MPLS — Page 2

Global Internet Phenomena

September 16, 2019 By Timo

It seems that each year that I went to the Canadian Telecom Summit, one of the highlights was Dave Caputo, the former CEO of Sandvine, giving a presentation with pearls of wisdom from their Global Internet Phenomena Report. That annual report was also then quoted in many other presentations as the authoritative source for what was happening on broadband networks around the world.

For example, back in 2012, Sandvine focussed on Social Networking and reported that Facebook was one of the top 4 applications on the Web and that over 50% of mobile devices communicated with Facebook each hour !

The 2019 Global Internet Phenomena Report was just released by Sandvine on Sept 10. Sandvine, a Waterloo company (forgive me some local cheerleading) has unparalleled visibility into the Internet industry with an installed base of over 2.5 billion subscribers worldwide across over 160 Tier 1 and Tier 2 fixed, mobile, WiFi and satellite operators. (note that China and India are not included in this data set)

So what is changing in how the world uses the Internet ? A lot !

Video is obviously king, but in ways that keep changing and evolving. Netflix led the way with streaming but now we are seeing more and more competitive streaming services; Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube and new ones coming from Disney, Apple, CBS and others. The big traditional cable and telco companies have been fighting back, trying to stop cord cutting with their own streaming offerings and video on demand.

How many different services will a consumer buy to replace their cable ? What do they do if the content they want is not on the services they are buying ? Well, the answer may be in this report as Sandvine is seeing a resurgence in BitTorrent traffic. The release of the final season of Game of Thrones on HBO , or the blockbuster movie Avengers:Endgame could be seen in the increase in BitTorrent traffic.

The big players in Web 2.0, the ones whose shares currently dominate the global stock markets are the FAANG ; Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Would it really be a surprise to find out that they also dominate the traffic on the Internet ?

Some other highlights from this edition of the report include:

Video is over 60% of the total downstream volume of traffic on the internet.
Netflix is 12.60% of the total downstream volume of traffic across the entire internet
Google is 12% of overall internet traffic, driven by YouTube, search, and the Android ecosystem.
Gaming traffic and gaming-related bandwidth consumption is increasing as gaming downloads, Twitch streaming, and eSports go mainstream.
BitTorrent is over 27% of total upstream volume of traffic
Facebook applications make up over 15% of the total internet traffic in APAC.

The report includes spotlights on the traffic share leaders for video, social networking, messaging, audio streaming, and gaming.

If you are interested, you can get a download of the report here

Filed Under: Cloud, Mobile, MPLS, OTT Apps, Quality, Regulatory

Co-Location versus the Cloud

August 1, 2019 By Timo

Have you ever wondered “What exactly is Colocation”

The short answer is that a colocation centre is a data centre that provides shared space for network storage and interconnection. Rather than trying to build your own on-site facility to house all of your computing equipment, servers, routers etc. you house them in a colo centre to save the expense and hassles.

A colocation facility provides storage for your own equipment. The facility typically provides power, cooling, security, and intra-site connectivity, among other offerings.

So how does colocation differ from cloud computing?

Cloud computing is essentially dynamic hosting, where you share computing resources with other users that are allocated on-demand from the cloud provider’s servers.

Colocation, on the other hand, is the physical space in which you may operate your company-owned software and hardware. In the cloud computing scenario, the servers and other infrastructure are provided by the cloud provider (ie Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, Google, IBM etc)

In the coming weeks we will be blogging more about data networking, international MPLS circuits, virtual networks like SD-WAN and accessing cloud computing on demand globally.

Filed Under: Cloud, MPLS

ISP Summit – Day 1

November 6, 2018 By Timo

The obligatory pre-conference photo !

Beyond Connectivity
Those were the words of Matt Stein, the President and Chair of CNOC to open this years ISP Summit. The opening day had some great keynotes about Data Privacy, AI and machine learning as well as the challenges of providing Internet everywhere, including remote fly-in only areas of Canada.

There was ample networking at this sold-out event; a cocktail reception sponsored by TorIX and QIX, dinner by TekSavvy and an after party by SmartRG thatI was smart enough to not attend . There are times I have to acknowledge my own limits ! Thank you to all the sponsors for making this event so special.

The ISP Summit is an interesting contrast to the Canadian Telecom Summit. It is smaller, cosier, homier, with ample networking opportunities to meet people from across the country and across the industry. Monday was no exception as I had multiple meetings and conversations throughout the day with people I had only connected with before on social media. There is nothing like being able to have face-to-face , live conversations to help each other solve business issues.

I’ll report back tomorrow, the lights are dimming for the first speaker of the day !

PS Thanks to TekSavvy for sponsoring my “office” away from home too !

Filed Under: MPLS

2018 Canadian ISP Summit

October 8, 2018 By Timo

Monday, November 5th, 2018 is the start of this year’s Canadian ISP Summit to be held at the Toronto Mariott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel. Designed for Internet Service Providers (large and small) from across the country, the Canadian ISP Summit is a conference that allows attendees to learn, grow and network in the Internet and data networking field.

It is put on by CNOC, The Canadian Network Operators Consortium Inc. There are three days filled with keynotes, panels, general sessions and lightning talks. There will be technical sessions, business related sessions and some superb regulatory discussions. There are plenty of opportunities to network before and after sessions, during coffee breaks and meals as well as cocktail receptions and fabulous dinners.

I have been lucky enough to attend two of the last three ISP Summits and will be attending again this year. It gives me an opportunity to focus on the data side of AurorA’s business. International telecommunications is more than just voice termination; AurorA also provides international data services such as MPLS, SD-WAN and even private line bandwidth up the wavelength level. The Summit energizes me, educates me and introduces me to data and ISP industry people from across Canada.

This year I will be trying something new by blogging from the conference. My goal is to post a summary each night of some of the more significant talks, discussion and events of the Summit that I feel would be relevant to you, my readers, specifically from an international telecom perspective.

Hopefully, I will see you live at the Canadian ISP Summit. If not, then check in here in early November for my updates from #ISPSummit. If there is something specific you would like me to cover then leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter (@TimoVainionpaa)