That is Half II of a three-blog collection on options to beat challenges related to bridging the digital divide.

Within the earlier weblog (see Bridging the Digital Divide with Subscriber Edge), we mentioned the standard broadband community design. On this weblog, we’ll concentrate on a brand new structure for broadband networks, and the challenges that they tackle.

Shifting to a distributed structure

The power to allow subscriber features on completely different layers or gadgets within the community gives a chance to optimally place subscriber edge within the community to assist match economical and user-experience wants. For instance, on condition that video quantities to greater than 75% of the amount of complete subscriber site visitors, versatile termination permits for the environment friendly offload of video site visitors nearer to the subscriber by cautious placement of content material caches and the addition of peering factors. Distributed termination of subscribers improves the general consumer expertise because the site visitors follows a extra very best path that optimizes capability utilization and helps decrease latency for demanding functions.

With this distributed structure, communication service suppliers (CSPs) can save prices by decreasing unneeded bandwidth upgrades of the complete community by site visitors offload additional downstream. Nevertheless, with extra distributed placement of subscriber edge features utilizing completely different termination fashions, CSPs could face challenges with scaling, managing, and working subscriber providers networks.

To unravel these challenges, Broadband Discussion board outlined the Management and Consumer Aircraft Separation (CUPS) mannequin for the Broadband Community Gateway (BNG) in TR-459 (see Determine 1). CUPS permits distribution of consumer/information planes nearer to the subscriber, permitting the management aircraft operate to be centralized. It is a important change from the standard BNG structure—the place management aircraft and consumer aircraft features are tightly built-in and carried out by the identical machine. This new distributed architectural method takes benefit of CUPS to supply newer broadband providers and use circumstances which are completely different from conventional choices.

Centralizing the management aircraft operate helps decrease operational prices in a distributed subscriber edge operate that may be non-uniform with various necessities on scalability, kind issue, and position.

CUPS additionally permits new income streams or fashions, which weren’t attainable with the standard structure, equivalent to differentiated service plans. For instance, service suppliers can supply a day/evening plan, the place subscribers are provisioned or moved to a smaller set of consumer planes through the evening for price financial savings and potential sustainability advantages.

Clients may supply tiered plans with Platinum, Gold, and Greatest-Effort, primarily based on redundancy capabilities to assist shield premium subscribers from consumer aircraft, entry, or web site failures. With the management aircraft not tightly built-in with the consumer aircraft, and full visibility of all consumer planes, CUPS permits greater flexibility for CSPs to seamlessly transfer subscribers to completely different nodes with out disruption.

The newest growth by the Broadband Discussion board is Concern 2 of TR-459 Multi-Service Disaggregated BNG with CUPS specification (see Figure2), which permits improved resiliency, scalability, and quicker deployment occasions to assist present a greater end-user expertise with a extra dependable and constant service.

Within the third weblog, we’ll share particulars on the Cisco Subscriber Edge answer, together with the structure, technical benefits, and buyer advantages.

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