Internship Report (PTCL)

Objective:

To groom my abilities by working with professionals, getting better

understanding of the professional atmosphere.

Personal Details

Sub-Campus Chakwal

Table of Contents

Contents

Summary _____________________________________________________ 1

About Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) _______________ 1

About Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) ____________________________ 2-4

Working

Structure

Services

Routing Protocols used in PTCL __________________________________ 4-5

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)

Open Shortest Path Protocol First (OSPF)

Pakistan Connectivity to the World through Undersea Cable System _______ 6

IMEWE SMW-III SMW-IV

Vision of PIE __________________________________________________ 6

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Summary:

As PTCL is an organization of international fame and state of the art in telecom field, so it is an immense pleasure and gratitude for me to join PTCL as internee. The purpose of doing internship was to gain knowledge and training about basics of equipment and working process. The Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE), operated by the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), was created to facilitate the exchange of Internet traffic between ISPs within and outside of Pakistan. Because the majority of Pakistan's Internet traffic is routed through the PIE (98% of Pakistani ISPs used the PIE in 2004), it provides a means to monitor and possibly block incoming and outgoing Internet traffic as the government deems fit.

As I have a great interest in networking so I preferred to do my internship in PIE, because the basic principles of networking in the form of IP addressing and sub netting are being implemented. The NOC of Pakistan Internet Exchange contains all the equipment which can be helpful in gaining knowledge about telecommunication and networking.

In this brief report I will try to explain the infrastructure and services of Pakistan Internet Exchange, routing protocols are used in PTCL e.g. BGP, IS-IS, OSPF,and Gateway connectivity to world through Different Cables i.e. IMEWE, SEAMEWE-3,SEAMEWE-4. This report will also elaborate the total gain of knowledge and my learning during my internship report.

About PTCL:

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is a megacorporation and a leading telecommunication authority in the State of Pakistan. The corporation provides and enforces policies for the telephonic services nation-wide and is the backbone for country's telecommunication infrastructure despite arrival of a dozen other telecommunication corporations, including Telenor Corps and China Mobile Ltd. The corporation managed and operates around ~2000 telephone exchanges across the country, providing the largest fixed line network. Data and backbone services such as GSM, CDMA, Broadband Internet, and IPTV wholesale are an increasing part of its business.

The PTCL was the sole provider of bandwidth to the country until 2009, when an agreement between the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan and the 342 Pakistan PTCL decided that ISPs would not be forced to buy bandwidth from the PTCL and were free to choose from third-party providers. A second major company in Pakistan’s Internet infrastructure is Transworld, which owns and operates Pakistan’s first and only privately owned submarine fiber optic cable system, the TW1, which has a capacity of 1.28 terabytes, more than is currently necessary for the nation. But as compared to PTCL, Transworld is equal to a drop of water in sea.

Originally one of the state-owned corporations (SOEs), the shareholding of the PTCL has been reduced to ~62%, when 26% of shares and control was sold to Etisalat Telecommunications and the remaining 12% to the general public in 2006 under an intensified privatization program of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. However, the 62% shares are still

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remains under the management of government-ownership of state-owned corporations (SOEs) of Pakistan.

About Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE): As of 2009, the largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in the country was the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE), a subsidiary of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Ltd. (PTCL), largely owned by the Pakistani government. It was created by the government in 2000 to provide a single core backbone for Pakistan by providing peering points for ISPs.

The Pakistan Internet Exchange has three main nodes—in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad—as well as 42 smaller nodes. The three main nodes of PIE (KHI, LHR, ISB) have a pair of very high capacity Cisco Routers known as Core Routers (CRS) at every site. These CRS work on the principals of load sharing basis, and all three sites are interconnected to each other so that if there is a link break down between KHI and ISB, then both can be connected via LHR.

More over these CRS are connected to Provider Edge (P.Es) from which customers are connected. The main connection between CRS is called “Delta Link” and from CRS to PE’s is called a “Square Link”.

A Core Router is a router designed to operate in the Internet backbone, or core. To fulfill this role, a router must be able to support multiple telecommunications interfaces of the highest speed in use in the core Internet and must be able to forward IP packets at full speed on all of them. It must also support the routing protocols being used in the core.

Current core router manufacturers Alcatel-Lucent Cisco Systems (CRS-series) Extreme Networks ZTE (ZXR10-series)

Brocade Communications Systems Huawei Technologies Ltd. Juniper Networks (T-series)

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Services of PIE: Blocking Servellience MPLS

Smart TV VoIP MRTG

1. Blocking: Internet filtering in Pakistan is regulated by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the direction of the government, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT). But the blockage is practically implemented from PIE. In 2008, the government issued an order to ISPs to block a URL and three IP addresses associated with a YouTube video clip of Geert Wilders, the Dutch lawmaker, considered “blasphemous” by the Pakistani government. Because the PIE was unable to conduct a URL-specific block, it performed an IP-wide block, which had the unanticipated consequence of rendering the entire YouTube domain inaccessible to much of the world for approximately two hours.

2. Surveillance: Internet surveillance in Pakistan is primarily conducted by the PIE under the auspices of the PTA. The PIE monitors all incoming and outgoing Internet traffic from Pakistan, as well as e-mail and keywords, and stores data for a specified amount of time. Law enforcement agencies such as the FIA can be asked by the government to conduct surveillance and monitor content. Under PECO, ISPs are required to retain traffic data for a minimum of 90 days and may also be required to collect real-time data and record information while keeping their involvement with the government confidential. The ordinance does not specify what kinds of actions constitute grounds for data collection and surveillance.

3. Data & Voice: The Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE) provides date and voice services in terms of internet

and VoIP to its customers. PIE provides a means to monitor and possibly block incoming and outgoing Internet traffic as the government deems fit. PIE is also providing IP television along with data services and is an excellent project.

4. MPLS: Multi-Protocol Label Switching is best summarized as a “Layer 2.5 networking protocol”.

MPLS sits between these traditional layers, providing additional features for the transport of data across the network. In the traditional OSI model:

Layer 2 covers protocols like Ethernet and SONET, which can carry IP packets, but only over simple LANs or point-to-point WANs.

Layer 3 covers Internet-wide addressing and routing using IP protocols.

MPLS VPN is a family of methods for harnessing the power of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) to create virtual private networks (VPNs). MPLS VPN gives network engineers

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the flexibility to transport and route several types of network traffic using the technologies of a MPLS backbone.

5. Smart TV (IPTV): PTCL is also offering Smart TV, which is being also operated by PIE. Internet Protocol

Television (IPTV) is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats. SMART TV has various features:

Satellite TV channels Time Shift TV (TSTV)

Video on Demand (VoD)

EPG that enables the user to search for his favorite TV channels, movie titles, his billing details etc.

6. VoIP: PTCL is also offering VoIP facility. VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is a methodology

and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over IP networks i.e. internet.

Other terms associated with VoIP are:

IP Telephony Broadband Telephony

IP Communications

Internet Telephony

Voice over Broadband (VoBB) Broadband Phone Service

7. Multi-Router Traffic Grapher MRTG:

Multi Router Traffic Grapher, or just simply MRTG, is free software for monitoring and measuring the traffic load on network links. It allows the user to see traffic load on a network over time in graphical form. It was originally developed by Tobias Oetiker and Dave Rand to monitor router traffic, but has developed into a tool that can create graphs and statistics for almost anything. Corporate Customers: PIE only deals in corporate customers. Some of its customers are listed below:

Banks Institutions World Call, Warid, Zong + other telecom companies Universities

Routing Protocols: Routing Protocols are the set of rules used by routers to communicate between the source and destination. Each protocol has its own algorithm to choose the best path. Three routing Protocols are used in PIE (PTCL):

BGP IS-IS OSPF

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1. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP): Border Gateway Protocol is the protocol which is used to make core routing

decisions on the Internet; it involves a table of IP networks or "prefixes" which designate network reachability among Autonomous Systems (AS). In order to make decisions in its operations with peers, a BGP peer uses a simple Finite State Machine (FSM) that consists of six states:

Idle

Connect

Active

OpenSpent OpenConfirm Established

2. Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS):

IS-IS is a routing protocol designed to move information efficiently within a computer network. It accomplishes this by determining the best route for datagrams through a packet-switched network.

3. Open Shortest Path First (OSPF): OSPF is a link-state routing protocol for Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It uses a link

state routing algorithm and falls into the group of interior routing protocols, operating within a single autonomous system (AS). Comparison between BGP, IS-IS and OSPF

Attributes OSPF IS-IS BGP

Interior/exterior Interior Interior Exterior

Type Link-state Link-state Path Vector

Default Metric Cost Cost Multiple Attributes

Hopcount Limit None None EBGP: 1 iBGP: none

Convergence Fast Fast Average

Update Timers Only when changes occur

Only when changes occur

Only when changes occur

Updates Only changes Only changes Only changes

Classless Yes Yes Yes

Support VLSM Yes Yes Yes

Algorithm Dijkstr Dijkstr Best Path Algorithm

Protocol and Port IP Protocol 89 TCP port 179

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Underground Submarine Cable System: Different submarine cables are in operations to connect several countries of the world i.e.

IMEWE SMW3 SMW4

1. IMEWE: India Middle-East Western-Europe cable system was commissioned in 2010 as 10 Gbps

Dense-Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology is an ultra-high capacity fiber optic submarine cable system which links India to Europe via Middle-East (Eight Countries having Nine Landing Points).

1. India (Mumbai): 1. Bharti Airtel Ltd. 2. TATA Com. Ltd. 2. Pakistan (Karachi): PTCL 3. Saudia Arabia (Jeddah) Saudi Telecom Company 4. UAE (Fujairah) Emirates Telecom Corporation 5. Egypt (Suez, Alexandria) Telecom Egypt 6. Lebanon (Tripoli) Ogero Telecom 7. Italy (Cantria) 1. Telecom Italia, 2. SPARKLE S.P.A. 8. France (Marseille) France Telecom

Up-gradation of IMEWE by a Mitsubishi Electric on Nov. 6, 2012 to 40 Gpbs at Rate of Data Transmission 3.84 Tbit/s.

2. SMW3 (SEA-ME-WE-3): South-East-Asia Middle-East Western Europe a submarine fiber optic cable was

commissioned in 2000 with a lit-capacity of 480 Gbps/pair of 39000km length (longest), SMW3 is upgrade to SMW2. WDM technology is used with Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). SMW3 was led by France-Telecom and China-Telecom and administrated by SingTEL. There are 39 landing points. Rate of Data-Transmission is 0.96 Tbit/s.

3. SMW4 (SEA-ME-WE-4): This submarine cable project was completed in Dec. 12, 2005 with capacity of 160 Gbps

of 18800km length with worth of US $500 billion and 1.28 Tbit/s of data-transmission was achieved with DWDM technology.

Vision of the PIE: Pakistan Internet Exchange is committed to achieving the highest quality in all that it does. Our endeavor is to consistently satisfy our customers, shareholders, fellow employees, and communities by giving them the best possible services. Being the pioneers of providing Broad Band services and Cable TV on fiber optic continue to strive for providing state of the art technology in order to bring Pakistan at par with the most advanced countries in the world.

***The End***