HP 200 Series Services And Applications page 45

Branch Office Routing
Planning & Controlling WAN Capacity
Call Controls
Dial-up connections are governed by "smart" connection controls to take
maximum advantage of dial-up circuits. Call controls allow a network
designer to configure a router with billing period information. This informa-
tion is used to hold dial-up circuits open as long as possible when it can be
done at no cost, for example, until the end of a three-minute initial billing
period. This often avoids a second call and additional dial-up charges.
Dial Backup
One of the traditional strengths of routing technology is the ability to
provide robustness using alternate routes. Dial-up links are a very
cost-effective way of providing alternate path capability at the branch office
level. HP has several dial backup solutions. For multiprotocol applications
over leased lines, HP has a backup circuit capability wherein the backup
circuit is only activated when its primary circuit counterpart has failed.
For IP routing applications, HP has a unique backup solution that uses a
small number of backup circuits (and modems) at a regional or corporate
site to service a much larger number of remote sites with dial backup
capability. This allows a network designer to provide only as many backup
ports as there are likely to be primary circuit failures at any one point in
time.
Planning & Controlling WAN Capacity
Understanding wide area networking traffic volumes and characteristics is
critical to controlling WAN costs. If a 64 Kbit/s link can adequately satisfy
user needs instead of a T1 or E1 link, WAN line, equipment, and administra-
tion costs can be dramatically reduced without affecting service levels.
Few solutions exist to understand WAN capacity utilization and the ones
that are available are expensive, place significant overhead on the network,
and are difficult to set up and adminis-ter in a remote branch environment
except on a very limited basis. What is needed is for this capability to be
transparently integrated into the network devices themselves. HP routers
provide just this capability.
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