Six Considerations When Designing A Diverse Network

When we’re talking with customers about business continuity, the conversation inevitably steers toward deploying a diverse network to avoid costly downtime. Customers frequently ask for “carrier diversity” or simply “diversity.” Very often, this tends to be shorthand for last-mile diversity – a specific brand of diversity where each circuit uses unique local loop facilities. However, the conversation shouldn’t end there.

The reality is there are more potential points of failure than just the last-mile facilities. With cloud-based applications defining how we work and live, the moment that internet connection goes down, businesses start losing money. The rapid widespread adoption of SD-WAN is proof that IT leaders are increasingly adopting a redundant approach by having two internet providers to ensure business continuity in case of an outage of either provider.

Here are six types of diversity to ensure your designs for SIP, Wide Area Networks, and Internet connections deliver the high availability needs for your enterprise, cloud, data centers and contact centers.

Last mile diversity ensures that the local loops of two circuits delivered to a common location are being routed over two distinct sets of network facilities. This prevents against downtime due to an outage on the network of one of the carriers.

Carrier diversity simply means that you buy connections from two different providers. As the network is designed, be sure you have a clear understanding if either carrier is delivering service over the same local loop facility or you won’t be fully protected from “Backhoe Harry” who comes digging and cuts both circuits, defeating the whole purpose of why you are paying for two separate diverse circuits

Entrance diversity is achieved when circuits are delivered through different parts of the building’s physical infrastructure. For instance, if you have a circuit entering on the west end of the building, another circuit could be ordered to enter through the south end of the building.

IP diversity a customer seeking IP diversity would receive public IP addresses from blocks belonging to different providers. This would give you a second routing option if Internet service was to go down on a circuit.

POP diversity when circuits originate from separate points of presence, this adds a layer of protection against one POP going down, enabling traffic to be routed through the other POP. Very often, when POPs are diverse from one another, you can bet that the physical routes to the building will also be at least partially diverse from one another.

Route diversity ensures that a customer’s traffic takes two separate paths from its origination to its destination.

As a tip, get an as-built map and make sure that your provider audits your paths from time to time to insure there are no collapses due to any maintenance that may have taken place since install. Similarly, when using dual carriers make sure to get the as-built maps and check from time to time that the routes have not been altered such that there is a collapse.

With over one hundred industry-leading domestic and international carriers in our supply chain, we have deep knowledge and access to what’s available in the marketplace. We make sure we understand your requirements and can meet any diversity requirements you might have.