Abstract:
As Internet Protocol (IP) has become the universal transport for almost all voice, data, video, and emerging communications worldwide, today, it is no longer practical to construct networks by merely connecting many standalone components without careful planning and design. As cost is the most fundamental driving factor behind the network design process,a well-designed IP backbone network should not only be cost-effective; it should also be characterized by consistent running costs. In the case of developing economies, since there is little or no existing credible legacy infrastructure to transform to the Next Generation Network (NGN)in accordance with common practices based on collected network maps and measurements, the problem is often the initiation of almost entirely new telecommunications development schemes. In such circumstances, the building of synthetic network topologies is often the preferred approach. It is believed that synthetic network topologies offer more suitable design model generalizations in such circumstances. In this paper, the IP backbone network topology is synthesized based onvarious qualitative and quantitative criteria and then developed by modelling and simulation in Riverbed Modeler environment. The full laboratory-based approach of modelling and simulation with Riverbed modeler enabled an iterative refinement of the IP backbone network until the technical design was fully refined. The results showed that the topology will meet the primary design goals of cost-effectiveness, reliability and scalability.
