Piers Daniell

BT announced with great fanfare the launch of Annex-M services on their ADSL2+ (21CN) platform allowing up to 2.5 Mb/s upstream (from standard 1.3 Mb/s). Whooohooo. Excuse me if you detect a tiny bit of sarcasm but really how can BT talk about this being new technology when we have been offering it for over four years? We interconnect directly into the BE network (wholly owned by Telefonica O2 group) and have been delivering up to 2.5 Mb/s upstream to customers for all of this time, even using Cisco hardware.

I mention Cisco hardware because most businesses like to buy it. There is an old saying in the industry that goes ‘you don’t get fired for buying Cisco’. Granted it is pretty expensive but in all the years of doing it I can count the failures customer have had on one hand rather than the calculator I would need to tot up other ‘cheaper’ manufacturer’s hardware.

So you would think that if you were building a national network and launched a new variant (ie Annex-M) you would want your technology to work with Cisco hardware so you could conquer the business market? Well believe it or not, BT have followed the route of Tiscali and ended up with a network that we can’t make work with Cisco hardware! We are struggling to make it work at all to be honest, and that is with a not insubstantial client base already using Annex-M on the BE network which we have been supporting for years.

If this is the best they can do, I assume we are going to have to wait for the fibre to the cabinet services before we start seeing anything near impressive. Or, most likely, someone else will come and do that first so BT once again follow rather than lead.

Interesting piece on thinkbroadband.com with regards to router speeds over the O2/Be network we did a few months back. Basically as part of the wholesale offering for ADSL2+ we had to collate data on all the types of routers they may use and test them under lab conditions.

Although the Cisco’s came out near the bottom they did perform well with upload and in my mind have proved the most reliable and still what I would recommend to customers.

Quite a few members of the company are unashamedly into football, and while I can’t see the appeal, have started a Fluidata football team. They play six a side at the ELMS League in Battersea.  I can actually see the appeal of kicking the pig skin around after sitting at a desk all day, not only getting fit but also on a social basis. Good teamwork is required to win the game bringing people not only closer within Fluidata but also other businesses involved in the league. We have had people from Cisco, Alternative Networks, O2 and Citi Group involved making a good social atmosphere – so much so that I even considered (for a microsecond) the benefits of getting into football.

I think my involvement is best served from the sidelines, probably in a duffle coat shouting orders in a Mancunian accent.

A lot of focus on the wholesale platform is giving other ISPs the ability to bond multiple lines together to get EFM speeds using the nationwide Be ADSL2+ network. We have had a lot of success recently with Cisco’s MLPPP protocol enabling multiple lines to act as one end to end. As you can see from the below graph showing a thinkbroadband.com speed test that it achieved 26.7 Mb/s download and 4.0 Mb/s upload on two lines bonded at over 1,500 meters from the exchange. This accurately doubles the capacity of the individual lines.

We are continuing to work with our partners on developing this offering to include more than two lines so that leased line speeds are achieved across this network.

We have some advertising running in the press at the moment on the new wholesale platform in partnership with Be. The platform allows for other network operators to have direct L2TP (Layer 2) access to the Be ADSL2+ cloud so that they can offer this network to their client base. Being the only network in the UK to fully support Annex-M (ie 2.6 Mb/s upload) and Cisco hardware there has been a lot of interest from ISPs looking to take this service on.

Another major milestone has been our ability to demonstrate end to end line bonding using Cisco’s MLPPP (Multilink PPP) protocol on this platform which partners can offer to their client. Being able to bond four lines to deliver up to 80 Mb/s down and 10 Mb/s upstream is a powerful message.

Exciting developments in the world of Fluidata with the latest announcement of us partnering with Be to offer their ADSL2+ technology to other ISPs. We have been using the network for the past two years and have developed some of our own unique technology to make the most of the 20 Mb/s down and 2.6 Mb/s upload speeds that the product can support. With this latest announcement we will be able to offer this platform directly to the rest of the industry giving more access to this leading edge network.

Wholesaling the network is different to dealing directly with consumers as it is important to give as much control to the partner so that they can add their service rap to the product. We believe we have achieved this with the L2TP interface and direct access to the DSLAM at each exchange giving partners unparalleled visibility of each customer. This not only gives the partner better tools to support their clients but also reduces the burden on us to invest in a call centre and instead we can continue just to invest in 3^rd level engineers.

One interesting aspect of this network is the support for Cisco hardware. Tiscali recently had to announce to their channel that their ADSL2+ with Annex-M wouldn’t work with Cisco whereas we have been using it for a number of years without a single issue. This is probably due to the Alcatel chipset being deployed in both the routers and the exchanges. This is an important point as most businesses like to deploy Cisco hardware as ‘you don’t get fired for buying Cisco’.

Hopefully all the years at the receiving end of the channel will have translated into a superb partnership experience for ISPs looking for alternative providers.

Interesting article in this week’s Sunday Times detailing a high number of compromised computers ostensibly controlled and monitored by the Chinese Government. What is fascinating from my perspective is the fact that BT have opened their network up to potential disruption by utilising Huawei hardware in the rollout of their £10 bn 21st Century Network. Huawei are a classic Chinese clone producing very similar hardware with almost identical software (IOS) to that of American brand, Cisco. And this is the partner BT chose to supply key networking hardware for their biggest infrastructure project.

It raises interesting questions in terms of our national security let alone being able to support and maintain our national network in time of crisis. The global market may provide better value for money, but if history has taught us anything, is that today’s friend could be tomorrow’s enemy.

Not that our network even compares to the likes of BT’s in terms of scale, you will be pleased to know that we have stuck solely with expensive named brands in our topology!

The video-presence suite is now up and running. There are a few final adjustments to make in terms of optimising connectivity and aspect ratios of the cameras but for a first attempt at this technology it is staggering. Already a number of very high profile blue-chip clients have been into our office in London and Videonation’s in Manchester to try it out.

Feedback has been really positive with potential clients commenting on how much more effective it is when compared to HP’s Halo system and Cisco’s telepresence suites. And that is before you factor in the cost savings.

The picture you see here is actually using our PureFluid product aggregating three separate carrier lines (BT, C&W and Telefonica) into one 8 Mb/s symmetric pipe. We need to use this until the fibre is installed but even we were surprised how effective it was in dealing with time critical data across the three separate networks. A good demonstration as to how far our aggregation technology has come in the past four years.

The setup allows twelve people to conference with a further screen displaying a common screen for presentations. And because it utilises LifeSize technology the system is fully compatible with other makes and manufacturers so not every office needs to have a full dedicated suite.

The rest of the demo suite will be completed in the next month to showcase our connectivity offering so potential clients can get a full experience prior to signing on the dotted line.