Why is a good network 30% construction and 70% operation and maintenance? How does IGL do intelligent operation and maintenance?

A good network also has a “30% to 70%” structure – 30% construction and 70% operation.

With the continuous development of informatization, the trend of large-scale campus networks and complex network structures has become increasingly obvious. The increase in size will inevitably lead to an increase in the types and number of devices and terminals connected to the network, which will greatly increase the workload and complexity of network operators and maintainers.

For traditional Ethernet networks using copper cables:

When a new device is online , it is necessary to pull the network cable from the access switch deployed in the weak current room on the floor to the room where the device needs to be connected to the network. This process takes at least 20 minutes for each room: first, the network equipment is powered on for 1-2 minutes, then the old version is upgraded and restarted for about 6-8 minutes, and finally, the relevant business configuration is performed in the background for about 5 minutes;

When replacing a faulty device , it still takes more than 20 minutes to go online and configure it. What's more troublesome is that because the campus network has different business subnets, you must record the terminal cable wiring sequence of the old device when dismantling it, and connect it exactly the same on the new device. Otherwise, if the connection is wrong, the business will be interrupted. It will take a lot of time for the front-end replacement personnel and the back-end background personnel to communicate and troubleshoot, resulting in slow network online efficiency.

Therefore, in actual operation, experienced operation and maintenance personnel need to take photos with their mobile phones at any time to keep a record, so as to match the labels and ports one by one to avoid the problem of wrong connection. If it is just necessary to reconnect, it is fine. In the case of no labeling, or some campus network equipment is deployed in high places or places with access rights, it increases the difficulty and time required for operation and maintenance personnel.

Imagine that if all 112 schools in the entire metropolitan area network adopt this deployment method, there will be 2,187 classes, nearly 3,000 rooms, and nearly 3,000 devices. Under the premise of smooth operation, it will take more than 20,000 minutes, more than 300 hours, and 12+ days to debug and launch new equipment . This situation is very stressful for the metropolitan area network operation and maintenance team with only 4-5 outsourced personnel.

For network maintenance staff, the burden on their shoulders is becoming increasingly heavy. How to reduce maintenance pressure and speed up troubleshooting time is a key issue that the industry needs to address.

At present, the main approach of mainstream manufacturers in the industry to optimize operation and maintenance is to adopt all-optical networks and equipment into the room. Whether it is PON or Ethernet color optical route, there are common characteristics in architecture and deployment:

1. Use optical fiber for all-optical network deployment : Optical fiber can carry the evolution requirements of large bandwidth. Subsequent service upgrades only require replacing access equipment without changing the line, which reduces construction and renovation while also reducing the steps of pulling network cables.

2. Fiber optics and switches are brought into the room : small, silent switching devices are deployed indoors, connected up via optical fibers, and connected to the terminal indoors via network cables, to enhance the flexibility of indoor access point deployment. When expansion points need to be expanded, network cables can be added from the indoor switches to indoor points. When equipment needs to be replaced, direct replacement and blind plugging can be performed to reduce the time and effort of replacing equipment.

PON, Ethernet color optical architecture diagram

With this architecture for network construction, equipment failure in a room will only affect the network in one room, but this will increase the number of devices in the room. In order to meet the needs of customers in various industries in the park to reduce costs and increase efficiency in operation and maintenance, Ruijie's simplified Ethernet color light solution is compatible with SDN based on Ethernet color light technology, and provides automated start-up and zero-configuration replacement functions in the form of intelligent operation and maintenance/automated operation and maintenance, which can better meet the needs of reducing operation and maintenance pressure in the context of the increase in the number of devices.

The automated operation and maintenance solution of minimalist optical matching mainly includes the following two important functions:

1) Zero configuration of equipment online : After the equipment is powered on and connected to the network, the administrator does not need to do anything. The RG-INC-PRO controller can automatically complete the configuration and maintenance of the equipment, without the need to manually log in to the equipment for configuration. The entire equipment online process only takes 1-2 minutes, which reduces the ability requirements of operation and maintenance personnel and greatly reduces the maintenance workload.

2) Zero replacement of equipment & blind port plugging : When a device fails, use an empty-configuration device to replace the original device. The system automatically adapts to different models of minimalist optical devices, inherits all the original configurations from the SDN platform, and can directly access the network; at the same time, the port is blindly plugged, and there is no need to check the label and one-to-one correspondence between the network cable and the port. You only need to connect the network cable to any port to complete the networking of the downstream device. Even people who don't understand technology can quickly replace the device to restore the network. Compared with the previous environment without SDN, the average replacement time of a device can be saved by 20+ minutes.

Connect an unlabeled network cable of the same color to any port

The intelligence of network operation and maintenance is one of the important supports for the continuous development of campus networks. In the all-optical network technology solution represented by minimalist optics, many intelligent operation and maintenance technologies of traditional networks are inherited, and continuous innovation and development are carried out for the characteristics of various application scenarios of enterprise-level campuses. Relying on color light and SDN technology, the full-link intelligent management built by minimalist optics allows operation and maintenance personnel to quickly locate faults, quickly replace equipment with zero configuration to restore the network, improve the stability of the overall network and the efficiency of operation and maintenance, and also provide more space for network expansion from switches to terminals, making the network more flexible. This also makes us look forward to more smart campus services and more advanced technologies entering and popularizing in the future to better support the development of campus services.