Our Network Operations Center (NOC) located in Baltimore, Maryland, is OnNet with Frontier
GlobalCenter (FGC) and Qwest Communications through two separate bandwidth-on-demand connections which enter Downtown Baltimore
just a few floors below the NOC.
FGC, a Tier 1 provider whose 13,000-mile fiber optic network and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing
(DWDM) technology provide an enormous 460 gigabytes per second (Gbps) of capacity worldwide, has an ATM fiber node located just a few floors
below our NOC.
Qwest comes into Baltimore with an OC-12 line, and plans to upgrade their connection to an OC-48
in the near future. They also have an ATM fiber node 14 floors below our NOC. Qwest comes into Baltimore at the same location with an OC-12 line
and plans to upgrade to an OC-48. Our Qwest connection enables Earth Site Host to offer additional redundancy and better routes to Europe, Latin America,
and Asia. With these two carriers, our router will have up to 150,000 possible routes to send each packet of traffic.
Furthermore, because of these unique connections, Earth Site Host no longer needs to link to the Internet though an OC3 or T3 Telecom circuit.
Instead, independent cables run inside our building directly from our NOC to both the Global Center point of presence and the Qwest point of presence. These lines
can handle the bandwidth of a T3 or an OC3, and with DWDM they can handle several times the bandwidth of an OC3. So whatever the client's
bandwidth needs are, Earth Site Host has the scalability to meet them!
In early September 1999, we added connectivity from Level 3 Communications. Level 3
was described in USA Today as "a dream team with a dream network." With the fundamental change in communication technology
at hand, they are the first to build an international end to end communications network, based entirely on IP technology. To implement this new
technology, Level 3 has constructed local networks in 50 cities across the United States, all interconnected by an intercity or long distance network that extends nearly 16,000 miles.
Network Redundancy
Earth Site Host uses intelligent end-user routing software called Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), between Qwest and FGC, who use it as well.
BGP can identify which path is the most efficient for each data packet, and then route the packet to its destination on the fastest path. This
increases the speed at which web pages sent from our NOC arrive at their destination.
Studies have shown that the second most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on the Tier 1 backbone, the major data highway. To guard against this potential problem, we have two Tier-1 providers. If one has problems, we can route traffic down the other one. Furthermore, because we are OnNet with Frontier GlobalCenter and Qwest, we share their digital distribution architecture, which includes private peering network connections to major Internet carriers such as MCI, Sprint, UUNET, EUNET, AT&T, AOL, Best, Erols, @Home, IBM Advantis and others. These private peering arrangements allow Earth Site Host to exchange packets of data with every major backbone carrier in a one-to-one environment quickly and efficiently.
In addition, FGC has high-speed links to 8 public exchanges including both MAE East and West and several NAPS. Through these many public exchanges, customers have the ability to reach their site wherever they are coming from on the Internet. Thus we have the best of both worlds: a network that is both efficient and wide reaching.
Network Reliability
Industry analysis reveals that 70 percent of downtime over 10 hours with any ISP is caused by telephone circuit failure. Since our NOC is in the
same building as Frontier Global Center, circuit failure is virtually eliminated because there is no phone circuit between us and FGC. Instead, there
is a direct connection between our Cisco 7200 router and theirs.
The second most common reason for downtime is circuit failure on the Tier 1 backbone. FGC, themselves a backbone, also have peer connections with other major Tier 1 providers, which allows traffic to be switched to other backbones quickly in the event of a crisis.
How reliable is this? Yahoo is another fine company who connects directly using only FGC. If you can reach Yahoo, you can reach our network. FGC's groundbreaking 460 Gbps network runs BGP to 25 other major carriers through private peering arrangements, providing the fastest, most efficient and most reliable network available today.
Raw Performance equals Low Latency/High Throughput
You can't drive an engine as hard as it will go and expect consistent high performance. But often providers operate their networks at three
to four times responsible capacity, and as a result their corresponding transfer times reach over 300ms. Our network daily average is 6.5 percent
of its capacity, with midday peak spikes reaching only 15.5 percent capacity. Earth Site Host guarantees that we'll carry you to the FGC Sonet
Ring at the heart of the FGC backbone in less than 80ms over a five minute average at any time of day or night or we'll give you that month free.
