Monday, January 28, 2002		Article

'WANderful' workers who link up offices
Sumesh Raizada

THE recent developments in the field of Information Technology has provided firms with the new techniques of improving upon their operations of manufacturing, distribution, marketing, finance and retailing. The advanced computing devices coupled with telecommunication infrastructure have assisted in reorganising their business procedures. With the availability of Wide Area Networking (WAN), one can send information, data, voice or picture to any corner of the globe in a fraction of second at almost negligible cost. WAN has therefore played an important role in bringing down the cost of communication drastically.

In a broader term, the electronic communication and connectivity between persons at various locations can be termed as Wide Area Networking (WAN). It connects multiple users to a single or multiple communication networks so that information or data can be shared among them. WAN helps in connectivity between the marketing offices of a firm with its headquarter or works, between the organisation and its trading partners like raw material suppliers, distributors and customers or between several service counters say in case of airlines or railways reservations, banks and ATMs. Wide Area Networks are broadly classified into categories as Internet, Intranet or Extranet.

The Internet is a WAN connection in which single user is connected to multiple information sources. It consists of dial-up networking or specialised ISDN lines. Nowadays it is also available through cables or Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) in which 24 hours connectivity is maintained without having to manually dial the connection. An Intranet is a private network for communication within an organisation. However it is expensive as it consists of specialised lines to maintain security of the network. Railway reservation counters all over the country are a fine example of an Intranet. Extranet on the other hand is a WAN in which an organisation is connected to several other organisations for data communication.

Depending upon the specific requirement, companies are implementing either or all of the above mentioned types of Wide Area Networks. There are number of hardware, software and consulting companies that provides WAN solutions for implementation. These firms design, implement and manage the network as well as develop security procedures for the system. The integrity of network is essential as lot of confidential and important data is also transferred over the system. Those who are responsible for its design or implementation, therefore have to keep themselves technologically upgraded. These professionals are faced with a challenging task of managing networks consisting of various forms of communication say, voice, video or written data. With the increasing use of e-commerce and Internet-based services like ERP or CRM, Networking professionals have gained considerable recognition.

WAN professionals deliver networking solutions by developing systems based upon the available resources. They have to keep into consideration factors like network connectivity, prevailing protocols, available WAN services, switches, routers, security product like firewalls and anti-virus software. These professionals build client-server solutions based on existing or new hardware, software and protocols. They identify client's networking requirement and provide solutions accordingly.

While designing WAN solutions, a professional has to be aware of several key components say IP addresses, CIDR address, TCP/IP, Domain name servers, Traceroute, ISDN or Integrated Service Digital Network, PPP (Point to Point Protocol), routers, switches, servers and communication lines. IP or Internet Protocol addresses are 32-bit numbers that identify a specific device on a network. Each of the network devices like server, desktop computer, router or a terminal server requires a unique IP address if it is to communicate over a TCP/IP network.

TCP / IP are simply an agreement between two parties that specifies how to communicate among themselves. These work on the basis of different networking layers like Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link and Physical. TCP / IP support is mostly provided in Windows and Unix operating systems. Some of TCP applications are FTP, Web Browsers, Telnet, and e-mail. Basically IP is a connectionless protocol, while TCP is a connection-oriented protocol.

CIDR or Classless Internet Domain Routing is done to allow ISPs to aggregate the number of routes in their router's routing table and thus helps routers to operate efficiently with faster transmission. The Domain Name Servers are similar to the telephone directory as it maintains list of network names and their corresponding IP addresses. DNS uses both TCP and UDP. Traceroute helps in finding out the problems in a Wide Area Network. In ISDN or Integrated Services Digital Network, voice and data are transmitted over a digital circuit-switched network provided by telephone exchanges. A router is a device that delivers information to its destination using either of several routing protocols. A router is basically a computer consisting of a processor, memory, input / output devices, etc. When router is connected to WAN, these input and output devices have a serial interface modules.

There are several companies that develop software as well as hardware for WAN. Among them are CISCO, Novell, IBM, etc. In India, TCS is engaged in design, development and implementation of WAN solutions in number of organisations. TCS has partnered with Philips Telesoft International in the design and development supports for their wide area network product called Sophonet. The WAN solutions developed by these firms have been successfully implemented within and outside the country. These are Delhi Stock Exchange, SAIL, TCI, Airport Authority of India, ATMs, etc.

Task of WAN professionals involves three basic steps while designing networking solutions. First step is to assess the networking requirement of the client i.e. the nature of business, number of offices and their geographical locations, purpose for which networking is to be done. Organisations might install WAN for e-mail purposes, to implement ERP or CRM packages, call centres, implementation of telemedicine or telebanking centres. Second important step is to determine the appropriate WAN service for a particular application and costs involved for the same. Some of the major services are ISDN, dedicated point to point leased lines, multiple point connection, etc. VSNL has developed GIAS or Gateway Internet Access Service to provide these services in India. The third step in the process of WAN designing is to choose the most optimum router for the task. IBM is the leading provider of routers and networking solutions all over the world.

Apart from wired networking, work is in process on wireless Wide area networking also, which is relatively ease to install and is less expansive. The prospective professional needs to have exposure to this fast emerging technology also for succeeding in WAN career.

The field of Wide Area Networking has now moved far beyond the scope of telecommunication or computing and therefore shall never be affected by the slowdown in IT sector. As more and more organizations are realizing the potential of networking, demand for WAN professionals is bound to grow at an enormous pace.