Extreme Networks IP and Ethernet services Installation guide

Simplifying the Management of Converged
Services over Ethernet Transport Networks with
Ridgeline Service Advisor
Extreme Networks White Paper
© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reser ved. Do not reproduce.
Abstract: Carriers are deploying next generation networks that converge IP and
Ethernet services over a common Ethernet Transport network in order to
maximize revenue opportunities. With this convergence however, network
operators face complex operational challenges that can delay revenue,
adversely impact subscriber satisfaction, and result in inefficient use of
the network.
Extreme Networks® powerful service management software,
Ridgeline™ Service Advisor, allows carriers to address these tough
challenges. By enabling the shift from reactive circuit monitoring
to proactive service management, Ridgeline Service Advisor
helps carriers to monetize the network. This paper highlights
Ridgeline Service Advisor’s key capabilities.

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Introduction
Carriers are deploying next-generation networks that
converge IP and Ethernet services over a common Ethernet
Transport network in order to maximize revenue opportuni-
ties. With this convergence, network operators face
complex operational challenges. Services are constantly
activated or deactivated, subscribers added or removed,
connectivity configurations frequently changed, and
services continuously monitored for problems among other
tasks. With hundreds of thousands of subscribers with
varying requirements all supported over a common transport
network, the complexity in carrying out these processes
increases significantly.
The Command Line Interface (CLI) method, most com-
monly used today, involves time-consuming manual tasks to
provision services. This increases the probability of human
error which adversely impacts service fulfillment and
subsequently delays service revenue. Providing service
assurance is also challenging since effective monitoring and
troubleshooting of services means having detailed, real-time
visibility into the network. Responding to network issues
quickly and efficiently is critical in order to maintain service
quality and enhance subscriber satisfaction.
The interplay between bulk traffic and time-sensitive
applications such as streaming videos and voice calls
supported on the same network also increases the
complexity of service engineering. Proper utilization of
network resources is crucial in order to maximize network
efficiency. Supporting as many services as possible without
compromising service quality translates directly to the
carrier’s profitability.
To address these challenges, carriers are shifting from
reactive circuit monitoring to proactive service management.
Proactive service management accelerates revenue, enhanc-
es subscriber experience and increases network efficiency.
Proactive service management enables carriers to monetize
the network by greatly simplifying network operations.
Extreme Networks Ridgeline Service Advisor is service
management software with powerful features that provide
the shift to proactive service management. This paper
highlights these key capabilities.
Shifting to Proactive Service
Management
Increased competition and revenue pressures drive the
fundamental need for service providers to accelerate time
to market of revenue-generating services. With this
challenge, there are trade-offs made when balancing rapid
deployment with ideal service management that ensure
outstanding services.
Ridgeline Service Advisor provides specific capabilities for
carriers to address this challenge. Features include point-
and-click provisioning to ease service fulfillment, powerful
visual service monitoring to accelerate resolution of
network problems for service assurance, and simplified
service engineering that maximizes network efficiency.
Service Fulfillment Using Point and
Click Provisioning
A vast majority of service issues are a result of human error
when using the CLI that require manual effort to configure
and provision services—which in turn delays the turn-up of
services. Ridgeline Service Advisor’s point-and-click feature
eases this process, enabling carriers to accelerate revenue.
When using the CLI method, prior to any provisioning task,
the network operator must manually create a table (for
example, a spreadsheet) that defines various network
configuration and connectivity parameters. Using these
parameters, the network operator configures each network
element involved in the service using CLI commands over a
telnet/SSH session or console port. Because the CLI
interface lacks intelligence, it is important for the network
operator to have at hand detailed information on the
physical connectivity of the network when parameter
entries are made. For example, the operator must manually
keep track of which ports on which switches are connected
to each other and the VLANs that are associated with the
links in order to ensure the correct parameter entries (such
as traffic profiles). Ensuring correct syntax and format is
also important. Not only is the amount of manual involve-
ment and focus required on the part of the network
operator extensive, having to configure and provision each
network element in this manner is tedious and time-
consuming. Given the wide range of services and service
types that must be handled, the likelihood of human error
during this process is significant.
Another example is adding a business E-Line service to a
network which involves four key tasks. Tasks include
defining connectivity parameters, configuring the resiliency
domain such as Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching
(EAPS), creating the E-Line service, adding the service to
the resiliency domain, and finally activating the service.
Ridgeline Service Advisor’s powerful visualization capabili-
ties provide detailed graphical representations of the
network coupled with point-and-click provisioning to
greatly reduce the likelihood of human error. A user-friendly
interface allows the operator to select and auto-provision
specific network elements by choosing the appropriate
application to execute from a drop-down menu. This is
illustrated in Figure 1A where the network operator selects
two switches to provision for E-Line service. Right-clicking

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on one of the highlighted switches will open up a drop-down
menu. When the network operator chooses and runs the
E-Line application, a new window is displayed with configu-
ration parameters pre-populated in the right format and
syntax as shown in Figure 1B. The network operator merely
makes changes to this data as necessary and then the
E-Line service is automatically provisioned.
Figure 1A. Service Fulfillment using
Provisioning – Select Network Elements
Figure 1B. Service Fulfillment using
Provisioning – Activate E-Line Service

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The following table compares the steps required to add an E-Line service using the CLI method to Ridgeline Service
Advisor’s point-and-click method. As can be seen, with each task, the line by line entry of commands required using the CLI
method is intensive. For example, to create an EAPS domain on a single switch, the operator must enter over 20 CLI
commands per switch. Ridgeline Service Advisor only requires pointing and clicking on the switches that need to be included
in the EAPS domain and selecting the appropriate application to run from the drop-down menu.
Ridgeline Service Advisor’s point-and-click capability makes it quick and easy for network operators to turn-up new services,
providing carriers the ability to accelerate revenue.
Task Description of Task Steps Required Using CLI
Steps Required Using Ridgeline
Service Advisor’s Point and Click
1. Define
configuration
and
connectivity
parameters
–
Operator manually creates a
table specifying
• Management access info
• Names of switches
• IP addresses
• Modules and ports to be used for
each switch
• Resiliency parameters
• Network-to-Network Interfaces
(NNI) links
• User-to-Network Interface (UNI)
endpoints
• Operator executes discovery action
using ‘Add New Device’ button in RSA
to auto-populate device table
• Ridgeline Service Advisor utilizes info in
table to automate network operations
2. Configure
Resiliency
Domain
EAPS rings are
configured
Through management port
• Select network node
• Create EAPS domain
• Configure EAPS domain, primary,
secondary ports, and mode
(i.e. master or transit)
• Define control VLAN
(ports, tags, QoS profile)
• Create and configure shared
ports as required
• Enable EAPS domain
• Click on links to add to EAPS domain
• Select application ‘Create
EAPS Domain
• If necessary, make changes to
pre-populated parameters
• Execute application
3. Create
E-Line
service
VLAN is configured to
provide point-to-point
connectivity between
customer sites. It is
also added to EAPS
domain
Through management port
• Select network node
• Create VLAN/vMAN
• Assign VLAN/vMAN ID
• Assign QoS profile to VLAN/vMAN
• Assign UNI ports to VLAN
• Add protected VLAN/vMAN to
EAPS domain
• Choose application “Create Protected
VLAN” from drop-down menu
• Execute application
4. Activate
E-Line
service
Enable UNI ports and
customer’s traffic flow
across the E-Line
Through management port
• Select network nodes and
UNI ports
• Enable UNI ports
• Click on UNI endpoints in visual map
• Select “E-Line Service” from
drop-down menu
• Select ports (from given list)
• Execute application “Create E-Line”
Table 1. Configuring and Provisioning a Business E-Line Service – CLI vs. Ridgeline Service Advisor

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Visual User Interface for Service Assurance
In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace where
subscribers are on the constant lookout for new services
that provide them the best value, enhancing subscriber
experience is crucial. Service assurance requires real-time
detailed visibility into the network and proactive detection
of network problems to ensure uninterrupted, high-quality
services that subscribers count on.
The CLI method makes service assurance a significant
challenge. Once the operator is notified of an alarm, the
process involved in finding out its impact on services
requires a series of tasks. For example, suppose an alarm
indicates that a particular link is down. The operator must
first determine which VLANs are on the link. Next, the
operator must figure out which network elements are
associated with these VLANs. The operator must then
determine which ports are active or inactive on those
network elements, and then make references to the
database to determine which services are mapped to these
active ports. These steps require the operator to have
detailed knowledge about the network when executing the
CLI commands. Clearly, having to perform these tasks for
every alarm is tedious and time-consuming.
Extreme Networks Ridgeline Service Advisor addresses this
problem by hiding the complexity of the converged
network, with detailed and easy-to-understand representa-
tions of service status or issues. Ridgeline Service Advisor
provides a detailed consolidated view of the entire services
network with up/down status, and fault-to-service correlation
that provides a quick view of physical links, VLANs, or
services which have been impacted. This detailed informa-
tion provides network operators the ability to easily
determine how many subscribers have been affected at
which location. Based on the magnitude of impact, network
operators can effectively prioritize their troubleshooting
tasks for resolution. The upfront information also drastically
reduces the mean-time-to-repair of service issues, enabling
carriers to enhance subscriber experience.
Figure 2 below is an illustration of Ridgeline Service
Advisor’s fault-to-service correlation capability. The faulty
link between two switches is shown as the red dotted line.
The ‘services’ tab under the navigation table lists the two
services that are impacted.
Figure 2. Fault-to-Service Correlation

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Simplified Service Engineering for
Increased Network Efficiency
A service provider’s profitability largely depends on how
many service instances can be supported on a given
infrastructure without compromising Quality of Service.
More services can be added onto the network by increasing
network efficiency through intelligent and proper use of
network resources. However, gaining detailed visibility into
the network using CLI methods in an effort to manage and
achieve optimum network utilization is again a very
complicated and time-consuming process.
To ease this challenge, Ridgeline Service Advisor provides
simplified service engineering capabilities.
Powerful network discovery and visualization provide
network operators easy access to detailed network usage
information such as bandwidth, link, or service utilization
statistics as well as traffic patterns. Based on this informa-
tion, network operators can quickly find optimum traffic
routes and make the most of bandwidth and link capacities
to avoid traffic congestion that may otherwise impact
time-critical services. Once optimum paths are discovered,
re-routes are easily established using simple point and click.
Ridgeline Service Advisor provides network operators the
ability to easily create, visualize, and manage transport
technologies such as Provider Bridging (PB) and Provider
Backbone Bridging (PBB). Network operators can also
easily create VLANs and EAPS resiliency domains. These
capabilities along with utilization statistics allow network
operators to quickly determine if more subscribers and/or
services can be added onto the network without impacting
existing services.
Let’s take for example, a 10 Gigabit ring with an EAPS
domain and active 100 Meg VLAN paths as illustrated in
Figure 3. Using Ridgeline Service Advisor’s detailed visual
network topology and utilization statistics, the network
operator can easily view the active paths and bandwidth
usage of links and determine that a second EAPS domain
with its own set of VLANs can be added (see Figure 4). This
increases the bandwidth utilization of the ring through
loadsharing of multiple EAPS domains or a group of VLANs,
referred to as “spatial re-use” (see Figure 5).
Figure 3. EAPS Domain 1

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Figure 4. EAPS Domain 2
Figure 5. Spatial Re-use and Loadsharing

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Figure 6 illustrates Ridgeline Service Advisor’s representation of loadsharing of two EAPS domains, showing their active,
shared, and blocked paths.
With simplified service engineering, Ridgeline Service Advisor provides carriers an efficient way to maximize network efficiency.
Summary
Extreme Networks Ridgeline Service Advisor service management software enables carriers to monetize their networks by
providing the shift from reactive circuit monitoring to proactive service management. Ridgeline Service Advisor accelerates
revenue, enhances subscriber experience, and increases network efficiency. Features include provisioning that significantly
reduce operator errors during service fulfillments, and service visualization capabilities that simplify service monitoring and
troubleshooting. Simplified service engineering via network discovery and a powerful visual interface enable carriers to
maximize the efficiency of the service network.
Figure 6. Simplified Service Engineering – Detailed View of
EAPS Domains and Active Paths