In Search of some Facts

[carolyn]

:angry: I recv'd a startling email today which stated that one of my sites (pcom FX) was being removed from our enterprise LAN infrastructure by our IS Server Team because it is believed to be "messing up" the data traffic over that office's LAN infrastructure. Without going into a long saga about the "not seeing eye to eye" and working together in this merging network (between our VC Team and IS). I am 100% opposed to this "ultimate decision" on the basis of insane of reasoning.

This is a Polycom FX IP and ISDN system. It is in one of our medical sites and has been in operation for 2 years now. About 2 months ago, new LAN based medical software programs have flooded our enterprise and added traffic to our infrstructure. Therefore, we were advised to use ISDN for connectivity to this site until we can bulk up the IP. No problem.

We use GMS to maintain our systems through IP (29 and growing w/Accord MGC100). Current rollouts of new patient/medical software for the enterprise has been causing complete havoc at this site. Apparently our IS Server Team can't seem to smooth it out and we are becoming the scapegoat. I am not exactly sure what transpired today because I was off site on an install, but I got a "nasty-gram" from my supervisor's boss( she is new to the org. and the techniology in every way.. :angry:) who apparently had been involved in the ongoings that resulted in this decision.


I am the technical authority and it is my responsibiltiry to oversee the entire vc network. It is SO OBVIOUS what this is action is going to do for our ability to properly run this system/site that I fired off an email back to her stating so.

now i am spending my weekend putting together a "fact sheet" to justify the IP connection, what this action wil do, and what I could have done to the FX to resolve IS's unfounded fear that this unit is causiong THEIR problem, had I been consulted. I have everything I need except..

Any documentation or statistical info on....
1. How much IP bandwidth, if any, does an idle FX use if it is set up with the GMS monitoring and Glogal Address Book?

2. How much bandwitdh does and FX consume in an idle state when its web browser is accessed (I connect to its IP address from my PC to look at its configuration, etc..)?

3. How much bandwidtyh does and FX use, if, while in an ISDN connection, it's web browser is accessed..same as above or different?

4. How much bandwidth does and FX use, in both an idle and ISDN connected states, if it is VIEWED (not accessed)through the GMS screen??? Like we are just monitoring the connection?

We do not do any mpts from its internal mcu. This FX connects to either another end pt(pt to pt)or to our bridge (mpt). We do not use any of it is data sharing, or presentation capabilities...straight video.

i believe this office is set up with 1 T1 for LAN...I am not exactly sure..in any case it does not matter because I know the #'s are small in terms of what it uses...I am just trying to find direct info so I can arm myself. We have PathNavigator but it is not utulized yet. I am finally going to class for it so I can utulize its tools and give exact data reports on bandwidth usage when use IP..(IS has not come up with a way to do this yet). Any help would be appreciated :D

Sorry this is so long....

BTW..This site is abxoliutely fantastic! I have noticed a decrease in other sites of this kind..GREAT JOB!

[tom9933]

Carolyn,
I don’t have any exact numbers but I can tell you that the numbers are going to be very small. For what its worth GMS gets almost all of its info using the web interface and a sometimes a telnet. Both are very small in terms of bandwidth. Other than that there is the FTP traffic used when updating the systems or during profiling but once again that is also rather small. The only traffic that you will probably need to worry about is the actual calls themselves and you probably already know they are going to be ~1.2 * call speed in bandwidth. You might try running something like du meter (or the windows network monitor) on your GMS server to show the very minimal amount of bandwidth that you are actually using.
BTW I currently run PathNavigator in a similarly sized network so let me know if you have any specific questions.

[George]

Carolyn,

I think your problem can be solved easily with a quick phone call to a polycom sales rep. He/she may not know those specs but will gladly put you in touch with someone who does.

In my case we recently had a Polycom sales rep Kurt Vanarsdall (Polycom Government Sales) and an engineer (I forget his name but he is the one you want to talk to. I have his card but it's in ym desk at work.) They addressed our fears of going IP and having to tangle with our security freak/bandwidth stingy network folks. I forget the exact wording but the MGC has gateway functions that can deal with traffic load on the network. In fact you can place the MGC in a DMZ all it's own and let IT handle all of the QoS and allocation for video bandwidth, etc.

I can get you the person's number if you'd like or you can just call and talk to any rep about this issue.

[carolyn]

Tom, George...

Thanks so much for the info..

in reference the PathNavigator...we have it...we just never involved ourselves actually putting to work beyond what was programmed in upon its unitial install. I think it was mostly due to the immediate problems at that time regarding the MGC 5o we got at the same time..the motherboard fried..we got another and upon the swap,,,,the network was not working...the training, therefore was erratic and attention to the PN was minimal at best. Earlier this year we upgraded tot eh 100 due to our growth..we added a second T1 PRI. The PN was to be updated too..once again,,issues arose (Polycom never forwarded the key) and it ise still idle, sitting on our server while we use GMS. However, this time around I investigaterd and studied what PN truly is and what it can do for us in the face of all the IP crap being thrown at us. My job responsibilities rely on using this product to pave our future for both VC and IS communities....as I have touched on it in my career in sewrvice, I never had actual hands on experience with it...I am scheduling to go to Polycom's Technical Training in the next couple of months. i am very anxious to to bring it to "life" and then be able to produce the data we need to to enlighten "others" on this subject. i am also working to convinve IS networks to send one their own to this course with me so we can close the gap that exists between us. Fortunately, a recently hired new IS network guy has a backgound in VC and the MGC and shares my enthusiasm for successfully implementing PN...we'll see.

This was a topic in a meeting we had with a Polycom engineer, Jeff, and IS about 1 1/2 mos. ago and he did state the same info as you have Tom, however, he could not produce any numbers to reinforce his position...and as usual, some of the IS people involved in the meeting were finding it hard to believe that viewing the video from either GMS or the end point was insignicant to the bandwidth usage

I am meaning to contact Jeff again to follow up on this but do welcome any additional contacts I can go to to get as much as I can on this subject. Polycoms reference material reveals little, if anything, on any technical matters with their products....another sore spot is GMS and what some things mean and functional attributes...therefore, sites like this have become my every day duty to review...nothing better than getting first hand real knowledge from true experiences. THANKS!

[Gary Miyakawa]

Carolyn,

I've emailed the Product Manager for GMS requesting the information you are asking for (same place Jeff would go for it). I don't have a system here or I could give you those numbers directly. They are very easy to capture. Using ethereal (plugged into the PC port) could give you the numbers you seek. Also, if you are plugged into a manageable port on an IP Switch, they can certainly tell you the packet/byte level being transfered.

I realize that IT holds all the cards in this situation and that you must defend yourself. You might ask IT to give you a, by the minute, spreedsheet of the packet/byte usage of the GMS server to prove their claims. (though, I realize that sometimes, since IT is all powerfull, we don't get to question their "ideas")...

When I get a response from the folks in Milpitas, I'll forward it on. It may take a day or two since most of the folks are headed for InfoComm this week.

Good luck,

Gary Miyakawa

[trapehzoid]

polycoms 'push' information to GMS all the time via HTTP when the systems go through call changes (thats how GMS gets its call logs).

polycom's also send out SNMP traps when events happen, but very view events actually generate traps.. and traps are extremely small in size (usually just a few hundred BYTES.. not kilobytes)

Monitoring a viewstation on its web interface isn't extremely bandwidth intensive.. but it is sustained. The web interface has to update a good portion of javascript, and the JPG refresh has to send out those graphics.

I can tell you the polycom guy if he gives you an answer, will just be made up. There is no 'full' answer to this, because the amount of bandwidth, etc is really tied to the usage, and is completely dynamic. If you want to give any kind of feel to your IT people, simply invite them (or do it yourself) to do a packet sniff between the unit and the network during various activities. They'll see lots of activity, but its all so minor in size (SNMP, quick HTTP posts, etc). Look at the sniff, and you can probably tell them their background traffic on the network from ARPs, Routing, Service Broadcasts, etc causes more conjestion and utilization on the network then your codec is.

[carolyn]

thanks for the info!