B.

E TC IC Presentation Muhammad Hassaan Abid TC-017

Labeeb Ahmed TC-065

Architecture of an ISP

Internet Service Provider:

An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for
accessing and using the Internet. Internet services typically provided by ISPs
include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting
etc. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as
commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned.
The World became the first commercial ISP in the US. Its first customer was
served in November 1989.

ISPs are divided into three tiers:

Tier1:

A tier 1 ISP is that which participates in the Internet solely via settlement-free
interconnection, also known as settlement-free peering. The original Internet
backbone was the ARPANET when it provided the routing between most
participating networks.
E.g. AT&T (US), Orange (France), Tata com (India), Verizon (US)

Tier 2:
A tier 2 ISP is which engages in the practice of peering with other networks, but
which also purchases IP transit to reach some portion of the Internet. Tier 2
providers are the most common Internet service providers as it is much easier to
purchase transit from a Tier 1 network than it is to peer with them and attempt
becoming a tier 1 carrier.
e.g.
Hurricane Electric (buys IPv4-only transit from Telia Carrier. Verizon
Enterprise Solutions)
Vodafone (buys transit from Level3 Communications, Telia Carrier)
TW telecom (buys transit from Level3 Communications)
Tier3
A Tier 3 ISP is that which solely purchases transit from other networks to
participate in the Internet.

e.g. PTCL, NAYATEL, Cybernet, multinet, Supernet etc

Types of Internet services:

 DSL (Digital subscriber line)

Provide Internet access by transmitting digital data over the wires of a local
telephone network

 RF (Radio Frequency)
Provide wireless internet services using radio waves

 ION (Intelligent Optical Networking)

Provides internet access via optical fiber

 VSAT(Very Small Aperture Terminal)

It is a form of wireless communication. An earthbound station is used in

satellite communications of data, voice and video signals, and broadcasting

 3G:

Internet access is provided using cellular network and their services.

Intelligent Optical Network

ISPs in early 1980s use conventional fiber in order to provide services to the
customer. But there were some drawbacks while using the conventional fiber.

 Point to point aerial connectivity cause severe problems

 Required the active media
 Splitting and management cannot be done
 Dedicated connection to a particular client and highly expensive

Passive Optical Network (PON):

ISPs then launched the PON network to overcome the issue which arises while
using conventional fiber. A PON is a network architecture that brings fiber
cabling and signals to the home using a point-to-multipoint scheme that enables
a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises. Encryption maintains data
security in this shared environment. The architecture uses passive (unpowered)
optical splitters, reducing the cost of equipment compared to point-to-point
architectures.

The GPON (gigabit passive optical network) standard differs from other PON
standards in that it achieves higher bandwidth and higher efficiency using
larger, variable-length packets. GPON offers efficient packaging of user traffic,
with frame segmentation allowing higher quality of service (QoS) for delay-
sensitive voice and video communications traffic.

GPON has a downstream capacity of 2.488 Gb/s and an upstream capacity of

1.244 Gbp/s that is shared among users. GPON are generally considered the
strongest candidate for widespread deployments.

Infrastructure of GPON w.r.t Cybernet

Cybernet has deployed GPON in the form of ring. Metro Ethernet switches have
been used in between the connectivity of this ring. This ring is divided among 6
Point of Presence (POP) which are present at Head Office, Korangi, Clifton,
Shahra-e-faisal, Gulshan and Site Area.

In between Metro Ethernet switches, Cybernet is having 10Gbps link and after
the ME their lies 2.5Gbps link.

Why Metro Ethernet switches?

Cybernet has deployed its infrastructure by using 3400ME. There are several
advantages of deploying ME which includes:

 An Ethernet interface is much less expensive than a SONET/SDH

interface of the same bandwidth. Ethernet also supports high bandwidths
with fine granularity which is not available with traditional SDH
connections
 Layer 2 VPN services, 802.1Q Tunneling, Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling
 advanced Layer 3 features such as advanced IP Routing (RIPv1/v2,
EIGRP, IS-IS, OSPF, BGPv4), Multi-VRF CE, and policy-based routing
(PBR)
Each POP is present at the Cybernet end and it consists of Optical Line
Terminal.

OLT (Optical Line Terminal):

An OLT is the placed at the POP which the Cybernet end. After this the
distribution of GPON network starts. Each OLT carriers multiple numbers of
line cards and each line serve 256 customers individually. In between ME and
OLT there is 2.5Gbps speed.

ODF (Optical Distribution frame):

ODFs integrate fiber splicing, storage, and cable connections together in a

single unit. In this frame each Line card is further distributed into 4 PON. Each
PON is divided into 64 optical lines.
FDT (Frame Distribution Terminal):

The 64 optical lines from the PON are divided into 2 pairs of 32 optical lines
each respectively, in this frame.

ADT (Access Distribution Terminal):

In this frames the 32 optical lines from single FDT are terminated at ADT and
they are further divided into two pairs of 16 optical lines respectively.

TB (Termination Box):

It is mounted in and outside wall of building or pole to distribute and connect

optical cable for distribution of subscriber. It is designed with controls that
maintain the fiber bending radius throughout the unit on the customer end.

ONT (Optical Network Terminal):

The ONT presents native services interfaces to user and converts fiber-optic
light signals to copper/electric signals. The patch cord from TB is terminated
into ONT and at the output Fast Ethernet is plugged into customer device for
further configuration.
 Digital subscriber line
Digital subscriber line (DSL, originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of
technologies that provide Internet access by transmitting digital data over the
wires of a local telephone network. In telecommunications marketing, the term
DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL),
the most commonly installed DSL technology. DSL service is delivered
simultaneously with wired telephone service on the same telephone line. This is
possible because DSL uses higher frequency bands for data.
The DSL carries analog and digital traffic simultaneously. Analog traffic is of
phone calls and digital traffic is of web browsing and they works on (0-4) KHz
and above high frequency respectively. Splitter is used to separate the low and
high frequency.
DSL technology is the highly distance sensitive technology. As the distance
increases the bandwidth suffers.

DSL Architecture w.r.t Cybernet:

In Cybernet they have DSL structure deployed in collaboration with PTCL

which is shown in the below figure,
-
Here is the description of the above DSL structure:

Splitter:
It is used to separate the high and low frequency signals. High frequency signals
are proceed towards the modem for the internet connectivity and low frequency
signals are proceed towards telephone line.

Distribution Box:
It is the primary end of the client side and 200 core copper pairs of particular
area are terminated at this point.

Main Distribution Frame:

Connects public and private outside subscriber lines with internal lines and
internal network. It is used to connect the 1200 core copper wires. All cable
copper pairs are terminated at the MDF from multiple DB and distributed
through the MDF to equipment within the local exchange called DDF.

Digital Distribution Frame:

Uses DSL filters to separate voice and data signals. Voice signals are
transmitted towards PTCL switch room and data signals are routed at DSLAM.

Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer:

Collects analog electrical signals from its multiple modem ports and aggregates
them into one composite complex traffic ‘signal’ via multiplexing. It aggregates
these DSL lines over Asynchronous Transfer Mode architecture. The DSLAM
port where the subscriber local loop is connected converts analog electrical
signals to data traffic (upstream traffic for data upload) and data traffic to
analog electrical signals (downstream for data download).

PSAX:
Contains the ATM switches which provide high speed for ATM switching in
Cybernet. It throws its traffic towards BRAS.

Broadband Remote Access Server:

Aggregates user sessions and provide layer 2 connectivity through PPP sessions
over ATM and Ethernet. It authenticates, authorizes and allots the user from
RADIUS server.

Remote Authentication Dial in User Service:

Is a networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication,
Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) management for computers that connect
and use a network service.
BRAS RADIUS servers use the AAA concept to manage network access in the
following steps:

 To authenticate users or devices before granting them access to a

network.
 To authorize those users or devices for certain network services
 To account for usage of those services

Cybernet have Asynchronous Transfer Mode based structure for DSL

therefore they provide DSL connectivity to our users through IPOA and
PPPOE.

PPPOE: In this organization, 80% PPPOE protocol is running on the

infrastructure and it is depended upon BRAS/RADIUS. Whenever a user
initiates a new connection, BRAS authenticate it through RADIUS.

BRAS assign the IP in two ways.

 If the costumer required same IP for every time he connects to internet it
will be provided by BRAS/RADIUS along with his authentication.
 It the costumer doesn’t demand for the same IP then any available IP
from the DHCP pool is granted to that particular costumer

IPOA: Cybernet also provide IPOA as it doesn’t depend on the RADIUS

therefore no need to create dialer and no authentication is done. PSAX passes
the Virtual Path Identifier and Virtual Channel Identifier towards BRAS which
directly assigns IP to that user. Costumer’s packets are encapsulated in ATM
and then at BRAS virtual interface is created which bind the ATM packets into
IP packets.