Reimagining DIA at the Edge

The Problems of the existing DIA solution

Service providers have significantly underinvested in the edge.

Take Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) as an example. The standard deployment architecture is shown in the diagram below. It is built on the Metro Ethernet architecture, where various network segments are stitched together on Layer 2 networks to provide Internet access for customers.

Current DIA Architecture

Customer data traffic is encapsulated in a Data VLAN by the on-premise NID device and travels through the Aggregation Layer, PE Router, and Provider Internet Backbone to the Internet. A separate Management Network starts at the NID in a Management VLAN and travels through the Aggregation Layer to an internal Central NMS station.

Here are the problems with this architecture.

Complexity

As shown, there are two parallel networks to build and maintain. Every time a new site comes online, the service provider must provision both the data plane path and the management plane path (a parallel network).

As a parallel network, when the management plane goes down, it does not mean the data plane is down, and vice versa. As a result, the management network is not effective at monitoring the status of the data plane.

Limited Functions

The NID is a Layer 2 device. It cannot ping the PE router, and vice versa. Consequently, it is not possible to run a connectivity test on the data plane.

Expectations Gap

Service providers speak the language of Layer 3 Metro standards such as Y.1564 and Y.1731, while customers who purchase an Internet access service (the DIA service) want to run Ookla Speed Tests or iPerf and measure application performance.

This expectations gap results in finger-pointing and unresolved tickets. They erode customer trust and loyalty.

The Bumblebee DIA Solution

Introducing the Bumblebee DIA solution, as shown in the diagram below:

The Bumblebee DIA Solution

In this design, the Bumblebee CPE replaces the NID shown in the previous diagram. When a Bumblebee CPE is deployed, there is no need to set up or run a management VLAN.

Key characteristics of this solution are as follows:

No Separate Management Network

In this solution, the Bumblebee CPE performs the same function as the NID in the data plane. The management station is moved to the cloud and runs as the Bumblebee Portal. Eliminating the separate management network reduces operational costs.

In addition, the PE router can ping the Bumblebee CPE and vice versa. This enables real-time monitoring of the circuit and significantly reduces outage response time.

Backward Compatible

The new solution is backward compatible with the existing architecture. It does not require any changes to the Aggregation or Core network of the service provider. All investments in these areas are preserved. It coexists with existing deployments where NIDs are used, allowing service providers to migrate gradually to the new solution.

Cloud-Scale Management Portal

By moving the network management station to the cloud, modern techniques can be applied to the management plane to make it infinitely scalable and store data indefinitely.

The Benefits

The key benefits of the Bumblebee DIA solution are simplicity and reduced operational costs. By eliminating the parallel management network, service providers have less network to provision, monitor, and manage. In addition, the DIA backend operation is simple and provides proactive monitoring of DIA circuit connectivity status, bandwidth usage, and application quality. IP troubleshooting tools identify real customer issues, determine root causes, and reduce MTTR and MTTI.

A Service Rich DIA Solution

This solution enables service providers to offer Layer 2 connectivity, real-time network monitoring, and insights into link utilization. It also allows them to provide troubleshooting for IP network and application issues, out-of-band (OOB) console access, and cellular failover.

The end result is:

• Significantly lower operational costs

• No more truck rolls

• Significantly reduced site downtime with cellular failover

• Opportunities to provide additional services