More On....Meeting Your Bandwidth Requirements For Supply Chain
Management Applications
As I pointed out in a previous article, Supply Chain Management
(SCM) is a complex animal. The key to a successful SCM
implementation is a clear understanding of the business
objectives and business requirements of the company the SCM
primarily supports. This often includes a number of legacy
systems which need to be integrated into the solution. From this
will come the technical objectives to be met and the technical
requirements that frame the solution. Only then will the
commmunication requirements for bandwidth capacity, reliability,
resiliancy, latency, security, and expandability be meaningful.
Here's just 2 such technical aspects.....
Frame Relay
Frame relay initially had several advantages over the
alternative solutions for SCM and other multi site and multi
company communications networks.
The first advantage was with circuit costs. For a multi site
network, the traditional approach was a large number of point to
point circuits. Each circuit required a router port, a CSU, and
often a circuit monitoring module. With milage based pricing,
each circuit represented a significant recurring cost on top of
the initial hardware costs. Router sizing was often a factor of
ports supported rather than performance capability.
Frame relay exchanged the point to point circuit costs with an
access circuit, typically at less than 1/10th of the cost. With
port speeds from DS0 to DS3, multiple sites could be connected
with a single port at each site. A partial or full mesh, even
with full redundancy, could be accomplished with very few router
ports and CSU at each site. This represented significant capital
savings.
Using fractional T1 and T3 on the access circuits, frame relay
made expanding capacity between sites relatively painless. Port
changes within the frame relay provider's network was often a
configuration change. Expanding the actual circuits was
typically a configuration change on the CSU and DACS.
Adding new sites was often accomplished with physical changes at
the new site only. The new PVC across the frame relay network
and at the existing site(s) was a configuration change.
Depending on the routers used and the routing protocol
implemented, this might be accomplished without a maintenance
window.
The PVC approach allowed for additional security. A given
location could be directed to a specific port within the DMZ,
limiting the exposure of one's own network to other vendors
within the SCM network. Firewalls at each end allowed each
company to control its own security. The frame relay network was
vulnerable to external monitoring at very few points, and the
relationship of PVC traffic to specific customer required
specific network design information.
Frame relay offered the ability to have a disaster recovery site
support multiple locations. PVC between the disaster location
and other locations could be defined in the configuration,
allowing dynamic implementation of the disaster recovery network.
As a circuit protocol, frame relay functions independent of
other protocols. This segmentation allowed IPX, IP, SNA, and
other system communications protocols to be implemented over the
same paths. If desired, each of these could have its own PVC and
bandwidth, or they could all operate over a common path.
Finally, the bandwidth and performance could be established
specifically to site pairs on a PVC basis.
For a vendor that participated in multiple SCM networks, frame
relay represented real cost savings. Instead of a new circuit
for each network, a PVC could be established. Instead of 6 week
circuit installation delays, service could be established in
hours.
----
So why the past tense? The advantages of frame relay are now
achieved via the Internet. The timeframes for implementation
have been reduced from hours to minutes. Encryption has advanced
beyond the security offered by isolated paths. Advances in
application based routing can achieve availablity assurances.
Legacy protocols have been largely replaced by IP.
There are still times when frame relay is the best choice based
on business requirements or technical constraints. But a robust
bandwidth network (e.g. OC3 or OC12 bandwidth....perhaps with
GigE connectivity) applying IP protocols will enable a seemless
flow of information without risking security concerns.
Emerging Technologies
The most notable is Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID.
RFID tags are essentially barcodes on steroids. Whereas barcodes
only identify the product, RFID tags can tell what the product
is, where it has been, when it expires, whatever information
someone wishes to program it with. RFID technology is going to
generate mountains of data about the location of pallets, cases,
cartons, totes and individual products in the supply chain. It's
going to produce oceans of information about when and where
merchandise is manufactured, picked, packed and shipped. It's
going to create rivers of numbers telling retailers about the
expiration dates of their perishable items--numbers that will
have to be stored, transmitted in real-time and shared with
warehouse management, inventory management, financial and other
enterprise systems. In other words, it is going to have a really
big impact.
Another benefit of RFIDs is that, unlike barcodes, RFID tags can
be read automatically by electronic readers. Imagine a truck
carrying a container full of widgets entering a shipping
terminal in China. If the container is equipped with an RFID
tag, and the terminal has an RFID sensor network, that
container's whereabouts can be automatically sent to Widget Co.
without the truck ever slowing down. It has the potential to add
a substantial amount of visibility into the extended supply
chain.
Right now the two biggest hurdles to widespread RFID adoption
are the cost of building the infrastructure and the lack of
agreed-upon industry standards. But regardless...RFID
implementation will be bandwidth intensive to retrieve and
disseminate the mountain of information such a tool will provide.
Summary
The answer to how to meet bandwidth requirements for SCM
applications is as complex as ever. The addition of emerging
technologies like RFID into the mix of legacy point-to-point
approaches, the frame relay darling, and the simplification
afforded by OCx backed IP protocols....means your IT staff will
be pegging their stress meter trying to make a decision. To
navigate the aspect involving researching and acquiring the
right bandwidth solution....do yourself a favor. Use the
services of an independent unbiased consultant such as FreedomFire
Communications to navigate the minefield for you. Your IT
staff will love you for it.