NCINGA performed a holistic MPLS network audit for a leading Singapore-based network services provider, reviewing all points of failure with recommendations to improve network performance.

Industry: Telecommunications,
Location: APAC

Our client is a leading network services provider in Singapore that provides digital, managed, connectivity and security services to a wide array of organisations. The company uses the latest technologies to enable organisations to scale their solutions and reduce the total cost of ownership.

Understanding deviations from the original network design and points of failure

The client’s existing multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network was implemented based on their business and technical requirements - to provide critical services that need high availability and resiliency. Yet, it was a network that experienced outages, creating an adverse impact on their critical business operations. The company wanted greater insight on the extent to which the network was implemented according to the original design approved by them. They also needed to learn more about network design flaws and bottlenecks that contributed to failures and, equally importantly, how the network can function in spite of these failures when they do occur.

This independent audit was expected to address a comprehensive set of factors:

• Identifying opportunities to improve the resilience of the network design.
• IReviewing any implementation drifts or deviations within the network infrastructure design with any impact on operations.
• IReviewing the efficiency of key network parameters and adherence to service construct and SOP in network configurations.
• IReviewing other systems and software capacities.

With our extensive expertise in the telecommunications industry, NCINGA gained the opportunity to conduct this audit on behalf of the company. We performed the audit over a period of approximately 6 weeks.

As a starting point, the NCINGA team analysed the current network status and compared it with the original design objectives to identify the gaps as required. Our project scope encompassed both a configuration audit and a network status assessment. The team conducted discussions with our counterparts at the company to understand their vision for the MPLS network design. We also used automated collection techniques - non-intrusive CLI scripts captured the required CLI outputs from nodes.

The configuration audit included an analysis of all basic systems, system management, QoS consistency, interfaces, routing protocols, MPLS configuration and service configuration. The network status assessment encompassed an analysis of network events, a statistical analysis of error counts and the identification of network hot and cold spots to determine network congestion probability.

Recommendations for improving service availability and customer satisfaction (and retention)

NCINGA provided in-depth reasoning behind instances of network failure and recommendations that will reduce network issues, leading to an overall improved service availability and higher customer satisfaction. These include:

• Specific aspects of the layers within the network infrastructure that lead to a disjointed network and have an adverse impact on their service availability due to outages.
• High-risk areas in the client’s platform and systems.
• Gaps in the software upgrade process that hinder the seamless functioning of the network.