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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

BCNET's Advanced Network Projects & Shared Resources

Marilyn Hay
Andre Toonk
Scott Jamieson

Scott presented on Building a fibre network on the Saanich Peninsula from 540 Blanchard to UVic, 9.7 km.

Scott reviewed the key decisions that needed to be undertaken in the planning process, reviewed the complex permits process, and then shared some of the key challenges in the construction process.

The network management topic was brought up, starting with fibre inventories and ensuring that fibres through public venues are clearly labelled and recorded, to ensure clarity of ownership. Your fibre mgt system should also track splices, OTDR readings, and transport circuits.

The point made at the end was to always add as much spare capacity of fibre and ducting as you can.

Marilyn presented on the recent WDM implementation. A ring from UBC to BCIT to SFU was created using 4 strands and allowing a diverse path with cross connects. Enter the WDM solution.

An RFP was issued, requesting multiple wavelengths, 5 10 Gb to each site, scalability, and the lowest reasonable cost. A decision on DWDM vs. ROADM was needed, and when the results came back, a ROADM solution from ADVA was selected.

The ROADM solution with equipment at each site allows for changes to channels and wavelengths without interruption to pass throughs. The solution is scalable to add wavelengths for each site and can run as protected or unprotected circuits enabling high availability as needed.

All the sites will be brought up over the summer of 2012.

Andree shared with us network management tools at BCNET. The first challenge was to have a CMDB, currently a homegrown solution is in use. They are planning to OpenSource this solution, based on PHP, perl, Nagios plug ins, SNMP, & MySQL.

This system provides device management documenting all devices in the network, interface info, & statistics collection. Location, contact, and IP address information are also core functions of the tool.

The tool has been built with a view towards managing at the service level, by documenting the network services provisioned to clients, and provisioning information collected in customer seervice oriented views.

Fom an event management perspective, inspiration was taken from the Nagios framework to include key incident and reporting functions. Additional components, including one for change management are built in.

Different algorithms are available in the incident management component to allow customisation of the logic around alarm escalation and incident impact.

Andree.toonk@bc.net is interested in working with anyone who wishes to collaborate.

Check it out at Https://wiki.bc.net/atl-conf/display/bcnetcmdb

Marilyn updated us next on the Virtual Routing Service implemented via the Juniper devices in use at BCNET. This solution supports BGP, IPV4, IPV6, IPSec, & GRE tunnels. This solution allows clients to manage their own virtual routers. What this provisions for customers is an IaaS model, leveraging the BCNET staff & resources. This is a new service offering, with more information available from the site.

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Location:W Cordova St,Vancouver,Canada

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