Experience - Case studies

onShore: Extreme Networks^® and onShore Deliver High-end IP Services over Multi-Tenant Data Networks (MDNs)

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onShore Networks is a systems integrator and a managed service provider that, with its innovative, turnkey technology solutions, delivers mission-critical broadband services to businesses in the Chicago area. onShore has installed multi-tenant data networks (MDNs) in four Chicago buildings in partnership with Extreme Networks: the noteworthy Monadnock Building, a state landmark, and three residential buildings – Clark Place, Dearborn Tower and Huron Pointe. With an Extreme applications infrastructure, onShore delivers broadband IP services to its building tenants quickly, securely and affordably.

onShore’s MDNs, running on multi-gigabit backplanes powered by Extreme Networks, are distributed digital frameworks that allow multiple vendors of IP-based services – including voice, data and video – to share the pipe from the building "vendor corridor" directly to each tenant’s office or home. In addition to supplying the infrastructure for these services to be provided by other companies, onShore also intends to offer voice, data and video services directly. Unlike its competitors who distribute DSL or Ethernet circuits one at a time, onShore builds the entire network infrastructure at once, so everything is in place and tenant sign-up is a snap.

"We’re coming at it from a data perspective, building the network, pulling Category 5 cable and running it to every single unit in the building. We provide Internet services over that cable, bringing in 3MB of bandwidth over two T1 lines, which feeds the entire building," said Stelios Valavanis, President and Networking Projects Supervisor at onShore.

onShore’s MDNs are built on the most scalable, robust networking technology in existence: switched Ethernet delivering 100MB that can easily be expanded to 1GB, made possible with Extreme Networks.

"onShore is the leading multi-tenant unit service provider in Chicago. Extreme makes it possible to deliver the elite IP services that make our network so valuable to subscribers."
– Nick Valavanis
VP, and Director of Sales for
onShore Networks

"Since we’re building an entire network over this cable, as long as a person has a system that can handle 100MB per second, they get 100MB-per-second performance," said Nick Valavanis, VP and Director of Sales for onShore.

onShore’s Linux-based servers support full Ethernet connectivity for file storage, automated tape backup of critical systems and IP telephony, as well as rich, streaming video and other media content that is virtually undeliverable over the narrow bandwidth of DSL, cable, T1 and shared broadband.

	Clark Place Building	Monadnock Building	Huron Pointe Building	Dearborn Tower
Infrastructure	Alpine 3804 with four 32-port blades	Summit1i	Summit24	Summit24
Nodes	Capacity to service 133 residential customers	Capacity to service 273 multi-node small businesses	99 tenants	375 building users
Protocols	IP	IP	IP	IP
Servers and OS	Intel boxes running Linux	Intel boxes running Linux	Intel boxes running Linux	Intel boxes running Linux

DSU/CSU: Digital Service Unit/Channel Service Unit UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply

"Furthermore, Extreme’s solution addresses the security issues left on the table by other providers," said Valavanis.

The onShore business model requires a tightly secure infrastructure for the necessary array of virtual local area networks (VLANs). Each business and residential tenant within a MDN has its own dedicated VLAN on the building’s LAN. There is a compelling need for security guarantees for tenant businesses, many of which are direct or indirect competitors, as well as residential tenants, and Extreme Networks’ VLAN aggregation capabilities meet the stringent security requirements onShore’s customers’ demand.

Competing providers offer data, phone and cable services, feeding each client with a coaxial cable. This limited solution is not only incapable of taking advantage of emerging technologies, but it also does not address the security issues. Anyone can go to the network neighborhood on the server and view and access anyone else’s files. With advanced security features from Extreme such as access control lists (ACLs), TACACS+ and RADIUS, onShore is assured that access and management security is never compromised.

"We chose Extreme’s broadband switching solution for these implementations because we have complete control of how bandwidth is allocated, including sophisticated bandwidth provisioning capabilities such as bandwidth limitation per port," said Valavanis. "This allows us to tailor service package offerings for our customers and give them choices, instead of locking them into more bandwidth — and therefore a costlier solution — than they need."

Extreme's bandwidth by the slice feature uses bidirectional rate shaping to meet the needs of onShore’s fee-for-services market by slicing up available bandwidth in increments that onShore can sell to its subscribers, on-demand. Once a port has been provisioned, onShore can easily and securely modify customer accounts using their web browsers. Since all provisioning is done in software, same-day or next-day turnaround for additional bandwidth is typical.

For this particular application, onShore knew Extreme Networks was the only vendor that could provide the infrastructure it required. Tenants in the Monadnock building, for example, are offered a choice of 512K, 1MB service, or even custom setups.

"Currently our focus is managing Internet browser traffic, but Extreme Networks’ Policy-Based Quality of Service (QoS) feature was an important deciding factor for us in selecting them as our MDN partner," said Valavanis.

With Extreme Networks advanced bandwidth management and traffic prioritization feature — Policy-Based QoS — onShore can manage its MDNs based on the type of applications and traffic that require its services. By identifying applications and traffic groups, and creating policies for them, onShore will be able to better meet the needs of its customers with bandwidth-intensive and delay-sensitive applications such as video on demand and voice-over-IP (VoIP).

A multi-tenant data network (MDN) allows a building to offer tenants a broad portal to community networks, including municipal networks. As cities like Chicago make the investment to deploy high-bandwidth, city-wide data networks, buildings equipped with MDNs — like those created by onShore with Extreme Networks technology — will have the first opportunity to join the municipal network and tap into the wealth of data resources provided by the city. They can also interface with other networked buildings and communities as they come on-line.

MDNs attached to municipal networks give tenants access to
• Municipal data utilities and civic services
• Utility service monitoring
• Metro area security services
• Corporate, government and education partnerships and programs
• Telecommuting and remote data centers

onShore’s tenant businesses and residents are able to access these services at a tremendously faster rate than most, since they have shared access to a huge pipe. Furthermore, as more customers sign up for the services, onShore may decide to bring in even more bandwidth and the Extreme infrastructure is ready to support it. For instance, if all of the tenants in a building sign up for access, onShore might decide to pull in a 100 MB pipe for even faster performance, and the system will easily support it.

In addition to accessing the municipal network and other Internet resources, onShore’s customers will benefit from other applications which require high performance. For instance, one possible application onShore is considering is serving up movies to its residential tenants, where the tenant chooses the movie from the server located within the building and it is delivered at 100MB/sec, a capability not possible using the public Internet. Other possibilities include home networking, including security services and home automation applications for things like remote lighting and temperature control.

"Our Extreme applications infrastructure is doing precisely everything we hoped it would do, and more," said Valavanis. "We are very happy with our decision to partner with Extreme."

Clark Place, located at 2625 North Clark Street in Chicago, is a residential skyscraper with 17 stories and 133 units. With an Extreme Networks Alpine™ 3804 switch in the basement of the building, residents are offered high-speed Internet access, including e-mail, with an ultra-high level of security not offered by any other companies in the area. Additional services include file backup services and file storage with full Ethernet connectivity to the server. The monthly rate is very competitive with those from standard cable companies, which do not offer the level of security onShore delivers. Dearborn Tower and Huron Point are residential buildings also powered by onShore/Extreme, which offer tenants the same services.

The Monadnock Building consists of 273 businesses on 16 stories, and has an Extreme Summit1i switch in the building basement that connects tenants to the Internet and other shared resources. Clients here are typically small- to medium-sized businesses like law firms or accountants who demand secure, instant Internet access and high-speed network services such as file sharing and storage.

The range and quality of services available over a MDN is unmatched. In addition to Internet connectivity, onShore’s tenants will be able to take advantage of an integrated suite of intra-building services — including streaming media, VoIP, and managed services such as remote monitoring, data backup and administration — without ever experiencing the bottlenecks and performance degradations associated with building local exchange carriers (BLECs).

BLECs typically install simple, proprietary broadband data and voice solutions that result in building managers having little control over which carrier traffic rides over the wires in their buildings.

The Monadnock Building is located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard, the same street as the Chicago Board of Trade. It was built in two parts between 1889 and 1893. Part of it is made from load bearing wall construction, while the other part is a modern skyscraper with a steel skeleton. It is the tallest brick-bearing wall building in Chicago, perhaps the world. The base walls are six feet thick and they rise to the full 215-foot height of 16 floors. The building was the first to supply electricity to tenants in Chicago, and then the first to provide telephone services. With the onShore/Extreme solution, the new building-wide network allows tenants to enjoy shared services such as e-mail, file servers, automated tape back-up and high-speed Internet access.

As the BLECs pile up in a building, building/tenant shared advantage is reduced and costs associated with multiple infrastructures result in reduced revenue stream to the building owners, as well as increased complexity.

Bill Donnell, President of The Montauk Company and owner of the Monadnock Building, appreciates the speed, security, simplicity and scalability of onShore’s system, powered by a backend Extreme Networks applications infrastructure.

"Our business tenants are all small and our option was to have each tenant have a vendor install hardware and run wires to them, which gets extremely confusing and complex, or have onShore do everything with Extreme’s solution," said Donnell. "This is a historic building and we have to be sensitive to the space limitations and aesthetics. There are two very attractive things about the onShore system, speaking as the building owner. First, the system is small and easy to install and manage. With the wonders of packet switching technology, my tenants can get any service they want and we didn’t have to trash the building with different hardware and cable all over the place. It’s

"Secondly, the high-speed network supports a lot of users, and it’s secure from one tenant to another. Tenants are getting a lot of bandwidth for the dollar compared to other options, including DSL, which has its own speed, location and service offering limitations. With onShore, our tenants sign up for an offering that is right for them and pay by the month without commitments and contracts. And once our customers experience the incredible service, they’re hooked so a contract is a moot point," explains Donnell.

"Now, speaking as a user of the services, I am getting four times the speed I get with my DSL connection at home. Anything I download from the Internet downloads instantly, and when I click on my browser, my home page is there immediately. To get this speed using DSL, I’d have to pay several hundred dollars a month for 500 kbps DSL. So, I personally appreciate the economic aspects of it as an end user," concluded Donnell.

Larry Parkman is the President of Parkman Weston Associates, an architectural firm located in the Monadnock building. He is happy with the speed and cost-effectiveness the onShore/Extreme solution brings to his business.

"Performance is much improved compared to our past method of connectivity, which has been over regular modems," said Parkman. "When we were offered faster access and it was instantly available to us right in the building without having to purchase hardware and manage the installation, we were happy to try it. The speed of browsing, downloading files, and sending and receiving e-mails has improved significantly."

The firm utilizes bandwidth-intensive, computer-aided design (CAD) files, and before the onShore/Extreme solution, sending these files to off-site contractors and printers would be a time-consuming task. Now, these files can be sent almost instantaneously.

On the cost-effectiveness aspect of the ready MDN solution, Parkman said, "Economically speaking, it saves us money since all of my employees can use the same connection, and it’s a fixed fee per month regardless of how much time we spend on the Internet. It’s a nice change that we have something available to us that benefits our business, and wasn’t a hassle to get up and running," concluded Parkman.

Residents at Clark Place also note great satisfaction with onShore’s services over the Extreme infrastructure. "We really enjoy the lightning fast Internet connection," said Sam Pongklub, a Clark Place resident. "Web surfing is a blast — so much more enjoyable with this ultra-high speed access as opposed to dial-up or even a DSL connection. We also appreciate the great customer service we get through onShore as opposed to customer service we’ve come to expect from larger service providers," concluded Pongklub.

Because the speed and power of onShore’s MDN far exceed any existing data service delivery requirements, it is built to last — remarkable in an environment where technologies typically have short life spans. onShore’s future network plans for its MDNs include providing additional services like streaming media and VoIP, adding more Extreme gear to increase port density and adding fiber to some units.

"Extreme products have future-proofed our MDN offerings," said Valavanis. "We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Extreme Networks as we expand our business."

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