The BASICS of Internet Data Management PART 1 • JULY, 2016 • Assembled by: NxGen Communica6ons Corp.
PART 1
The BASICS of Internet Data Management The following pages outline the opera.ng parameters of accessing and working with Cloud based applica.ons over WANs and Virtual Private Networks. Most importantly it describes why simply adding more Bandwidth will not solve the ever growing global Cloud based access concerns.
Is Bandwidth the problem or is there a more sinister culprit at play! There is an increasing problem for Enterprise based internet consumers globally and the problem is NOT subsiding and now being felt by regular Joe. In lay language the problem is referred to as “the internet is slow” ; transla.on; the .me to send and receive informa.on outside of your local LAN using one or more of your Enterprises is becoming increasingly slower. Most experts would suggest that this issue is simply overcome by adding bandwidth. If this were truly the solu.on this could be solved by simply adding 100s of millions of more miles of fiber and cable across the globe.
Unfortunately this isn't the culprit at play, a more sinister issue is to blame, TCP Protocol and its considera6on of Latency. What is latency? the .me it takes to send and receive data from point to point (we’ll get to this later). In short, by finding a solu.on to latency, we ul.mately solve the issue of what is commonly referred to (but not accurately) “ internet speed”. This informa.on bulle.n describes the dynamics at play and the role each contributes to the problem.
To truly understand the issue, lets review concepts we already know. The Internet ? the internet is a global network of connected computer devices each iden.ďŹ ed by a unique number or otherwise referred to as the IP Address (Internet Protocol) :
Data in its original form (video, text, emails, VoIP,) is to large to send through the internet, therefore the data is translated into bits of data inserted into packets and sent through to be received by the other computer
Data is transmided from one computer (or IP address) and delivered to another computer connected to the internet. The Data travels through the delivering users Internet Service Provider (ISP) over the internet, to the recipient users ISP and ďŹ nally to the recipient's computer
These data packets travel through the internet based on a predetermined set of rules or protocol, adopted by all computer. This protocol is known as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The TCP is responsible for assuring that every device, connected to the internet operates by the same rules in order to avoid chaos.
Once all the packets have safely arrived at its des.na.on computer device, the computers Opera.ng System, reads the data packets and re-assembles in order to replicate the senders original work.
Data is transmided in 2 ways, either through pulses of light or as a radio frequency. The light pulses travel through cables while radio frequency through cell towers, wireless modems or satellite. The end result is the data packets are transmided in either form and travel through the internet to get to its determined des.na.on.
“An Internet applica.on, some.mes called a rich Internet applica.on, is typically an interac.ve program that can be accessed through a web browser. They take on many forms, emails, video transmission, voice call, etc.”
So as we discussed earlier the original data format is much too large to send over the internet. To deal with this, the original data is cut into smaller pieces. This is done by the senders computer, based on a predefined protocol embedded in each of our computers opera.ng systems. The pieces are then placed in a packet (in the illustra.on below in a bag) and then sent to travel to its des.na.on. The data transmission operates based on a set of rules, “protocol” referred as Transmission Control Protocol “TCP”. The TCP decides the size of the packet, what each packet holds and the route it will take to reach its final des.na.on “IP address”.
The data packets travel from your computer device, through your ISP and enter into the internet, des.ned to reach the IP address. The TCP directs the data packets as to which route they should take. The packets travel through an internet router, which acts as sorter and conveyor system placing the packets in their appropriate lane to con.nue on its journey to its des.ned IP address.
The Magic.
Far too oeen, the routers become congested with packets and begin to fall o at the router, only to try again in milliseconds. Its important to note that on your string of data that contains your original data format some packets may have fallen o due to conges.on but others have probably successfully made it through and are con.nuing their journey only to be all reunited eventually.
Of course, if data gets congested at the router and drops packets along the way, that certainly is an issue. However, the true issue is delay of transmission. Eventually the packets will reach its des.na.on and once they all do, the recipient computer will reassemble the packets, again based on the computer OS protocol common to all like computer devices, and magically the packets form into your email from a colleague, ďŹ les or documents from your partner, a video from YouTube or a family photo on your Facebook page.
Wow! But is this true for real-time data? NOT QUITE: if packets begin to drop or rerouted, this causes delay for those data packets to reach the des.na.on or they may never be received.
Results:
Garbled Voice Jidery video Echo Drop call or video
The real issue is real .me data required to make crucial decisions.
To get around the issue of priori.zing data packets, the TCP labels each packet according to type, from emails, videos, voice calls, heart monitor and so on, on its way to the internet router. Once through the router and sorted , the data packets are placed on its appropriate conveyor belt on its way to the final des.na.on. However, the TCP offers priority for real.me data, ceding way from packets of other data. This process is referred to as Scheduling.
How does Bandwidth and Latency factor in?
As more data is being transmided and larger volumes of data is being delivered; greater demand is placed on the internet network. Three Important Concepts to Understand 1. Latency: the delay it takes for data to travel from one point to another and back. 2. Packet size: the amount of payload in each packet 3. Bandwidth: the rate of delivery of data packets to its des.na.on and back, in seconds. Amount of delivered data “divided by” the latency = Bandwidth Therefore it takes the a packet carrying a payload of 4000 megabytes/sec “MB” (or 32,000 megabits “Mbps"), traveling a distance of 1 mile, at 10 miles per hour, 720 seconds to complete a round trip. Therefore the bandwidth rate is 44.4 Mbps.
How do we get more Bandwidth?
1) increase the payload: using the same example if the payload was increased 10X, then the bandwidth rate = 444.4 Mbps. The latency is the same at 720 seconds. What if the amount of data you need to send 1MB per trip and you’ll send more data when we get a response from the other computer. The latency is unchanged at 720seconds and bandwidth rate is constant. 1MB of data X 720 seconds = 11.1 Kpbs. If the total amount of the data to be delivered is 10MB the en.re travel .me would take 2 hours; 10 trips X 720 seconds = 7200 seconds or 120 minutes or 2 hours. Possible solu.on: increase payload to 5MB instead of 1MB = 24 minutes to complete trip.
So how does it really work in the internet. When using fiber op.c, to transmit data, the carrier is light. The speed of light is calculated at a speed of 123 miles per millisecond (“1/1000th of a second”)
Calcula6ng latency: if the distance to travel is 2500 miles ( US east coast to west coast) the latency would be 40.7 milliseconds of latency and when you add minimal rou.ng/switching delay it is easily 70 milliseconds.
Distance to Travel / Speed X 2 (roundtrip) = Latency ------ 2500miles / 123ms X 2 = 40.7ms (need to factor delay)
How does the TCP protocol play a role: the way TCP deals with latency is as follows: the TCP is responsible for the transporta.on of an applica.on
(data transmission) from one point to another. The lower the latency , the more TCP allows a larger window for your data to be transmided. To the contrary, the higher the latency, the smaller the window. In other words, if data travels shorter distances to reach the des.na.on the TCP allocates more .me and speed to complete the en.re transmission. Therefore, it would be fair to say that data traveling within a smaller geographical area, generally gets there quicker and more efficiently.
Does increasing bandwidth solve the issue: certainly increasing bandwidth could solve part of the issue but the effects on user experience is
minimal. As we saw in earlier examples, even if you were to increase the bandwidth the effects on efficiencies is not significant enough to refer to bandwidth as the solu.on. The real culprit is the how TCP allocates windows in considera.on of the latency factor. Moreover, increasing bandwidth to solve the problem is a very expensive proposi.on, most especially in those countries where bandwidth is very highly priced.
demand for bandwidth is rising
cost of bandwidth is on the rise.
The ultimate solution? Lets Recap: A packet travels to its des.na.on, deposits its data payload, returns to the sender and confirms the success of the delivery. Only when this happens does another packet get launched. What if you could simulate an acknowledgement or confirma.on from the recipient IP address, without ever traveling to the des.na.on? • • •
by placing localized technology you can provide a local receipt of acknowledgement of delivery the distance to travel is shortened therefore latency becomes lower because the latency is lower the TCP protocol allows a larger window
How do we do this? We refer to its as ViBE SD-WAN (Soeware Driven- Wide Area Network).
By placing Op.miza.on technology between loca.ons the latency is reduced and IP confirma.on is accelerated • •
Enterprise level Solu6on: by placing the Op.miza.on devices at each of their loca.ons around the Globe Network Level Solu6on: by leveraging a network infrastructure which has placed Op.miza.on at their local POPs.
Network Level
Op.miza.on Hardware
Op.miza.on Hardware
COMING SOON !
The BASICS of SD – WAN Cloud Management PART 2 • AUGUST, 2016 • Assembled by: NxGen Communica6ons Corp.