Chapter List

Part V of this book moves up along the network protocol layers to the application and service layer and introduces three types of packet broadband services: storage area network (SAN), VPN, and voice over IP and multimedia applications.

Storage area network is a broadband networking technology as well as a service. On the packet broadband network infrastructure, SAN provides connectivity between storage devices and network servers that consume data and thus enables a host of related services: remote data backup, data recovery, data mirroring, etc. SAN has become a critical broadband service in recent years as a result of the growing trend that large amounts of data and data storage devices are increasingly being networked and shared via the Internet.

VPN is a packet broadband service with great potential. A packet broadband virtual private network is built on shared public packet network facilities to deliver services that, in appearance, are as reliable and secure as the services delivered by a dedicated private network. There are two types of broadband VPN service: access VPN and internetworking VPN. Access VPN connects mobile or remote users like telecommuters to an enterprise LAN. Internetworking VPNs are built on top of public IP networks to connect geographically distributed corporate LANs to support services like intranets and extranets.

Multimedia and voice over IP applications are built on broadband IP networks...