2. Why should I check if I’m 21CN compliant?
21CN or next generation networks are seen by
some to be old news, but a surprising number of
organisations have still not taken the necessary
action to ensure they’ll have a working
infrastructure after all the legacy 20CN networks
have been switched off in 2014.
What is the risk?
In the worst case scenario, your 20CN network will be switched off and
you’ll literally have no network. If you didn’t order replacement 21CN
services in time (see standard lead times), you’ll need to invoke your
business continuity plan and install an interim circuit, i.e. something with
a shorter lead time like ADSL 2+ whilst you wait for larger circuits to be
delivered. Unfortunately, even ADSL services are not immediately available
but here’s a guide to how long you’ll have to wait in general terms to
replace those 20CN circuits if you miss the boat:
ADSL – normally 10 working days; that’s 10 working days after the PSTN line
has been installed which currently takes about 12 working days
EFM – normally 30 working days
Lease lines – 25 working days, subject to survey
Ethernet – 38 working days, subject to survey
Two other factors that may also affect delivery times for 21CN circuits are
excess construction charges (ECC) and wayleaves. An ECC is an additional
levy for getting your circuit from the local exchange to your premises; if
there is no currently available route or capacity, an ECC may be applied.
Wayleaves come into play when new circuits require landlord-approval
prior to circuit installation, i.e. the carrier needs formal written consent to
carry out work on privately-owned land.
Since many 21CN services use different exchanges and POPs to their 20CN
predecessors, you might be surprised to find that ECCs and wayleaves that
didn’t previously affect your business may do so now.
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Last year’s contract renewal does not
guarantee 21CN compliance.
In many instances, SAS has found that
customers have re-signed an existing contract
in the last two years but the circuits have not
been upgraded to 21CN. What we’ve noticed is
that whilst carriers may offer a discount for re-
signing, they will often keep any larger
bandwidth circuits (2Mb and above) on 20CN
services, to retain their revenue and margin.
So if you’re re-signing a WAN contract anytime
soon, make sure that all of your circuits are
upgraded to 21CN. There are still many carriers
using legacy 20CN systems in situations where
21CN services are available.
3. How much could I save by switching to 21CN services?
21CN services are on average 48% cheaper than
their 20CN counterparts. The major savings tend
to be with the higher bandwidth circuits but
there’s still scope for reducing costs even with
some of the smaller circuits.
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4. When will corporate MPLS products go end-of-life?
Most carriers buy some or all of their services in
the UK from BT Wholesale or BT Technology,
Service & Operations (formerly BT Operate), so
even if you didn’t buy your network directly from
BT, there’s a very strong possibility you’re using
part of BT’s backbone anyway.
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The dates shown below represent the retirement schedule planned for BT’s
legacy 20CN platforms, and will affect the majority of UK businesses.
For ordering new 21CN circuits, especially where diversity is required, you
need to allow as much time as possible to mitigate for delays; and don’t
forget those unexpected obstacles, as mentioned earlier, like excess
construction work and wayleaves that can also affect the lead time for
circuit delivery. In addition, with the vast number of 20CN circuits still in use,
there’s a good chance that the lead times will increase over and above the
normal expectations anyway. Our advice: add three months as a minimum
time cushion.
As the deadlines for switching off larger circuits approach, lessons can
definitely be learnt from the experience of ADSL. With it, two things
happened: the first was that any of out-of-contract circuits had price
increases applied; and the second was a major shortage in engineering
resource resulted, because carriers were unable to cope with the demand.
Most carriers can only manage a finite number of orders on a daily basis.
5. What information will I need to confirm my compliance?
To gain an accurate appraisal of the 21CN status of
your network, you’ll need to create three sets
of benchmarking data which will cover all
aspects of your wide area network.
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WAN site inventory. This is essentially a list of every site on your WAN, along
with its address, post code and PSTN phone number. Use this information as
a baseline for establishing which 21CN services are installed at your local
exchanges. To research ADSL and EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile) services
visit the Openreach on-line availability checker at http://www.superfast-
openreach.co.uk/where-and-when. There are also a number of third party
tools that will show you the status of your local exchange, including http://
www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php and http://www.samknows.com/
broadband/broadband_checker. For non ADSL and EFM services, check with
your carrier.
WAN circuit register. The circuit register lists the attributes of each circuit on
your estate, including port speed, bearer speed, class of service, reference
and annual charge. This information will give you a good benchmark for
identifying any 20CN circuits on your WAN; the key differences between 20
and 21CN are circuit costs and bearer type. You should be able to get this
information from your carrier contract or, failing that, directly from your
carrier. It’s also important to collate contract termination dates for each
circuit; not all circuits within your contract will have the same contract end
date (known as co-terminous dates). Most carriers prefer to maintain circuit
contracts on different end dates (these are known as ragged end).
WAN router schedule. Another list; this time detailing the model, serial
number, WAN interface module type and IOS level of every route on the
network. The details contained on this list, like the circuit register, will also
help you determine if you have 20 or 21CN services in use. If the services are
still 20CN, this data can be used to highlight whether your existing hardware
can be redeployed to terminate 21CN services. If you have a carrier managed
WAN this information should be readily available from your carrier, or within
your carrier contract.
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6. How can I see if my physical circuits are 21CN?
Unfortunately there are no circuit references
that will tell you if you’re receiving 20 or 21CN
services. This is mainly due to the large number
of products in the marketplace.
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One of the first things you’ll need to do (once you’ve compiled your data
sets as described in the previous section) is to ask your carrier for written
verification that each of your WAN circuits is 21CN compliant.
For any that are not verified as 21CN compliant, you will need to request
your carrier’s road map for their conversion to 21CN. If the carrier has sites
that will not be upgraded from 20CN, either because of excessive cost or
limited demand at the local exchange, you need to understand where these
are; several conflicts have already been identified between some 20 and
21CN product sets so it’s essential to know if your circuits will be affected.
For example, if you have a BT international network, you can neither order
nor connect a 20CN ADSL service to your 21CN network. There is also no
gateway between the two networks so your only option is to upgrade to a
21CN lease line or fibre service at considerably greater cost.
20CN technologies – how to recognise them.
The key 20CN technologies you need to look out for are:
ADSL1, ADSL 2, ADSL MAX
ATM, Framestream and Cellstream
IP Stream and DataStream
Point to point circuits (2Mb, 10Mb or 34Mb)
LAN extension services (LES)
If you’ve got any of these, you’ll need to replace them with either WBC/ADSL 2+ or
Ethernet services.
Of course you may already have 21CN services. The easy ones to spot are EFM and
ADSL 2+ but in other cases it will be more difficult as some circuits could be either 20
or 21CN. The main challenges are with:
Lease lines (up to 2Mb), Ethernet circuits and short haul data services (SHDS)
7. Simple checks for identifying 20CN services on your WAN
Whilst there are no universal circuit references,
there are a few simple tests you can carry out to
highlight potential legacy 20CN services within
your network estate.
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At a cost level, there are several indicators of 20CN services:
MPLS ADSL services are now in the £600 per annum ballpark if they’re 21CN,
and not in the £1,200 to £3,000 range.
Any 2Mb lease line is usually a sign of 20CN as there are much better 21CN
options available; with 21CN you’re far more likely to have an EFM circuit
(with bandwidths from 2Mb up to 10Mb, and 30Mb planned), and be paying
around £3,500 per annum. Please be aware that 2Mb lease lines will still be
used for extended reach locations on 21CN networks.
Any 10Mb Ethernet services should cost around £7,000 per annum if they’re
21CN. These will now be provisioned on a minimum of a 100Mb bearer so
there will be ample flexibility to increase the bandwidth above the legacy 10
or 34Mb 20CN limits.
Class of service (CoS) on 20CN is normally charged at £1.40 per 10Kb
compared with £0.40 per 10Kb on 21CN.
For bearer speeds, some of the older 20CN bandwidths will be phased out:
2Mb lease lines, as mentioned earlier, have now been succeeded by cheaper
and better services such as Ethernet or EFM.
10Mb bearers do not feature in a 21CN product set; 100Mb is now generally
the bearer minimum.
34Mb bearers have similarly been replaced with 100Mb 21CN equivalents.
LAN extension services (LES) are succeeded by 100Mb, 1Gb and 10Gb point
to point Ethernet services.
8. Simple checks for identifying 20CN services... cont’d
You can also find indicators of 20CN services in
the router types and modules you’re using.
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At a module/interface level:
For ADSL modules, the Cisco WIC-1ADSL does not support the 21CN variant
of ADSL – ADLS 2+ or super fast broadband speeds of up to 24Mb. The
module that does is the Cisco HWIC-1ADSL.
With 2Mb lease line circuits, the Cisco WIC-1T (X21 presentation) and the
Cisco VWIC-1MFT-G703 (G703 presentation) modules will be in use. As
stated earlier, the EFM and Ethernet circuits that are more cost effective
with a higher bandwidth will replace these; they only require an Ethernet
port as an interface. The only time this will not be the case is with extended
reach locations, where 2Mb lease line services over copper will still be used.
In this case generally the Cisco WIC-1T module (X21 presentation) is used.
At a router level the Cisco 887VA is the main 21CN ADSL router in use by
most carriers. The Cisco 857/867/877 routers use the old 20CN ADSL
interfaces which will not support 21CN. The larger routers (1800/2800/3800
series) are modular so a 21CN ADSL interface can be installed, but beware as
this may be a false economy. If you install a 21CN ADSL interface you may
need to upgrade the memory and IOS. This could cost more than buying a
new router. Further the 800/1800/2800/3800 series routers will not be
supported by Cisco from October 2014 so any upgrade will be wasted.
At a more technical level you can always check the router’s configuration.
For Cisco and non Cisco devices 21CN ADSL 2+ requires ITU G.992.5
encapsulation. If the router is using 992.1, 992.2, 992.3 or 992.4 the service
in use will be ADSL 1 or 2.
Replacement products for 20CN technologies.
The plan for replacement 20CN technologies is simple, all
non-ADSL services will move to a single Ethernet based
platform.
20CN technology
ADSL 1, 2 and MAX on MPLS
CellStream to MPLS
20CN Ethernet access to MPLS
Internet 2Mbps and lower
Internet 20CN Ethernet
21CN replacement
ADSL 2+, EFM or Ethernet
EFM or Ethernet
EFM or Ethernet
EFM or Ethernet
EFM or Ethernet
9. 7-Step 21CN compliance testing
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Check your current WAN contract for termination dates to identify which circuits are in or out of contract. This will allow you to identify the
optimal time to migrate those circuits. If they are out of contract you should upgrade now to get the performance and cost benefits of 21CN.
For in-contract services the optimal time to upgrade is a when the cost savings of 21CN outweigh the 20CN termination charges.
Check to see if circuit contracts all end on the same date (co-terminous) or on different dates (ragged end). This will determine whether you
need to approach the migration as a complete network or on a circuit by circuit basis.
Compare circuit end of contract dates against published network switch-off dates to see if any circuits go past the network switch-off date.
Understand which migrations can be done now and where negotiation with the carrier will be required.
Create an inventory of all WAN sites on your estate, including the site address, post code and PSTN phone number. Use this baseline
information to check the availability of 21CN ADSL services and EFM at each of your local exchanges, using online checkers, and contact your
carrier directly to verify the availability of all other Ethernet services. Record the status of service availability for all sites, highlighting any sites
that cannot be upgraded to 21CN and recording the expected bandwidth.
Produce a register of all WAN circuits, including port speed, bearer speed, class of service, circuit reference and annual charge. Cross
reference this data against 21CN circuit costs and bearer types to get an indication of 20CN services still in use and highlight any that are
found.
Create a schedule of all WAN routers, including model, serial number, WAN interface module type and IOS level. Compare this data to the list
of 20CN modules discussed earlier in Simple checks for identifying 20CN services on your WAN and highlight any routers, interfaces or IOS
levels indicated for replacement. Contact your carrier or managed service provider to verify which routers can be redeployed with 21CN
services and which you will need to upgrade.
Analyse annual service costs and compare to 21CN equivalents as shown in the 20CN v 21CN circuit cost comparison and highlight any circuits
that seem to be over the average 21CN costs.
Finally, document any remedial or migration work required on the network and contact your carrier or service provider for a quote.
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10. 21CN is coming, ignore it at your peril
For many of our customers at SAS, upgrading to
21CN services has not only reduced their costs,
it’s also given them superior technology with far
greater resilience and performance than they’ve
ever known before.
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Whether you like it or not, you can’t hold back the tide of 21CN. It’s coming
anyway, and if you’re not ready when it does, the only question anyone
needs to answer is how long can you survive without a network? If you
haven’t got 21CN services in place by March 2014, you’ll probably find out.
Fortunately, that’s not going to be a problem for you because you’ve already put
the wheels in motion to check for 21CN services. What’s more, if they’re not
ubiquitous within your organisation today, there’s still time to get them in place
and be a hero for saving the company some money.
Good luck with your project. And if you need any help, you know where to
find us.
For more information on checking for 21CN compliance, contact
geoff.m.tyrrell@sas.co.uk
SAS Global Communications Limited
SAS House, Blackhouse Road
Colgate, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 6HS
Tel: +44 (0)8455 194 190
www.sas.co.uk
