Interim Report

Implementation and Troubleshooting of Fibre links in the Network Operation Centre (NOC)

Submitted by: Name: Shefali P. Ruiwale Roll no: 429 Intern at: TULIP Telecom MBA (Tech) 3rd yr. telecom Faculty mentor: Mrs Sumita Nainan Company mentor: Mr Vikram Nipane

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A Report On

Implementation and Troubleshooting of Fibre links in the Network Operation Centre (NOC)

By: Shefali Ruiwale Mba (Tech) Telecommunication 3rd Year, 429

An Interim Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of 5 years Integrated MBA (Tech) Program of Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, NMIMS.

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Index:

Particulars
Abstract 1. Introduction
1.a Company Profile 1.b NOC Department 1.c Fibre Investment

Page
3 4 4 5 6 8 8 10 11 14 17 18 23 25 27

2. Fibre Basics
2.a Fibre and its advantages 2.b Fibre optic connectivity 2.c Tulips Fibre optic connectivity

3. Networking Basics 4. Troubleshooting

4.a Troubleshooting for fibre links 4.b Troubleshooting for P2P links

5. Softwares which help troubleshoot 6.Refrences

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Abstract:
Tulip provides largest real time networks in India, enabling industries to integrate and interact with other businesses. For physical connectivity customers can choose between RF (Radio Frequency) and fibre links based on the feasibility. I have focussed on the implementation and troubleshooting of wire line i.e. the fibre links. This will include studying the basic circuits of the fibre links and implementing the required softwares like WhatsUp Gold, PRTG Traffic Grapher. The interim report thus includes basics about optical fibre, also about fibre optic connectivity and how tulips fibre optic connectivity is implemented. Difference between P2P and fibre has also been shown. Troubleshooting of fibre circuits and how to check if the link is facing drops or latency has also been described with the help of screenshots. A brief about WhatsUp Gold and PRTG Traffic Grapher has been described. Thus, the project includes a study of basic CCNA commands used for troubleshooting of networks and a study of the implementation and monitoring of the links.

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Introduction:
Company Profile
Tulip Telecom Ltd. was founded in 1992 and is based in New Delhi, India. Tulip is Indias largest MPLS VPN player and provides complete infrastructural IT solutions to mission critical industries. Tulip is a data telecom service and IT solutions provider that offers innovative IP based infrastructural solutions. It has been the front-runner in provisioning and managing multi location wide area networks for various industry verticals. Tulip provides largest real time networks in India, enabling industries to integrate and interact with other businesses, and to access the data and applications they need over secure and managed domestic as well as global communication platforms. It offers innovative IP-based infrastructural solutions to its customers across India, United States and Middle East. They also specialize in providing e-Governance infrastructure and have worked on numerous projects for the Government of Indias National e -Governance Plan. Tulip, today, is the only service provider in its domain that provides customers with end-toend connectivity services include network integration, bandwidth as well as managed services. This project will give an understanding how an Internet Service Provider like Tulip Telecom deploys corporate and internet connectivity using fibre, RF. For physical connectivity customers can choose between RF (Radio Frequency) and fibre links based on the feasibility. Also Vsat connectivity is provided if RF and fibre both are not feasible.

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NOC (NETWORK OPERATION CENTRE):

The network operations centre is the focal point for network troubleshooting, software distribution and updating, router and domain name management, performance monitoring, and coordination with affiliated networks NOC, that is Network Operational centre, is a hub of all the network management activities of an organization. NOC is responsible for monitoring for power failures, communication line alarms (such as bit errors, framing errors, line coding errors, and circuits down) and other performance issues that may affect the network. NOC analyse problems, perform troubleshooting, communicate with site technicians and other NOCs, and track problems through resolution. If necessary, they escalate problems to the appropriate personnel. With technical and certified resources Tulip operates a nationwide 24x7 customer support to ensure round the clock operations for all customers. In order to accomplish this Tulip has full-fledged Network Operation Centres (NOC) in Delhi and Mumbai for centralised network monitoring and management. Along with this there are regional NOC in all major cities to provide end-to end customer services and support. NOC is internally segmented into 4 sections; namely,

Helpdesk Team Service Operations Enterprise Operations Backbone Operation Infrastructure Team

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Fibre Investment:
Tulip Telecom, within three years of entry into fibre segment, has been able to create one of the largest last mile networks in India through a combination of owned and leased fibre optic. This has not only enabled the Company to increase revenue stream for the Company, it has also lowered the cost per connect substantially thereby increasing earnings from this business. During the year, Tulip Telecom through a meshed and redundant infrastructure expand edits fibre network to over 300 cities thereby enabling higher uptimes. This entire roll out was primarily based on customer orders received well in advance before the actual roll out of fibre started. This strategy has enabled relatively limited capex with higher payback. Tulip Telecom is now one of the largest last mile fibre connectivity provider in the country, which is a combination of own deployment, leased as well as swapped fibre from multiple operators. The plan of the Company is to further strengthen presence in these 300cities while prudently explore opportunities to increase presence in newer cities depending on the customer demand. Additionally, during the year, Tulip Telecom entered into a network to network interconnection and joint marketing arrangement with Hutchison Global Communication to jointly provide IP VPN and Virtual Private LAN Services to Indian customers with global footprint. This arrangement gives access to 100,000 kms of HCGs fibre network spread across 190 countries. The Company has been able to leverage this arrangement in the first year of launch by winning orders for International Data and Voice Connectivity from reputed large organizations. Tulip Telecom witnessed robust demand for high bandwidth fibre connectivity through combination of new clients and having an extensive engagement with the existing wireless customers. The Companys strategy in this segment is on having an expanded engagement with existing client through multiple offerings which in turn would translate to significant contribution from fibre by the end of FY2012.

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The entire network is connected over high-speed fibre backbone and offers multiple access technology options including wireless to the last mile. This approach allows customers to get connected quickly and easily with very short time lead, eliminating many of the hindrances encountered in traditional copper-based last mile connectivity provided by incumbent service providers. Tulip Telecom initially focused on wireless connectivity which offered limited bandwidth. High bandwidth requirements by business, end users which have registered strong growth in the recent years could not be catered by wireless connection. Hence to capture this portion of market Tulip Telecom has started investing in fibre. With the view to address high bandwidth requirements of corporate, Tulip Telecom has laid its inter-city and intra-city fibre that extends up to 6000km.

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Fibre Basics:
Fibre and its advantages:
In its simplest terms, fibre optics is the technology of using waveguides to transport information from one point to another in the form of light. Unlike the copper form of transmission, fibre optics is not electrical in nature. A basic fibre optic system consists of a transmitting device, which generates the light signal; an optical fibre cable, which carries the light; and a receiver, which accepts the light signal transmitted. The fibre itself is passive and does not contain any active, generative properties. Optical fibre for telecommunications consists of three components: Core Cladding Coating

Every optical fibre falls into one of two categories: Single-mode Multimode

At the light source, these electrical signals are converted into light signals. It is important to note that fibre has the capability to carry either analog or digital signals. Many people believe that fibre can transmit only digital signals due to the on/off binary characteristic of the light source. The intensity of the light and the frequency at which the intensity changes can be used for AM and FM analog transmission. Once the signals are converted to light, they travel down the fibre until they reach a detector, which changes the light signals back into electrical signals. (This is called OEO, or optical-to-electrical-to-optical conversion.) Typical cable types are: Loose tube cables Tight-buffered cables Ribbon Cables

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Optical fibre systems have many advantages over metallic-based communication systems. These advantages include: Large bandwidth, light weight and small diameter Easy installation and upgrades Designed for future applications needs Long distance signal transmission Security Non-conductivity

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Fibre Optic Connectivity:

Pre-installation of fibres include overview of the cables to ensure safety and reliability and to verify if the cable is proper for the particular application. Cable inspection and Cable Handling are the next steps of the pre-installation process. Two main types of installation are interbuilding (outside the plant) and intrabuilding. There are many variations in intrabuilding installations. Areas include risers, plenums, conduits, and an assortment of ducts, modular furniture pathways and wireways. One of the most important steps in the installation of fibre optic systems is the termination of the individual fibres. There are several widely used termination methods. Field installing the connector is commonly done using either an epoxy/polish connector or the laboursaving no-epoxy, no polish connector. Fusion splicing of pig-tails is a common practice in single mode applications. Fibre optic cable installations, with some foresight and care, can be done in such a way as to secure cable performance for future applications. Never exceed recommended bend radii, during or after installation. Do not exceed recommended tensile loads. Do not crush the cable; avoid impacts to the cable. Optical fibre cable should not rest against sharp edges, and must be swept around corners.

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Tulips Fibre Optic Connectivity:

The figure above desceibes how tulip provides fibre connectivity to various clients throughout the country. PE is the provider edge which can be seen placed on the Tulip cloud. Here, the clients HO (Head Office) is connected to another location via the Mumbai PE. At the client end from the PE till the Media convertor (which is placed at the clients office) a number of switches are placed followed by a CE (Customer end) Router. Seen in the figure above are the POP Switch (Point of Presence) and the Fibre switch. The Customer Switch is the Last mile switch through which the Media Convertor is connected. The number of switches help in troubleshooting if a fibre cut is in place. Every connectivity has a Vlan (Virtual LAN) ID through which we can access the switches layed between the PE and CE. All switches have two ports in place helping us to go either uplink or downlink. A fibre link is not a pure dedicated link unless it is a P2P i.e. a Point to Point link. In a Fibre link, Customer As Last mile switch can be just another Switch for Customer B. Thus, it is very much possible for a Customer having a fibre link to not get the entire bandwidth unlike the P2P Customer.

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How a fibre cut between the last mile switch and the media convertor can be detected will be furthur explained in the troubleshooing section. Every switch as mentioned has two ports and depending on the type of connectivity , we can check if the port has been unabled and if the link status is Up or Down. The figures below show a fibre link aand a P2P link. Notice the difference lies only in the access port provided on both ends in a P2P link. Fibre connectivity:

Point to Point connectivity:

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Many data communication protocols are possible for fibre connectivity such as Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, E1 etc. At the customer end, fibre connectivity has been shown as below. From the media convertor as seen, the customer end router is connected which can then have multiple machines connected to the particular fibre connection.

Point-to-point (P2P) is a Fibre Channel topology where exactly two ports (devices) are directly connected to each other. It is the simplest topology, no network addressing is needed, because each message has only one possible receiver and the bandwidth is dedicated.

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Networking basics:
A network is a collection of computers and other hardware interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information. The various technologies of wired transmission are twisted pair, coaxial cable, and optical fibre in the order of transmission speed. Every network includes Server or Client workstation, Networking Interface Card's (NIC), a connection medium, usually a wire or cable, although wireless communication between networked computers and peripherals is also possible and a network Operating system software, such as Microsoft Windows, Unix and Linux. Certain communication protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, providing the basis for network programming. Wellknown communications protocols include Ethernet, hardware and link layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks, and the Internet protocol suite, which defines a set of protocols for inter-networking. One way to categorize the different types of computer network designs is by their scope or scale: LAN - Local Area Network A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. In addition to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet and Token Ring. WAN - Wide Area Network As the term implies, a WAN spans a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth. A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. A network device called a router connects LANs to a WAN. Most WANs are not owned by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and management. WANs tend to use technology like ATM, Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity over the longer distances.

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In the fibre network, following devices are commonly used: 1. Router: Routers are the devices which direct the data packets towards the destination within or across the network. They find the best possible route to the destination and forward the traffic in that direction. These are layer 3 devices.

2. Switch: It is a computer networking device that links network segments or network devices. The term commonly refers to a multi-port network bridge that processes and routes data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model. Switches that additionally process data at the network layer (layer 3) and above are often called layer-3 switches or multilayer switches. These are layer 2 devices.

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3. POP (Point of Presence): A PoP is a place wherever infrastructure services are obtainable to subscribers. Internet service providers have one or more Pops inside their service region that limited users dial into. POP is the physical position where two or more kind of
communication devices situate a connection. A usual case of a point-of-presence is found with the inadequate telephone switch, which acts as the connection capability between inadequate telephone lines and extended distance services.

4. Media convertor: Fibre media convertors are simple networking devices that make it possible to connect two dissimilar media types such as twisted pair with fibre optic coupling. They are important in interconnecting fibre optic cabling based systems with existing copper based, structured cabling system. They are also used in MAN access and data transport services to enterprise customers. They support various data

communication protocols.

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Troubleshooting:
Certain basic troubleshooting commands were studied with respect to different types of fibre circuits like simple show commands to verify the connectivity of the links. Screenshots of how they were verified have been shown below with an explanation pertaining to that command. 1. Telnet:
(Telecommunications Network / Terminal Emulation Link Network) A terminal

emulation program for TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. The Telnet program runs on your computer and connects your PC to a server on the network. You can then enter commands through the Telnet program and they will be executed as if you were entering them directly on the server console. This enables you to control the server and communicate with other servers on the network. To start a Telnet session, you must log in to a server by entering a valid username and password. 2. Ping: A utility to determine whether a specific IP address is accessible. It works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply. PING is used primarily to trouble shoot Internet connections. Shows how long it takes for packets to reach host. 3. Traceroute: It tracks the path that a packet takes from your computer to a destination address. A traceroute also shows how many times your packets are being rebroadcast by other servers until it gets to the final destination. It provides the hostname, IP address, and the response time to a ping. What steps are followed is shown below which help us to understand the exact problem being faced by the customer. This also includes calling up the customer and asking him the status of his Media convertor or asking him to reboot the device. The many possible issues in a fibre link can be a fibre cut issue, last mile switch being unreachable (may be a problem with the port), Power Outage issue, Pop end issue etc.

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Troubleshooting for Fibre Links:

Now, let us consider a case of actual troubleshooting for the fibre connectivity provided to Prana Studios Pvt. Ltd. They launched a complaint (fault ticket) for their link being down at the Dindoshi, Mumbai location. 1. Pinging the Loopback IP of Pop:

2. Pinging the VPN Monitoring IP:

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3. Telnet into the Provider edge IP and to try finding the interface of that particular client using VLAN ID.

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4. Checking the connectivity now by pinging the client end router using the VRF name and IP address

Note the successful transmission of packets to that particular IP address has been done. A success rate of 100% shows that the link is up and is indeed working fine without any latency issue.

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5. To ensure that client is not facing drops or latency, we can send x no. of packets of size y. Following screenshot will show a 1000 packets being sent of size 5000 bps.

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6. After we telnet the last mile switch, to check the port which has been connected to the switch. This will help us check if the port has been enabled and whether the link is up.

Note that if we are not able to ping the last mile switch, we need to call up the customer for 1st hand troubleshooting.

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Troubleshooting for Point to Point Links:

Check the End A and End B with mac-address status. If not learning mac-address from client facing port of either end switch. Need to troubleshoot with client. If receiving mac- address from both ends last mile switch but not receiving at either end. Then check the same in both ends aggregation switches. If not getting mac-address till aggregation switches at any end. Trace MEN path for vlan missing issue . If getting mac-address till aggregation switches. Check the Backhaul path between both end aggregation switches.

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Here, for a particular Point to Point link, we telnet into End A, ping the IP address of End B. Also, we check for the mac address from End A. When we are able to learn both the macaddresses, it verifies that the link is up.

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Softwares which help troubleshoot:

1. WhatsUp Gold: WhatsUp Gold is a network mapping, monitoring, notification and management software solution produced by Ipswitch, Inc. that helps you keep your growing network up and running. With WhatsUp Gold, you can quickly create a map of your network, start monitoring, and get feedback on your networks performance. Automatically discovers all resources and map their connectivity. It builds an accurate picture of your network devices, systems and their interconnections, using Layer 2 and 3 network technologies. Using a combination of both active and passive monitoring technologies, WhatsUp Gold monitors the health, availability and status of your network, systems and application infrastructures.

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2. PRTG Traffic Grapher: Paessler Router Traffic Grapher is network monitoring and bandwidth usage software for Microsoft Windows by Paessler AG. It can monitor and classify bandwidth usage in a network using SNMP, Packet Sniffing and Netflow. It helps look at the latency and drops being faced by the customer and thus helping us to find an appropriate solution for the same. The graphs generated are also shared with the client for them to understand the latency issue faced.

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References:
http://compnetworking.about.com support.tulipconnect.com ( CRM Portal ) Basic Troubleshooting Techniques manual www.tulip.net http://www.ruggedcom.com/pdfs/ruggedcom_fiber_guide.pdf http://ecmweb.com/ins-and-outs-optical-fiber-cable-installation

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