which isn't fast enough for transmit / receive functions. However, a seperate T/R switch is used as well as RF-MEMS for band switching. An end user won't notice the band being switched (in theory of course :o)

Hardware switching is preffered at all levels of the stack due to processor load required for software switching.

Core and access networks use MEMs in optical networks for band drop or pass. They are also used in medical applications for similar purposes.

boony

Re: Quick question

VoLTE will be the 4G standard for mobile networks and is a VoIP technology. At present, it isn't rolled out for various reasons i.e. interop, user experience, OAM tools etc. Most operators are still using Carrier Fallback for voice. Full VoIP will happen, but will take quite a few years to reach mass adoption. Fair question though.

Virgin ramps 4G to a whopping 90Mbps - and switches it off

boony
Happy

Re: 3G not 4G

Funny guy

I do very much live in the "real world" and don't usually comment on message boards. The engineer in me feels compelled to comment when sweeping comments or generalisations are used, or when heresay or speculation is passed off as journalism.

Been around the mobile and fixed industry for 20 years now, so bit of a pet subject of mine to say the least. My current allegience is with Virgin Media, just so I am clear and not hiding behind a nick name.

And for the guy who thinks it was "just for show", VM Business will be offering the product on a wholesale basis to mobile operators. The trial was important mainly for the technical viability information it gave. The publicity is always a welcome bonus though :o)

Link below:

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/virgin-media-business-small-cell-wholesale-94294

boony

You Believe

Bill,

Of course this is just your opinion and not based on any real factual information on the situation. If you know something the rest of don't, please feel free to share.

boony

Re: 3G not 4G

http://3gpp.org/LTE

If you read the actual Standards Body own documentation, it never actually refers to 4G. This is a lazy marketing term. The current LTE rollouts are based on 3GPP Release 8, which was stabilised in 2008.

It is fair to refer to this trial as LTE / 4th Generation though, as it is an all IP network evolving toward LTE-Advanced, which will bring the rates you desire. 3G is not an all IP network, plus there are major architectural differences between UMTS and LTE. LTE is far flatter, which is good, because apart from speeds and feeds, things like latency and jitter will improve over time.

Release 11 and beyond are still in development though. There is always a lag between standards and real world roll outs.

boony
Stop

Fibre ?

Quite a poorly researched article, full of assumptions and heresay. Peer review generally works for these sort of articles - try it, you may even find it useful.

EE will be using Fibre based products to the consumer, but basically resell of BT FTTx products. The idea that they will suddently invest £Bn's into digging up the street whilst integrating 2 legacy networks, overbuilding for 4G services and managing its confusing brand image is unpracticle at best.

Small cells are based on millimetre radio i.e. 60GHz and above and will require inovative backhaul solutions, which is where the fixed line operators come into play. Trials of this nature are very useful, in that it proves a technology and highlights potential issues - kick the tyres if you will.

Fibre to a lampost coming to you quite soon.

Maude to gov IT suppliers: If you are rubbish you will be binned

boony
Happy

Re: Please miss!

Best comment of the week

Be co-founder mows BT's long grass in bid for fibre success

boony

Blow Fibre

That is a pretty moot point. Overall cost of blowing fibre is relatively inexpensive - cheaper than copper in fact. Openreach for example charge £3.50 per meter for fibre blown in existing duct. To splice and terminate it, costs increase further. VM (or most other operators) are in this ball park also as for obvious reasons, no point in charging more than the incumbent.

If you are interested, openreach publish these various rates as per the below link, which you can copy into your browser.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=ZdqG%2Fxv%2FjSuBEEITnogh5uNOEwQ2%2FKws5WBAVcIlcholMnGHsqdC0vzO163bJmh34D91D7M0q8u%2F%0AIlSgtIFAKw%3D%3D

In BT's majority footprint, new civils and ducts would be required for the high fibre count cable that would be required to support all the new fibre tails into the home.

In VM's case, it is a similar story as local access ducts would require overbuild as existing ducts wouldn't be large enough.

If you are lucky enough to live in a pre-built area where a major developer may have provided duct for such fibre networks and a service provider has architected thus, then happy days. Fibre here would be a no brainer.

boony

Re: Cabinets?

We would love to blow fibre to every ones home and business, but it is all about cost. BT and VM have last mile infrastructure mostly in copper form for residential use.

To replace hundreds of thousands of Km of copper with fibre is an astronomical amount of capital. Replacing equipment in an existing cab isn't difficult, but bear in mind all the exchanges and head ends/hubs would also require changing and core's being re-engineered.

Some countries pay for this out of tax, but in this current climate, I would be very surprised if this Government sanctioned it for the UK. They like to talk a big fight, but when push comes to shove there is never any hard cash on the table.

As I stated earlier in this chain, we (Service Proviers) would have done this years ago, but just don't have the Billions required to carry out this activity.

boony

City Infrastructure Cost

Ian,

Infrastructure capital costs are far higher in a city. London is one of the most expensive.

When I am discussing civils (digging the road up) with my business customers, I generally set expectations of £135 per meter for London as a starter for 10. This doesnt even include wayleave costs, which can be daft depending on building ownership.

If you also factor in local authorities costs and permissions and any in built Boris tax, then costs and delays increase.

Cabling up an MDU is about the same no matter where you are, but you obviously need duct and fibre to the building to connect to anything. Wayleave issue doesn't go away though.

If it were simple, we'd all be sat on whizz bang 1Gbps connections, but you would be amazed how Local Authorities hinders service providers despite all their Digital Britain claptrap. Us Service Providers have the vision and we have the technology - we just don't have permission and the regulator hasn't the balls.

Boffins program peripheral visions for ultra TV immersion

boony
WTF?

What a world we live in

when we are supposed to be happy with feeling an "explosion".

<rant>

I have felt a real explosion and frankly want no reminding of that carnage and brutatility. Honestly, can editors think about things before allowing copy through.

</rant>

Sorry to be a bad consumer

Owning a cloud means learning to love the business

boony

Re: Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Total agree with you Jake.

I work in technical pre sales for a large telco and have had to face "training" on how to market what is basically a comforting term for distributed, cluster, mobility, lower capex/higher opex etc

I hate to use the term "cloud" in my decks and won't when talking with my customers techies as they understand that it is all about the network, security etc. However, as procurement directors are usually project sponsors, you have to dumb down somewhat and say the word through gritted teeth. Cloud is merely a way of saying something simple about something quite complex to an audience that is only interested in bottom line.

I did get some nice goody bags from Cisco and HP though - including a mug that glows when it has hot water in it and a pen with a laser pointer - you can't say fairer than that for £2,250 per delegate

Acer big cheese: Microsoft Surface sales will be 'superficial'

boony

Business Users and Corporates

Are surely the target market. I for one would happily replace my EliteBook with a decent tablet, much lighter as hand luggage. As long as it runs all the software required of it and as long as it is stable. Can't see much consumer leverage though, unless MS believe we are all going to replace laptops and desktops with these?

Virgin Media finally turns an annual profit

boony

Cable in built areas

Apologies if this posts twice!

Have you been down the cablemystreet@virginmedia.co.uk route ?

They usually take a few weeks to reply, as they need to survey etc, but if there is a case to extend the build and it is both technically and commercially viable for your street, then you will get a fair answer. VM do now employ new build officers, but they do cover pretty large areas geographically.

boony

Cable in built areas

Apologies if you have been down this path before, but have you tried cablemystreet@virginmedia.co.uk ?

It usually takes a few weeks for them to come back to you, but it worked for some people in my area. As long as you are not on a private road and capacity is available back at the hub for more distribution, you may get lucky. Contact centres can usually tell you little useful information, but VM do have new build officers these days who weigh the business case up.

boony

QoS

Perhaps you need a business service as opposed to a consumer based service. If you are wanting an end to end QoS solution, then consumer broadband is not the right product for you no matter which access technology they use, be it DOCSIS or xDSL. You can get fibre based Ethernet based solutions from a number of providers, but expect to pay £4-£6K pa for a dedicated 10Mb service with all the QoS you can use. You can put your valued traffic into a AF class of service....

You say "fix the QoS so it works in a sane manner..." Docsis is a radio technology to the head end (i.e. not Ethernet), so unless the MSO is going to resegment the network for a niche of users - highly unlikely, you are not going to see QoS on a consumer product. Internet traffic is marked as DE in any operator core network.

Certain marketing types do often talk a lot of nonsense about QoS, usually because they have no understanding of how networks really work and this tends to mislead people.

97% of Three's network traffic is data

boony

Voice & Data Clarification

Just to help clarify a couple of posts here, the figure of 97% is IuPS (Data) traffic as opposed to IuCS (Voice). These are reference architecture on a 3G network. If you wish to read the standards (including LTE and LTE Advanced), they are owned by this standards body http://www.3gpp.org/

Definately no analogue going on though :o)

Nine Inch Nails guy scores Facebook movie... bitch!

boony
Happy

Soundtrack record

Trent has done some excellent soundtrack work. Natural Born Killers ost is pretty darned brilliant, even on closer examination. Similarly Lost Highway.

I will watch the film simply because Trent is doing the soundtrack - if the film is guff I can just close my eyes

6music wins possible reprieve from BBC Trust

boony

BBQ

hmmmmm barbeque bacon wings

IK Multimedia iRig and AmpliTube iPhone app

boony

Re:Audio Interface->GarageBand/Logic?

I use my Line6 TonePort KB37 just fine with Snow Leopard.

Looking forward to trying the iRig out and see if I can use the cloud to get any decent files to my DAW of choice.

I am going to try a mini jack to XLR adaptor and try my luck - you never know.

For what it is and what it costs, it seems to offer decent value, whether I would gig with it - hmmm that will have to depend on the venue.

Motorola Dext Android smartphone

boony

@ngcomputing

Hi ngc - I have been using the DEXT for around 3 weeks now. I am also a Mac user, but alas Motorola do not have native support for it in the shape of calender syncing etc. You can plug the USB cable in and drag files to and fro, but syncing etc is currently a no no. Moto do offer windows support, which to be fair is pretty darned good.

On the other side, if you are a social media fiend (I use it to keep in touch with a whole bunch of old army buddies), then MotoBlur rocks. If you need syncing - stick with IPhone or other device that is Mac compatible, or dare I say it - buy a cheap win7 pc

Good luck with your choice of handset though.

JB posting AC