Question

Discuss modern trends in local area networks?

Answer 1

Local Area Network trends and solutions are as follows

LAN trends
in which a wide range of functionalities is managed and monitored over a converged network.
This network needs to be capable of powering large numbers of remote (data gathering and processing) devices, such as sensors and peripheral equipment.

More 5G phones will enter the market, driving bandwidth demand. Next generation WLAN access points are now available and new smartphones from manufacturers such as
Apple and Samsung are Wi-Fi 6 enabled, further boosting bandwidth and backbone requirements.Cloud services, Fiber to the Home, 5G, IoT and smart buildings will continue to change the network landscape.

Single Pair Ethernet (SPE): uniform, application and manufacturer-independent continuous IP-based transmission
The connectivity landscape is becoming increasingly standardized and unified, with IP as a common medium for previously disparate systems.
R&M, closely involved in the standardization of Single Pair Ethernet (SPE), sees this type of connectivity as a key future technology,
for example in smart buildings and industry 4.0. Using SPE without interfaces to replace the traditional field bus can help realize high connection density required for
the networks of today and tomorrow, and makes installation faster and easier.
SPE works with 10BASE-T1 to 1000BASE-T1, offers 15 - 1,000 meter link ranges at up to 1Gbit/s transmission rates, and can supply terminal equipment with up to 50 watts with Power over DataLine (PoDL).

SPE based on xBASE-T1 protocols uses a single twisted pair for data transmission.
LAN is compressed into a thin two-core cable with miniaturized connectors, making it possible to significantly increase terminal equipment connection density.
IT and field bus components are integrated, installation and maintenance are simplified and the costs of material and operating expenses are reduced.
Compared to traditional Ethernet cabling, this approach offers a significantly higher number of possible connection points.
Connection to the LAN is done with switches either centrally in the floor distributor or distributed in the zone at the service outlets.
Ethernet/IP transmits large quantities of (complex) data faster than field bus systems, allowing the collection and distribution of data from the entire network.
Synergies reduce operating expenses and manufacturer-neutral standard products can be used.

‘All over IP’: an integrated approach to networking smart buildings
R&M has united LAN and Ethernet/IP cabling with related technologies such as Wireless LAN, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE).
The resulting ‘All over IP’ approach enables digital building automation exclusively using Internet Protocol.
This provides high levels of standardization, availability and reliability, with LAN providing the physical communication layer and Power over Ethernet.
IP devices and networks speak the same language ‘end to end’ and don’t need ‘translation’ between servers, operating systems (e.g. via gateways), cabling and end devices.
Buildings can be connected and controlled digitally throughout. SPE is ideal for connecting large numbers of small sensors and actuators. What’s more, devices and systems that work with Ethernet/IP technology are comparatively inexpensive.
The current Internet Protocol version (IPv6) can theoretically allocate around 1,500 IP addresses per square meter.
In practice, there is no limit to the number of devices that can be addressed. The star-shaped topology reduces the number of connection points and improves IP networks’ operational reliability.
Access controls and authentication measures incorporated in IP improve building automation security.

The digital ceiling
Cabling of smart buildings should be application-neutral and manufacturer-independent.
Combining structured cabling for data networks with IP offers a perfect solution for this.
‘All over IP’ also makes R&M’s ‘digital ceiling’ concept possible.
This approach extends the data network through an entire building’s ceiling in a ‘honeycomb’ fashion to so called zones.
Within a zone it is possible to connect devices to building automation via pre-installed overhead connecting points (service outlets).
Real estate managers or tenants can benefit from digitization with ‘Plug and Play’ – fit for purpose, without barriers, fast and at low cost.
All they need to do is plug in network switches, sensors, controls, WLAN access points and other distributed building services.
PoE makes it possible to connect applications with just one cable. R&M’s contacts and connectors are ready for this.
The R&M package also supports Passive Optical LAN (POLAN). This fiber optics cabling for extended systems such as airports, malls, resorts, and hotels delivers virtually unlimited bandwidth for miles.

Introduction of smart, converged networks means new energy-conserving technologies and applications can be introduced,
such as intelligent management of building space, resources and LED lighting.
PoE can power LED lighting throughout entire buildings and address each luminaire via its own IP address.
Infrastructure companies can integrate more and more devices in their systems, leveraging the benefits of a unified network.

7 Network Trends You Can Expect in 2020:

1.
Network automation:

The demand for rapidly deployed networking services is beginning to outpace a network team's availability to execute on those requests.
Fortunately, network automation tools are coming to the rescue.
Whether you go with a pre-packaged product from a commercial networking vendor – or an open-source alternative – these tools are most capable of assisting
with automating the following tasks:

Repeatable network configurations
Config validation testing
Duplicating deployments
Replicating operational management tasks

2.
5G for branch office connectivity:

5G is largely being looked at from a mobile device connectivity perspective.
While important, the new wireless technology will also enhance enterprises from a branch office perspective.
Beginning in 2020, look for network vendors to begin integrating 5G into their cellular branch office gateways.
This will allow the rapid deployment of remote sites which offer data speeds that rival far more expensive wired broadband alternatives.
For businesses that need to be able to quickly spin up an office – or require the ability to move an office at a moment's notice rapidly, 5G will be a game-changing technology.

3.
IoT network segmentation and monitoring:

IoT is finally shaping up to be a reality in 2020.
Because of major security concerns, the virtual segmentation of IoT devices from the rest of the network will be a major task for the network department.
The creation of secure zones – called microsegments – will allow for IoT devices to operate on the same corporate network while also lessening the risk to other parts of the network.

Then, once implemented, it's likely that the monitoring of IoT devices will fall on the network team to implement.
Being able to view end-to-end IoT monitoring will not only help with improving performance, but it will also help to ensure that IoT devices haven't been compromised by identifying when IoT device communication veers from the norm.

4.
Simplification of the Internet edge:

As enterprises move more of their applications, data, and services into public clouds, many are realizing that little to no servers in the data center are running Internet-facing services.
That means that current Internet edge architectures are often more complex than they need to be.

BGP has commonly been used at the Internet edge to provide full internet redundancy by connecting to two or more BGP peers with the same public IP space.
Yet, if all Internet-facing services now reside in public clouds, that level of inbound Internet redundancy in the private network is no longer needed. Instead, only outbound Internet redundancy will be required.
If that’s the case, BGP can be eliminated at the Internet edge in favor of much more simplistic outbound Internet load balancing techniques.

5.
Network analytics:

Big data and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have progressed to the point where the two can be used to provide unprecedented levels of network performance health information.
While some organizations have been piloting the use of network analytics (NA) tools in their environments in 2019, look for many to begin using NA in production environments starting in 2020.

6.
Managing consistent policy across hybrid and multi-cloud networks:

One of the biggest headaches of the past few years from a network perspective has been the need to create and maintain consistent network and network security policies across multiple clouds.
Because public and private cloud data centers often use different underlying network equipment, the network configuration steps to create policies are usually vastly different.
As businesses move from hybrid clouds to multi-cloud architectures, being able to maintain homogeneous network and security policies across private and public cloud networks can become overwhelming.

Multi-cloud management platforms are one way to solve this problem in 2020.
Additionally, many cloud service providers are beginning to provide customers with multi-cloud policy management tools.
For example, AWS recently unveiled AWS Outposts. Outposts offers a way to extend AWS policies, services, and APIs across other data centers.
Thus, the ability to manage a single set of network/security policies across multiple clouds will not be as challenging as it has been in the past.

7.
Edge computing changes what’s possible:

Edge computing is the concept of taking compute and data much closer to the end-user when compared to traditional cloud computing.
Doing so significantly reduces bandwidth costs while also lowering network latency. Network carriers are expected to begin rolling out edge services to customers beginning in 2020.
While enterprise use cases are relatively few right now, it won't be long before virtually all business verticals find a use for edge computing that will cut costs, improve processes, or create a competitive advantage.

The 4 Most Important Networking Trends in 2020 are :

Next-Generation Wireless Technology:
Without a doubt, the biggest networking technology development of the 2020s is one that’s going to be all around us very soon – the deployment of next-generation wireless networks.
In the mobile networking arena, it’s the 5G standard that’s going to rewrite the rules of what’s possible for technology on-the-go.
It’s these new cellular networks that are going to unleash the true potential of things like augmented reality and the IoT, as well as bringing us closer to a world filled with “smart everything“.

Indoors, the wireless revolution’s going to be led by Wi-Fi 6, the soon-to-go-mainstream standard that’s making its way into devices right now.
It will not only triple the theoretical maximum throughput of its immediate predecessor, but will deliver better indoor signal penetration and support greater device density.
In a world where every electrical device is gaining networking capabilities, the effects of Wi-Fi 6 can’t be overstated.

SD-WAN Becoming Common:
Over the course of the last decade, cloud providers, SaaS and IaaS solutions, and mobile computing have come to challenge the traditional notion of boundary-driven networking.
In the past, corporate and other private networks were animated by the concept of fenced-off access using firewalls and other location-centric controls.
Now, as business computing assets have started to spread to remote data centers and mobile systems, a new concept has emerged – software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN).

This new paradigm in networking makes it possible to use a variety of network interconnections to create a private business LAN analog consisting of assets in the cloud, data centers, and branch offices that function like a single, seamless system.
More than anything, this is made possible by continued improvements in WAN link bandwidth, which now allow geographically disbursed resources to move data at or near LAN speeds across vast distances.
As the 2020s wear on, SD-WAN will come to replace traditional hardware-based onsite networking approaches.

Encryption Everywhere:
One of the glaring deficiencies in the internet’s infrastructure has always been a lack of built-in data security and privacy features.
That reality is increasing the pressure on website operators, app developers, and networking vendors to take steps to make encryption a part of their platforms as a means of making up for the underlying insecurity of the networks they rely on.
And even though the tech media would have you believe that users looking for ways to watch any country’s Netflix is what’s driving the increase in the use of consumer VPN services, it too is a result of the push toward encryption everywhere.

In the networking world, the push for encryption everywhere hasn’t gone unnoticed. It has in fact spurred hardware developers toward making encryption at the network layer a standard feature of their hardware going forward.
It’s become so important that estimates now believe that the network encryption market will be worth $5.8 billion by 2026, almost doubling in size in little more than five years.

UCaaS Displacing VoIP, OTT Messaging:
One of the biggest results of the explosion of networking technology over the past 40 years is that it has revolutionized the way that we communicate.
The internet began by displacing switched telephone networks as the primary means of real-time communication around the globe, and in the years since has spawned myriad ways for people to talk to one another.

The result has been a fragmented communications environment that networked systems often struggle to keep up with.
Between traffic shaping and prioritization to support VoIP protocols and managing the traffic generated by innumerable over-the-top messaging platforms on computers, tablets, and smartphones, the lack of standardization has been tough to navigate.
In the 2020s, though, a trend toward Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solutions aims to reset the landscape and allow network hardware developers to move away from supporting multiple application-specific protocols and specifications.