International Journal of Computer Science and CommunicationVol. 2, No. 1, January-June 2011, pp. 173-178 NEED OF BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT AND FORMULATION OF POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE UTILISATION OF INTERNET SERVICES WITHIN A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS Vikas Sharma1, Vikram Kumar and Balvir Singh Thakur2 ICDEOL, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, India, E-mail:
[email protected]. 1 UIIT, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, India, E-mail:
[email protected] and
[email protected]. 2 ABSTRACT As the web has evolved from mere an information exchange system to a knowledge creation and dissemination platform, the Internet is being viewed as a critical component of success by the researchers, teachers and students in higher education system especially within the universities and colleges. The IT managers dealing with network services within these institutions are very much concerned to make proper utilisation of available network bandwidth and to make it sure that sufficient bandwidth is available to every user for productive work. With the exponential growth of digitally rich contents and Internet computing demands for the last few years, the users often perceive that there is insufficient bandwidth available to completely satisfy their needs whereas the problem lies at the end of management who fails to identify certain bandwidth eating unproductive applications. In this paper an attempt is made to design and analyse a policy framework for optimal utilisation of Internet bandwidth by considering Campus-wide Networking System of Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla as a case study. The findings of the study indicate that there is a need to take all stakeholders in confidence before designing and implementation of Internet Access Policy in addition to deployment of sophisticated and secure communication equipments for optimal utilisation of bandwidth. Keywords: Bandwidth, Internet Access Policy, Viruses, Spam, Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Traffic. 1. INTRODUCTION The campus-wide networking system is one of the most essential assets for any university to support and deliver numerous key services. This is also an integral part of faculty computing environment that supports teaching and research works [6]. It is not viable for any higher education or research institution to operate if it is not connected to the wider academic community. This means, the survival is dependent on good working access of Internet. The Internet has become essential component to access the outer world, to undertake and publish research works and therefore to attract funding also [8]. The Internet connectivity is readily available now and carries many benefits but the organizations have realised that this connectivity also results in numerous unwanted side effects such as frustrating and inevitable experience of network congestion caused by the flood of IP (Internet Protocol) traffic [5]. Effective Internet Access requires an information delivery chain consisting of four essential links: (i) content, (ii) connection, (iii) local resources, and (iv) bandwidth management. The content must be in a form accessible by the user. The connectivity is essential to access the content. Furthermore, the resources are required to deliver the content to the end users. These include the local network, computers, necessary tools and skills of network administration team. But bandwidth management is the core issue that attracts attention to provide seamless flow of information. Without proactive management, network capacity fills with viruses and inappropriate traffic, and the connection becomes ineffective [12]. In that case, network management becomes essential. The network management is defined as the control, planning, acquisition, allocation, deployment, coordination and monitoring of the resources of the network [6]. In the current paper, one of the core issues of network management system, i.e. to make available adequate bandwidth is discussed in detail by considering case study of Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla. This university has various categories of users with varying network requirements and service utilisation trends. This paper has also tried to identify the major bottleneck applications which generally eat one of the most valuable and limited resources of the university’s network, i.e. bandwidth followed by designing of policy framework by considering both technical and managerial possible solutions. 2. NECESSITY OF BANDWIDTH AND ITS MANAGEMENT The bandwidth simply represents the capacity of the communication media to transfer data from source to destination. Wider the route/path for data transmission, more packets of information will be transmitted to the user's The above discussion has made it clear that network management is the core concern but bandwidth being a limited and valuable asset attracts immediate attention of the network administrators and researchers to do efforts so that adequate network services may be provided to the genuine users. peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY 1. user education is far more productive than technical solutions. To identify unproductive network based applications responsible for eating valuable bandwidth of university network system. without taking into consideration the quality of the signal itself [10]. Bandwidth management is a process of controlling and measuring communication (traffic. Bandwidth is a gross measurement. megabits per second (mbps) and gigabits per second (gbps). Furthermore. The institution’s policy needs to be understood and enforced. or packets) on a network link in order to avoid filling up the link either to its capacity or crossing the capacity which could result in network congestion and poor performance [3]. Fig. usable Internet Access for their students and staff despite considerable investment. Furthermore. The performance of the existing Internet Connection can be enhanced by monitoring and controlling mechanism and this is known as bandwidth management. A bandwidth management functions by sorting outbound network traffic into various classes according to service and application types. • There are number of tools and techniques that help network administrators to ensure that bandwidth is being managed properly and policy is adhered. The basic measurement unit of bandwidth is bits per second (bps) and it can be kilobits per second (kbps). . (iv) Caches—for efficiently using bandwidth. The key components are: (i) Network Analyzers— for monitoring traffic. It is also the necessary part of enforcing policy. For instance.174 International Journal of Computer Science and Communication (IJCSC) Internet enabled devices. Improving the performance of the information delivery chain is urgent if researchers and students are to be benefited from the Internet and take part in the international academic community [8]. the bandwidth is responsible for data transfer speed and commonly used in Internet connections. Bigger the bandwidth quota is. • Without an “Acceptable Internet Usage Policy” no amount of bandwidth is enough to satisfy the demands of an unrestricted user community. monitoring is also required to diagnose faults and troubleshooting of the network. Bandwidth management requires three activities: (i) Policy. 1: Bandwidth Management Activities • Monitoring is important for defining and enforcing policy. Traffic is then planned out accordingly to the minimum and maximum bandwidth that is configured for each of the traffic types [3]. These activities inform and reinforce each other [8]. Frequently it is the minority that consumes the majority bandwidth. Individuals downloading music and other files for their personal use can absorb an institution’s bandwidth. the useful resource of any organisation will be eaten by unproductive applications and may be difficult to avail useful services by the needy ones [8]. 1 shows the relationship among bandwidth management activities. the traditional dial-up Internet Connection provides a very narrow bandwidth limit of about 56 kbps. If the university has a much slower connection. Similar is the case for computer network bandwidth where it can be hijacked by viruses. spam. Bandwidth is both absolutely and relatively much more expensive for any institution. while the current broadband connections allow data transfer at much higher speed ranging from 128 kbps to 2mbps. Internet Access will still function. Furthermore. useful access to the Internet will decrease immediately and soon become impossible [8]. the higher the connection speed and hence quicker it will be to upload and download information. Bandwidth is like a pipe and if the flow of the material inside the pipe is not monitored and managed properly then it will clog up with unwanted traffic. and (vi) Quota Systems—for managing user behaviour. etc. The Fig. (v) Traffic Shapers—for prioritising and controlling traffic. If any one of these activities is missing then the management of bandwidth is significantly compromised. Many institutions are finding that they still do not have reliable. (ii) Monitoring. The bandwidth management means to improve the performance of an Internet Connection by removing unnecessary traffic. (ii) Firewalls—for blocking malicious and unwanted traffic. Various Internet connections are offering different bandwidth standards. 3. however if the connection is increased and the management removed. (iii) Anti-Virus-for protecting network. It becomes the responsibility of the network administrators to find out which users are not adhering to the policy and to interact with them on a face-to-face level. In this situation. and (iii) Implementation. taking the total amount of data transferred in a given period of time at a particular rate. Network monitoring informs the process of creating an enforceable policy that reflects the actual needs of the user group. less supervised and are under less pressure of work targets as compared to employees. almost all kinds of online text and multimedia information are expanding rapidly. including viruses. etc. For example. etc. The following tools were used to monitor network traffic: (i) Traffic reports provided by ‘Cyberoam’—a product of Elite Core Technologies.Need of Bandwidth Management and Formulation of Policy Framework for Effective Utilisation of Internet. There are several forms and types of electronic resources which are available on the Internet. 3. To solve this problem.Virtual Satellite Aperture Terminal) was available. Students experiment with their computing knowledge and connect to exposed computer systems elsewhere in the world to invite viruses. Students typically have more time. and (ii) Proper Management of Bandwidth. INTERNET CONNECTION TYPE AND BANDWIDTH UTILISATION TRENDS IN HIMACHAL PRADESH UNIVERSITY The bandwidth is one of the most expensive resources available in the present time which needs to be managed effectively and efficiently. Due to little or no access of electronic resources. while it may not generally be a problem if a student downloads a music file. the peer-to-peer (P2P) network applications such as KaZaa. a university network 175 is one of the most challenging environments to manage where students have more curiosity to do experiments with existing network infrastructure and available services. 5. The traditional libraries are gradually migrating from print documents to digitisation of contents. But it becomes a problem when the bandwidth consumed by above applications prevents a researcher to get something useful for his/her research from the web. Cyberoam delivers the complete range of security features such as stateful inspection firewall. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY To identify unproductive web applications responsible for eating valuable bandwidth of university network system. A time period of 15 days was set to monitor the behaviour of Internet Users and their bandwidth utilisation trends. following facts are also related to bandwidth utilisation within the campus: 1. etc. Therefore. the universities and colleges are needed more Internet computing power to meet the growing needs of their teachers. New applications of Internet in education such as Electronic Learning or Virtual Classrooms which demand high bandwidth may present new opportunities in future. There were 809 information outlets in the university campus and out of these only around 250 outlets were active. gateway anti-spam.. worms. India. are also popular among students but very high bandwidth consuming applications. To design a bandwidth management policy framework to enhance utility of productive applications on a university network. In addition. 5. a connectivity of 512 kbps through satellite (VSAT. The applications of ICT have enhanced the efficiency and capacity of the universities to provide quality education and conduct high caliber research works. worms. 2. spyware. So the volume of resources on the Internet is growing exponentially and becoming ever bandwidth-hungry. phishing and more. plays on-line games. So every outlet was statically getting a bandwidth of around 500 bps which is very low in present context especially when user wants to download digital contents containing images. Thereafter a bandwidth utilisation policy framework was designed by throttling unproductive works and prioritising academic and research relating activities. In addition to above. From the above discussion. The web becomes an enormous academic-related document repository and Internet turns out to be an important platform for people participating in academic research [11].1 Go for Higher Bandwidth In this era of Information Technology. VPN (Virtual Private Network) — SSL (Secure Socket Layer).. In Himachal Pradesh University. etc. intrusion prevention system. it has become very clear that users need sufficient amount of bandwidth to do productive work and some of them are using unproductive applications which need to be discouraged. With the exponential growth of information resources in the era of web 2. researchers and students. To . The ‘Cyberoam Identity-based UTM’ (Unified Threat Management) appliances offer comprehensive protection against existing and emerging Internet threats. gateway anti-virus and anti-spyware. Trojans. A detailed analysis of above reports was completed followed by categorization and classification of applications as productive (academic and research related) and unproductive (personal and non academic and non research related) activities in addition to applications which are consuming high bandwidth. monitoring of network traffic was conducted by configuring ‘Cyberoam’ as a gateway between university network system and outer world environment. which in turn chock the whole network bandwidth. 2.0 and e-Science. content filtering in addition to bandwidth management and multiple link management over a single platform [3]. People use the Internet in many different ways. spyware. To provide adequate bandwidth for genuine users is the prime responsibility for any institution in this digital world. the traditional Indian Universities are lacking behind on information production and dissemination of knowledge at world level as compared to the other private/foreign sector universities [7]. 4. and (ii) Bandwidth usage graphs provided by ‘ERNET’ (Education and Research Network). graphics or heavy “pdf” documents. following two options were available: (i) Go for Higher Bandwidth. Initially. Nearly 30 percent of the traffic was due to the updates of various applications installed on users computer. This means that demand for high bandwidth will go on increasing at every moment but it is in favour of the organisation to control its misuse. The porn websites contributed a traffic load of about 12 percent. There was a significant load of about 4 percent on the bandwidth due to DNS (Domain Name System) queries. The ‘Elron Software’ has suggested following guidelines for proper management of bandwidth as a policy matter [5]: 1. the system must generate comprehensive and detailed reports. based on business priorities [1]. Also. About 20 percent traffic was due to audio and video downloads. etc. Major contributor was the windows update. groups and types of applications or services using some technical solutions such as “Traffic Shaping”. The 5. This policy consists of a number of rules that define how bandwidth is to be allocated and prioritized for data flow for individuals. the waste of bandwidth due to retransmissions is reduced.International Journal of Computer Science and Communication (IJCSC) 176 go for higher bandwidth is a very complex and time consuming solution due to its expensive nature because it needs to get approvals from various authorities in a hierarchical manner within the university and also at the government level. such as allowing a low priority flow to ‘burst up’ into unused bandwidth if available. 3. 5. the system must be simple to administer and operate. The Fig. in order to ensure sufficient bandwidth to keep a business or service functioning properly and profitably. Fig. So “Proper Management of Bandwidth” is the ultimate solution. i. based on the unique needs and business priorities of the organization. To ensure enough bandwidth.2 Proper Management of Bandwidth The goal of managing network capacity is to have the right amount of bandwidth in the right place at the right time for the right set of users and applications. bottlenecks must be identified and dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Above all. the applications which contributed significant bandwidth load are shown in Fig. a “Bandwidth Usage Policy” is designed by implementing certain technical and managerial solutions. Provision of automatic alerts to the system administrator when rules are bypassed. leaving the ‘big pipe to the Internet’ open for the next user. graphs. A load of about 5 percent was observed due to email traffic. The system must be sophisticated enough to dynamically react to changing network conditions. 4. 2. the less is needed per user because requests can be satisfied faster. The bandwidth management is not one time job rather it is continuous cycle where consistent monitoring of the network traffic is done followed by implementation of solutions as policy matter. Because the . and charts of the Fig. “Proper Management of Bandwidth” for immediate relief to the genuine users. During network monitoring process. because in between requesting Web pages they are also reading them. The dating and matrimonial websites had 8 percent traffic load.e. 3: Application Category-wise Traffic Load Orkut website was on the first rank in the list of top ten websites visited by the users. So it was decided to go on parallel for second option. 2 shows a graph of bandwidth required (and bandwidth required per user) against number of users can be expected to look something like this [4]: consumption levels of network bandwidth. and as a result bureaucratic delay for immediate solution. but sophisticated enough to provide complete control of the bandwidth usage. 3. and (ii) Not all connected users use bandwidth all the time. This data provides valuable insight into the usage of the Internet service. Around the 20 percent the traffic was due to due to the access of Orkut. Bandwidth management requires that the load or capacity relationship of key facilities must be understood. Once the Bandwidth Usage Policy has been activated. 2: Bandwidth Required Against Number of Users Two reasons why bandwidth per user reduces (but overall bandwidth demand increases) are as follows [4]: (i) Higher the available bandwidth. After getting insight of the consummation trends of available bandwidth. Network components have two common characteristics: a finite transmission capacity and a measurable utilization or load. there should be a continual need to gather more statistical data in order to monitor the effectiveness of the policy. Facebook and Twitter websites. This is why we have chosen to prohibit personal Internet use. because of content filtering restrictions imposed on certain subjects like sex. Then. Mail server receives incoming emails from local users (people within the same domain) and remote senders and forwards outgoing emails for delivery. the university got success to reduce bandwidth load significantly and this also enhanced the response time considerably. In mean time. Antivirus Update Server can also help to reduce unnecessary anti viruses update traffic during day timings. But for this. except for the limited use…”. (vi) Weapons. Meanwhile. “Internet access is provided to achieve or sustain our educational goals. 1. the following types of application protocol category were blocked: KaZaa. 3. (iv) Chatting-Yahoo messenger.g. Napster.Need of Bandwidth Management and Formulation of Policy Framework for Effective Utilisation of Internet. the unnecessary traffic related to windows update will be reduced. It reduces the amount of bandwidth used by clients. there is a need to purchase a common enterprise edition anti virus software so that all uniform updation is possible with less traffic load. Emails can be checked out any time. (ix) Games and Gambling. etc. and (iii) Usage of download accelerators.. the traffic related to updates of any application was blocked in working hours. etc. Twitter. Users were advised to schedule their updates in late hours. the IT savvy persons especially the engineering students found some solutions to bypass the restrictions imposed through ‘Cyberoam’ using web proxies. Even the windows server can be configured to get updates during night hours to avoid individual rush during peak hours. and saves copies of the responses coming from web servers to the clients. 6. Some of major drawbacks observed in the first version of the above Internet Access Policy were: . 7. in second phase/ version of the policy to minimize traffic on network by resolving users’ request locally. Facebook. the university prepared a first version of the policy framework for Internet Access. etc.. So. trading. FORMULATION OF POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNET ACCESS Keeping in view the above mentioned bandwidth utilisation facts which came into picture during the traffic monitoring phase. (v) Hacking. The main aim of this framework as described [9]. Using it for personal reasons compromises that goal by potentially slowing or halting important network services. Some of the genuine users were not able to access academic and research related contents of various discipline such as psychology. Facebook. Web Cache Server. server load. anywhere. This will help to save the bandwidth in working hours and can make the use of bandwidth available in night. (ii) Download movies with the helps of torrents. commerce. 4. ANALYSIS OF SIDE EFFECTS OF INTERNET ACCESS POLICY By implementing first version of Internet Access Policy. The research results indicate that there is a need to block following web applications with immediate effect: (i) social networking websites. It was very disappointing that there was a very little access (about 1 percent) of electronic resources being provided by the UGC-INFONET through INFLIBNET free of cost. law. It 177 will also facilitate in reduction of traffic earlier caused by accessing other email services. HTML pages. the Cyberoam was used for this purpose because it had the capabilities to provide DNS service to some extent. Windows Update Server can provide regular updates locally to the users. video.Orkut. etc. By implementing this server. Unfortunately. This saves money and keeps the bandwidth requirements lower and more manageable. Broking and Real Estate. etc. audio. it was decided to frame polices for Internet Access in the university campus after getting above feedback. biology. Some of the restricted applications which they started using again were: (i) Social networking websites such as: Orkut. etc. In addition to above solutions. this solution worked perfectly only for less period of time. if there is another request for the same URL. journalism. MSN messenger. (ii) Audio and Video Downloads. Twitter. Antivirus Update Server. number of users also got increased. Auto Galaxy. The anti virus updates on a single system can serve the purpose of whole university using centralised controlling environment. etc. Windows Update Server. Web Cache Server caches web documents (e. This will also help to reduce unnecessary load on bandwidth during peak hours. The implementation of a mail server in the Himachal Pradesh University will allow fast and concise communication among multiple users in addition to efficient method of information dissemination. But for the time being. it was decided to install university’s own DNS serves. instead of asking the original server for it again. it was also decided to install following servers: Mail Server. To deal with DNS traffic. (vii) Alcohol and Tobacco. it can use the response that it has. (x) Online Trading. Furthermore. In addition to above. university was using DNS of its Internet Service Provider and every request is routed to it for resolving universal resource locator. (viii) Nudity and Pornography. images) in order to reduce bandwidth usage. The above facts are clearly indicating that nearly more than 60 percent traffic is due to unproductive practice of applications which are not correlated with academic or research works. and perceived lag. So the university was at the same stage as it was earlier. etc. 2.. A web cache server sits between web servers and clients. (iii) Dating and matrimonial. authority and IT staff on a common acceptable Internet Access Policy. 2010. 8. August 23-24. <http://www.inasp. 4.info/uploaded/documents/BMOchap6. University of Waterloo. etc. Unfortunately there is relatively little understanding about the importance of managing bandwidth because of low awareness. 112 – 118. 10 Dec.students.wisegeek. “Bandwidth Management and Traffic Optimization”. 10 Dec. 10 Dec. 12 Dec. (2006). The IT professionals responsible for management of university network system have to monitor network traffic and users’ behaviour continuously on network followed by analysis of web applications eating valuable resource. Bandwidth is a very valuable and limited resource.pdf> . 2010. There was not any type of agreement signed between the users and university that they have to follow these policy guidelines. 2010 <http://www.0 Authorship: Issues of Referencing and Citation for Academic Integrity”. The policy was not implemented from the appropriate level of the authority. Jakarta.com/links/elron. 2010 <http://findarticles. Indonesia. As this was going to affect the entire university community.. There is also of supportive attitude of the university administration and management people after all bandwidth in an asset and university has invested significantly in it. 10 Dec. Oxford. researchers and staff within the university education system in addition to implement a common acceptable policy. 2010. <bwmo. <http://dualwan. International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). (2010). improper implementation of Internet Usage Policy. so it should put into operation from appropriate level. (2006). 13 Dec. Last and not least. 2010.178 International Journal of Computer Science and Communication (IJCSC) 1.com/p/articles/mi_m0BRZ/ is_3_20/ai_61620899/> [2] “Cyberoam UTM announced On-appliance SSL VPN”. (2000). (2007). rules and restrictions. 11. “ICT in Philippine Higher Education and Training”. "What is bandwidth".com/what-isbandwidth.htm> [11] Gray K..pdf> [10] McGuigan. lack of technical staff. 2010. (2007). Due to this reason. pp.uwaterloo. 12 Dec. non supportive attitude of authorities..html> [4] “Optimising Internet Bandwidth in Developing Country Higher Education”.ca/CNAG/2004-10-network-mgmtmodel.pdf> [3] Dualwan. 10 Dec. 2010. International Network for Availability of Scientific Publications. (2004). < www.org/ bandwidth-management. et al. 2010. <http://www. 2010. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Bandwidth management is a serious and emerging challenge for almost all organisations in the present world of Information Technology. Saturnino M.inasp.info> [9] “How to Accelerate Your Internet”. (2009). Brendan. the policy was not made in consultancy with general users. it was imposed by network administrator responsible for maintaining the university campus-wide networking services. [12] “Bandwidth Management Position Paper”. (2009). 15th SEAMEO-RIHED Governing Board Meeting and back-to-back Seminar on ICT in University Teaching/Learning and Research in Southeast Asian Countries held at the Millennium Sirih Hotel. 12 Dec.aptivate. Clerehan R. <http://www. otherwise administrative and legal actions may be initiated against them.BMOPositionPaper/AptivateBMOPositionPaper. so there is a need to enhance awareness level among all stakeholders. Report from the Adhoc Committee on Network Management.. 3. Furthermore.internetwk. (2010). Computer Technology Review.pdf> [5] “The Need for Bandwidth Management: Taking Control of your Internet Connection”. <http:// ist. “Adopting a Business-Oriented Approach to Bandwidth Management — Technology Information”. Thompson C. The Internet and Higher Education. [8] Rosenberg Diana. Policy should encourage academic and research related activities and throttle of unproductive and individual centric activities. Lack of appropriate bandwidth management is preventing useful Internet Access which in turn yielding low quality of academic and research works. “Digital Libraries”.net/pdf/chapter2. Aptivate. (2008). 2. (2005). REFERENCES [1] Curz Peter. www.org/attach/ .html> [6] “Decentralized Network Management at UW”. Better management of bandwidth makes Internet Access wider especially for those who need it in actual... provision of trainings and technical tools is not sufficient for bandwidth management but there is a needto have a rich coordination among all stakeholders. Elitecore Technologies Limited.html> [7] Ocampo. 10 Dec. etc. 2007. “Web 2.com/downloads/Brochure/ CyberoamSSLVPNBrochure.cyberoam. the people also start showing their resentment for the policy implementation. The design and implementation of Internet Access Policy cannot be the fully responsibility of technical persons.