3G/4G as an access service

Insightful analysis by consultants Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler, plus links to the latest WAN news headlines

This is the last in a series of four newsletters that chronicle the conversations that Jim had with a variety of vendors and enterprise IT organizations on his recent trip to the greater Boston area. This newsletter will look at the slow rate of evolution of the WAN and will discuss the possibility of using cellular services as an access service.

The modern WAN got its start in 1969 with the deployment of ARPANET which was the precursor to today's Internet. The technology used to build the Internet began to be commercialized in the early 1970s with the development of X.25 based packet switched networks.

In addition to the continued evolution of the Internet, the 20-year period that began in 1985 saw the deployment of four distinct generations of enterprise WAN technologies . For example, in the mid to late 1980s, it became common for enterprise IT organizations to deploy integrated TDM-based WANs to carry both voice and data traffic. In the early 1990s, IT organizations began to deploy Frame Relay-based WANs. In the mid to late 1990s, many IT organizations replaced their Frame Relay-based WANs with WANs based on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology. In the early 2000s, many IT organizations replaced their ATM-based WANs with WANs based on MPLS.

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This is the last in a series of four newsletters that chronicle the conversations that Jim had with a variety of vendors and enterprise IT organizations on his recent trip to the greater Boston area. This newsletter will look at the slow rate of evolution of the WAN and will discuss the possibility of using cellular services as an access service.

The modern WAN got its start in 1969 with the deployment of ARPANET which was the precursor to today's Internet. The technology used to build the Internet began to be commercialized in the early 1970s with the development of X.25 based packet switched networks.

In addition to the continued evolution of the Internet, the 20-year period that began in 1985 saw the deployment of four distinct generations of enterprise WAN technologies . For example, in the mid to late 1980s, it became common for enterprise IT organizations to deploy integrated TDM-based WANs to carry both voice and data traffic. In the early 1990s, IT organizations began to deploy Frame Relay-based WANs. In the mid to late 1990s, many IT organizations replaced their Frame Relay-based WANs with WANs based on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology. In the early 2000s, many IT organizations replaced their ATM-based WANs with WANs based on MPLS.

Today there is no new generation of WAN technology in development. This fact was reinforced by a meeting that Jim recently had with two of the largest network service providers (NSP). Yes, the NSPs are anxious to talk about their new compute and storage as a service offerings. However, when it comes down to basic networking services, there is no replacement for MPLS percolating in the pipeline and the access services the NSPs discussed are the same ones we have had for years; for example SONET, Ethernet, private line, DSL.

What did catch Jim's attention during these meetings was the evolution of 4G. Most of the conversation about 4G services revolve around their use to more quickly download pictures and music to smartphone and other similar devices. However, it looks like you can legitimately get 3 megabits per second or more out of a 4G cellular connection. That is the capacity of two T-1s. Given this, IT organizations can use these services as an access service into their smaller branch offices hopefully for less than $100 a month. 

In addition, we really like the idea of having two access services serving a branch office. One of those services being 4G and the other being DSL. With that approach you can get 10 or more megabits per second of throughput for less than $200 a month. You are also getting services that are routed in diverse ways. Hence, if one of the two services goes down, the other is likely to still be working.

Read more about lans & wans in Network World's LANs & WANs section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Jim Metzler is vice president of Ashton, Metzler & Associates.