Diameter Protocol - Securing Your Network

Author: Roberta Groche
span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">A secure way of sharing network services and resources is through the implementation of protocols. Diameter protocol is an application suite widely used in network solutions involving Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA). It was ideally designed after the RADIUS with improve features that were known to be limitations of the older version. The protocol was designed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for purposes of secure remote network and IP mobility.

Diameter protocol offers backwards compatibility with RADIUS for easy migration of applications created to work with the older protocol. The development of diameter protocol was made due to the increasing demand for network computing that old AAA protocols such as TACACS and RADIUS are longer applicable for use; complex implementations such as requirements for DSL, Mobile IP, wireless connections, and other known forms of network access connections.

Diameter protocol is currently used by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a new protocol to handle AAA related functions and with IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) management. The advantages of using this protocol include error notification which is not offered by RADIUS and the addition of commands and attribute value pairs (AVP's) for encapsulating diameter information.

Several companies are offering their products to developers for integration with their applications. This includes the OpenBloX and OpenBloX J2EE which are pioneered by Traffix Systems and was made as benchmarks by other companies developing similar applications. OpenBloX is an open source package available in pure C++ and Java in conformity with standards set by 3GPP and 3GPP2. Because of its effectiveness in supporting IMS diameter interfaces such as Ro, Rf, Cx, CC, and Gx, at present there are 65 vendors using the package with their NGN and IMS application development.

The addition of their OpenBloX J2EE made Traffix Solutions even more popular in the Diameter solutions industry. The new OpenBloX J2EE offers support for application servers running J2EE. The product was made possible after the company partnered with IBM to develop diameter solutions to support IBM's Websphere application and several other applications running J2EE.

OpenBloX J2EE is capable of running under systems supporting J2EE and SOA. Another application server supported by OpenBloX J2EE is the GlassFish that was developed by Sun Micro Systems. This product allows developers to design and create more robust application such as payment and billing systems that can run under J2EE application servers.

The solutions provided by Traffix Systems through their diameter solutions allow users to take advantage of services such as WiFi, WiMAX, and other similar connections. Several other solutions such as the Rosetta Diameter Solutions and Prism Diameter Load Balancera are available on the company's official website. The adaptability of their applications to several diameter interfaces makes them the best choice for telecommunication companies.



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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Diameter Protocol - Securing Your Network

Small Businesses Benfit From Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Author: Nick Pegley

The term which describes transmissions of phone calls over a data network instead of a regular phone line is VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. This basic concept has an important role on modern telecommunications. The convergence of many forms of communications into just one network is made possible by the larger technology. This transformation creates an entirely new way for communications to work, and the possibility of offering big results for your company.



Voice over Internet Protocol can assist your business' growth by expanding communications abilities, reducing costs and facilitating a more productive, mobile and flexible work team. All over the world, small companies are taking advantage of the offerings of VoIP systems. Below find some top reasons why this technology is creating a huge impact on small biz communications:



- Creates avenues for improved productivity among employees by offering more flexible communication, increased mobility and improved information flow.



- Offers communication capabilities equal to large companies on to smaller businesses.



- Is scalable with the possibility of new applications, driving revenue while able to respond to growth.



- Able to employ and integrate the voice and data network at a better price than the cost of each combined.



Early implementers of VoIP have tended to be smaller companies, as they are usually excellent candidates for the new technology. Bigger companies usually have intricate networks and an array of telephone systems which can't be easily converged into one single network. Smaller business networks are often simpler, making the switch over to VoIP simpler.



Many benefits of VoIP exist for small companies. A system upgrade among an existing phone system allows VoIP from a variety of locations without major disruptions to office infrastructure. Also, a new system can replace an old phone switch to add new capabilities. Companies have the option to make monthly payments to a Service Provider for hosting a VoIP system, eliminating the need to purchase the capital outright.



Some smaller businesses, however, find that there are complex difficulties that can prevent them from fully realizing the benefits of the new system. A lack of sound advice, an incomplete plan or installation by untrained employees can all become real problems.



Successful transition to a Voice over Internet Protocol network starts with a thorough understanding of the plan, and a clear idea of how the case to use it will further the company's business objectives. VoIP will probably have an increased impact under certain circumstances. Faster return is possible if your small business is in one or more of these scenarios:



- Has an increasing amount of incoming call traffic.



- Hasn't upgraded or substituted the telephone system within the last five years.



- Has international branch offices.



- Is expanding and is likely to require larger facilities.



- Has a good percentage of staff which travels for business, or works from home on laptop computers.



- Is merging or acquiring another company, and needs to integrate.



- Has extensive Ethernet cable networks and equipment that is no more than three years old.



- Works in a market where competition is strong and customer service is paramount.



VoIP phone systems provide excellent potential for smaller companies to maintain low costs while growing the success of the business.

About the Author:
Nick Pegley is VP Marketing for All Covered: Technology Services Partner for Small Business, providing information technology security and IT services in 20 major U.S. metro areas.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Small Businesses Benfit From Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Transmission Control Protocol (Tcp)

Author: Mangesh A. Dahale

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

Today, the majority of application protocols use the Internet's reliable Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The functionality of TCP is designed to be adequate not only for Internet applications but also for the variety of underlying networks.

The protocol aims at providing a reliable service with the following features:

1. Fairness to other flows that potentially share a channel's bandwidth

2. Dynamic discovery of current availability of bandwidth

• 1. Mechanisms for congestion avoidance and control and for optimization of the error recovery process.

Error control mechanisms are the central component of reliable protocols. They affect a protocol's performance with respect to goodput, energy expenditure, and overhead. Error control is usually a two-step process: error detection, followed by error recovery . TCP assumes a relatively reliable underlying network where most packet losses are due to congestion . TCP error control is centered on congestion losses and ignores the possibility of transient random errors or temporary blackouts due to handoffs and extended burst errors that are typical in wireless networks. TCP detects errors by monitoring the sequence of data segments acknowledged (received). When timeouts are correctly configured, a missing segment is taken to indicate an error, namely that the segment is lost due to congestion (i.e. buffer overflow). Reliable protocols usually implement an error recovery strategy based on two techniques: retransmission of lost segments; and downward adjustment of the sender's window size and readjustment of the timeout period. When using TCP over wireless links results in congestion control measure being invoked at the source.

The Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) algorithm is used to implement TCP window adjustments; based on the analysis the algorithm achieves stability and converges to fairness in situations where the demand (of competing flows) exceeds the channel's bandwidth .

In a wireless network, however packet looses will occur more often due to unreliable wireless links than due to congestion. It is shown that the performance of TCP is sensitive to the packet size, and that significant performance improvements are obtained if a ‘good' packet size is used. Packets on the internet may get lost either due to congestion, or due to corruption by the underlying physical medium. Given the low error rates of wired links, almost all losses are related to congestion. TCP's reaction to looses is based on this very observation. Losses are detected either by timeouts at the source or by multiple duplicate acknowledgements ( dupacks ) from the receiver. TCP assumes that each packet loss is solely due to congestion. However, in a wireless network, TCP will encounter packet looses that may be unrelated to congestion. Nonetheless, these losses trigger congestion control measures at the source and severely degrade performance.

TCP was designed and carefully calibrated to overcome the problems like as follows:

• 1. Stability.
• 2. Heterogeneous ( receiver buffers, network bandwidth and delay ).
• 3. Fairness in bandwidth consumption of competing flows.
• 4. Efficiency in utilization.
• 5. Congestion control ( that effectively avoids situations of congestive collapse ).

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a means for building a reliable communications stream on top of the unreliable packet Internet Protocol (IP). TCP is the protocol that supports nearly all Internet applications. The combination of TCP and IP is referred to as TCP/IP and many people imagine, incorrectly, that TCP/IP is a single protocol.

Performance Metrics of TCP :

Goodput :

This is the measure of how efficiently a connection utilizes the network. It is determined as the ratio of useful data received at the destination and the total amount of data transmitted by the source. If a connection requires a lot of extra packets to traverse the network due to retransmission, its goodput is low. It is desirable that each connection have as high a goodput as possible. Clearly, this metric is of great significance for efficient operation of a network.

Throughput :

This is the measure of how soon an end user is able to receive data. It is determined as the ratio of the total data received by the end user and the connection time. A higher throughput will directly impact the user's perception of the quality of service.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Transmission Control Protocol (Tcp)