random notes on LTE and mobile trends

The announcement that the government, indigo and microsoft are teaming up to utilize tv white space for LTE caught me by surprise.  

This is a very welcome move. There is quite a bit of what I consider misinformation that LTE is expensive or can only be done by Telcos or used for end users only - you can use it as a mobile backhaul is a use case not discussed enough. I think that most of it is informed or uninformed by ignorance and over time I'll be proved right. Based on the current install base and spectrum hoarding by most operators, no one has an incentive to lead the LTE adoption unless someone piles on some pressure on either current or future earnings.

On the other hand, new entrants trying to get into a largely untapped market can and should deploy LTE. Current LTE implementations have interesting issues, VOICE is a big one, Voice over LTE (VOLTE) is as far as I know not yet standardized. Then there is indoor penetration of the 2.6GHz and that pesky business case. *why greenfield operators try to do things like the incumbent beats me.

So while Im happy with the development, Im curious how they deal with things like battery life (on mobile devices), number/size of frequency bands and hand off (i'm expecting some backward compatibility with gsm/umts....


On another note, Cisco released their 2012 - 2017 global mobile traffic update. I think you should go there and have a look. They look more realistic than past forecasts. For a deeper analysis go here ---> http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2013/02/06/cisco-castle-deflated/

twitter: @3rdworldnet

sliding back in the game 2013 will be awesome !!!!!

It happens, to each and every one of us sometimes several times in a lifetime. Every once in a while especially as you get older, we all get called upon to do something. Many times over it tends to be outside your comfort zone. I believe in challenges, especially when I start to feel 'settled', or bored; Probably both.

It could be a new life complete with relocation, a new job, a new business, a new spouse, the future could be anything. Sometimes its by choice or forced on you like a whack you in the ass diagnosis that forces a lifestyle change. Sometimes it is standing your ground for something we personally believe in. The majority might never see it your way, but change happens, and for each change unless you are very very lucky, something or someone always gives.

Well friends, another transition beckons. My self imposed retirement is over; or I ran out of money:-) speculate some in the comments. Either way the tardis is firing u, just about to take off and when the doors open I'll be sure to see you around some more.

Over the next couple of days I will bridge the gap on what I was up to whats next etc etc...it was a really good year:-)

Random thoughts

For the past couple of months, I've been quite humbled by how far the SP community had moved without me. I visited Gambia for the AFNOG conference, this time I stayed for the entire gig. Made two presentations and sat on a panel then of course the main plan was to teach the AR-E (Advanced Routing) class; I ended up learning alot more than I ever got to show or teach.

Team AR-E

Philip was truly an inspiration and if some day I can do slides at half the rate he produced the 'design module' for the AR-E class, or be as confident with some of that material, I will be quite happy with myself. *and thats yet another confirmation that being a CCIE can be quite rubbish without some real world in the woods bare knuckles cli combat experience. Lots of it if you are going to teach which explains my interest in teaching/contracting.

It was definately a great opportunity for quiet reflection too (having  a beach close by helped), The fact that I still need more exposure to get any good was obvious. There is no way to land any of those 'big' contracts as a free lancer - so something to think about.

Since the EANOG is supposed to mirror AFNOG, we had a nice chat on how we can make the group truly east african.We have a working plan for this.

Leaving Safaricom was a big deal for me. It was time to head out and experience the world. I am quite open to any opportunity. However as far as full 'permanent and pensionable' jobs are concerned I would only be interested in two scenarios. One is being fully employed by an 'own' business ie one that I own an actual stake in or well I'm sure you can guess the other one. Other than that I'm more than happy with 1 month to 1Yr contracts or just hanging out at the farm:-).

Meantime? I will work on my presentation skills,teaching skills, interview as much as I can (getting interviewed is a great way of knowing what companies want) and definately upgrade my technical knowledge. I suck at all of them at the moment, I will however get better ..... see you around

Thoughts on the IPv6 for African Operators webinar

It started out well with 60 attendees.

My slides are available here: http://goo.gl/GFAad

ISOC will post the recording. Apart from the duration being too short I think it went well. Consider my power went off just after we started (I blame murphy and his laws), I got back on the IPAD and it worked out pretty well. By the time my presentation was due we had 'juice' back up.

So overall I think the ISOC and AFRINIC folks did a fine job with the event.

The concepts IPv6 presenters showed, their examples and implementations will certainly have a hand in shaping how we do networking and general internet stuff --how we get to that end to end port to application nirvana and what that destination really looks like is a bit less certain for most people. But that can be remedied with time. I just hope we dont run out.

IPv6 for African Operators webinar

I'll be part of a webinar on Monday discussing IPv6 for African Operators.

My passion for Ipv6 is known to a number of you. This is a nice opportunity for all of us to share with everyone else since most of the webinar is dedicated to a Q&A.

I will upload the slides for those who miss out and for those that will be over at Afnog next week ( http://www.afnog.org/afnog2012/index.php ), I plan to go through the same more extensively.

I think it will be informative; you and your 'crew' should join in and throw in your ideas or at least start thinking about it a little bit more seriously.

When?

Monday, 30 April 2012, 13:00 (UTC). (I this would be 16:00 GMT ) however, participants are advised to log in half an hour earlier in order to ensure that their connection works properly.

I noticed they erroneously still have my name and Safaricom on the same line. For those that notice it (well you all will now:-) just ignore it.

Here is the link:

http://www.afrinic.net/webinar/ipv6_webinar_30042012.htm

EANOG a few updates

The last BGP session by Michuki was very well attended. Thanks. I'll keep this short.

- We have the eanog.org domain. If any of you volunteers a server for us to host a small site at that would be nice. Just somewhere we can announce events and keep updates running. If one of you can go ahead and design such a site. we'll appreciate it very much. No we have no money to pay but our eternal gratitude and feel free to throw in your logo on the list of sponsors.

Michuki doing his bgp thing

- IHUB allowed us to use the venue every third saturday of the month between 9:30 and 11:30.
 I suggest you get there as much as you can if nothing else for networking. If you would like to give a talk/presentation, please let us know. I think its perfect for you to start out doing this sort of thing among your peers. It tends to lead to happy places.



                                                                                                                                                                     - Topics we have found interesting are in the following areas:
+network management
+IPv6
+Routing (we probably need to give tutorials from novice to advanced for this).
+MPLS - TE/VPN's etc
+Network design
+best practices
+Cloud and related infrastructure.
++Whatever interests you.

We're trying to come up with the entire years calendar so use this thread to give suggestions.

For those coming to Gambia, we're still looking for papers/presentations. For those hoping to get to do that sort of thing, go ahead, prepare something, start with eanog. You can slowly grow your confidence.

This months meeting is on the 21st. We'll confirm.

Photos from that last session:https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105477416625629534813/albums/5730518025995651601 
video if/when it finishes uploading will be on: http://youtu.be/5-aSSAWvDJs
twitter: @3rdworldnet
youtube: 3rdworldnet

EANOG - Current BGP best practices for IXP's

Oh my, how fast a month goes by:
We have yet another EANOG meeting. I expect a lot more people this time:

EANOG Meetup

Past event - this one was LTE by Huawei - awesome day!

Topic: BGP best practices for IXP's.
Speaker: Michuki Mwangi
Cost: Free
Snacks are sponsored by DataPosit
venue sponsored by Ihub.
After talk beer sponsored by you:-)

Date: 24th March

Time: 9:30 am

This talk is a lead up to a training session to be organized by TESPOK on BGP for IXP's.

michuki:-)

Michuki will review the Internet Exchange Point best practices focusing on BGP. He'll take questions; as many as you may have. You'll also help answer questions.

EANOG is your community, participate,learn grow.
This is our second meeting this year. The last one on cloud computing was very well attended.
We thank you all for your efforts and suggestions on how to improve on things.
Please share the event on other lists.



Join EANOG : http://orion.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eanog

Regards,
John Gitau : twitter: @3rdworldnet : http://third-world-networker.blogspot.com/
Techminds Technologies Limited (TTL)

EANOG - Cloud computing demystified - postmortem

Yes thats me!

For everyone that showed up thank you. Someone asked me for the resources used to
put the slides together . I'll just paste them here fr future reference. Add others to the comments.


1: Ivan Pepelnjak's webinars and blog (Most of the slide content came directly from this source). I would encourage you to follow the blog and where possible pay for the webinar content. You won't regret it.


2: Packetpushers end gregs etherealmind blog. Again loads of information there. Subscribe to the podcast.

3: http://datacenteroverlords.com/

4: cloudstack and openflow. I sold most of my lab kit at home to buy a few boxes to mess around with openflow and cloudstack. I have however come across a 'simulator' for openflow that makes learning easier. It uses mininet.

Im sure there are others I missed out.

I sent out photos to the mailing list. Some are below.

A huge thank you to David Kiania  for the photos and Phares for the presentations.

Red carpets and when not to roll them

 Stuff happening to me lately has me thinking quite hard about how to go about hiring and retaining in the future! for everything from farm workers to tech workers. So this (see link below) story sort of had a nice little place in my morning. or Im just weirding the soon to be freelance jitters!


"We hit the first snag when the our then lead architect felt threatened by Ryan.  The lead architect was blocking new ideas.  Ryan was junior and didn’t want to tell me but I was able to pick up on it by listening.  I had to make a choice.  Ryan was much more talented but less experienced.  But I knew that paving over the problem with a few extra bucks wasn’t going to solve the problem.  We chose to move Ryan to be the peer of the lead architect.  Within a few months the lead architect left.  We were fine with it – I didn’t want to lose Ryan."
read some more here  --->
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/16/dont-roll-out-the-red-carpet-on-the-way-out-the-door/

EANOG - Cloud computing demystified! or for dummies if you like:-)

I copied this mail verbatim from Phare's mail blast to eanog, I take no credit for the jokes, Im not funny at all:-)

Does the term cloud computing cloud your thinking? Do you associate cloud computing to overcast weather? Are you tired of marketing buzzwords that are never explained like 'SaaS' (You read it as 'Sasa', a common Swahili greeting), PaaS (you assume this means a man from Western Kenya has had enough of his fowl), IaaS (Frankly, simply confuses you) etc?

As EANOG (East Africa Network Operators Group), we have taken it upon ourselves (Yep, we are just nice guys :-) ) to explain and demystify these concepts. Think of it as the class in University you should have been taught, but were not. Think of it as MITx, by regular Wananchi, who speak your language!

Who will be speaking?

Simple people:

1. John Gitau - Nice guy. Loves farming, hiking, talking to people, taking long walks off short piers, a regular guy, who just happens to have a great understanding of networking (a Cisco CCIE, works for Safaricom, usual accolades, but speaks your language, from the grandmother, to the server room geek, he gets you).

2. Phares Kariuki - Again, nice guy. Loves his coffee, music, books and failed attempts at sarcasm. Tries to cook, but tragically succeeds in making dogfood (everything roasts). Happens to work in the virtualization field (has for the last five odd years), as a Business Manager for VMware in Westcon Africa, previously did pre-sales for VMware at Westcon Africa. Can additionally have a conversation with your great aunt and your geek about cloud computing.

We at EANOG believe in keeping things simple. Keeping things straight forward. We will serve coffee. We promise to be simpler and more accurate than our esteemed Kenyan Meteorological Department :-).

When? The 18th of February, 2011, at the iHub, from 10.15 am.

And yes courtesy of one Aaron Mbowa of DataPosit, we'll be providing free snacks. How awesome is that.

Register below!

http://cloudsmadesimple.eventbrite.com/

*DISCLAIMER -  Conversation may veer off anticipated topic, unfortunately an effect of Coffee & ADHD. Forgive us. There will be rules on how to get us back talking about clouds :-).

Career 3.0 - Huge changes coming up

So after years of formal employment, all the books, all the advice, all my energy is soon going to be directed at something different. Im seeking a little chaos, a place to channel my brand of crazy.

This blog is moving too (to its own domain nothing major) just to keep up with the 'times'. I'll be letting you in on my plans within the month since I obviously need your support.

Cisco Validated IPv6 design finally out

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Campus/CampIPv6.html

I was happy to find that this is now available and as usual Shannon has done a great job writing up and referencing important material.

Go have a look

Launched: East African Network Operators Group - EANOG

There was no noise, no pomp, no beer :-) just me and a few guys discussing what we felt group dynamics would help with. Our roots might not yet be firmly in the ground but the elements are definately cooperating with us.

Some background: I was an idiot in the past. I broke more networks than I fixed (don't assume I don't anymore), I steadilly improved sometimes in different areas at the same time. I read, labbed, listened, watched, failed,passed, tcl'ed,perl'ed,cabled till my eyes teared, my fingers moaned but I carried on. Now I can even classify it as fun.

Computer/Data Networking as a career has been very rewarding and along the way I picked up quite a number of good friends and memories.  Im looking for more. more 'networking', more collaboration, more learning. Won't stop till I get enough !

It is not always easy to get information in this industry in a timely manner. But i know with certainty individuals in the industry know alot more than they let on. I also know that peer led training is more effective than anything your HR can ever manage. Plus wouldn't you wish for more meetups you have control of?

I also know that we are in a growing economy and ensuring any one that calls themselves a networker in Kenya needs to up and modernize their game for the future is really up to us. Some of us are more exposed to others, some are 'sharper' - not me:-), some have access to 'hidden toys'...ahh...life

Thats the bit I want to play in. I want to see proper policies, new protocols or contributions to them, white papers from our market written by us, I want RFC's with my name on them for all the fame and glory that brings (none), I want books I want all a lowly third world networking nerd can have before the bits (apparently my brain is a network)overpower him.

Yep someone needs to watch my Effing back !

 So its great to have the mailing list up at http://orion.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/eanog. We'll grow as we age. There is a huge need for an online presence and we'll work on that, for now Im just happy the meeting happened....Special thanks to the folks at Ihub and everyone that came and or offered support and advice. Same goes for Riyaz for the last minute push to have this started - Heck we had a guy from NASA - We'll be seeing you around when Im not on the moon:-) thank you!

East African Network Operators Group - EANOG

For a long time I have wanted to have meetings where the dominant discussions are around networking and networkers in general.

The main objective would be educational, but at the same time would give vendors a chance to talk to engineers about newer technology they are playing with - like openflow, vxlan,nvgre and products on the sidelines.

Engineers would get to talk and share their experiences.

So today we fired the first shot in the dark. An invite to the IHUB (directly opposite uchumi ngong road) on saturday the 19th at 2pm. If we get even 10 people interested, this ball will start rolling.

There will be obvious issues along the way. Top off my head is how much time can I/we (Riyaz and I) commit to this endeavor in the beginning before the group gains traction?

How often do we meet? what do we discuss? (I expect what to discuss wont be an issue). What if we dont get sponsors? do we even need those? can we put together a community lab? community wi-fi? are we doing ok as networkers? how many ccie's are in Kenya? etc etc....see you there....

So in a nutshell we're forming an educational collaborative forum for the coordination and dissemination of technical information related to networking.

We'll leverage alot of what AFNOG is doing with more frequent meetings.

Everything from broadband, data centers, security, mobile networks, IP, openflow,wi-fi and anything under the moon we deem important will be open to discussion.

Third world networkers view on Openstack/Openflow and Cisco

Ever since Cisco announced their support for  openstack and software defined networking; I was happy, happy that they won't be left out and happy that maybe just maybe this information would be digested by a company I am 'more invested in'. I cant wait for instance for the 'promised' support on the nexus.

But cracks are appearing. The more the network gets closer to getting virtualized, I realize how silly it is of me to 'wait' and see instead of maybe getting in there and contributing something. Let me explain:

What this will mean is new books have to be written. First to explain the concept, the technologies and in the future its support. looking at the old ones, updates will probably be written almost daily.

And what happens to companies that invest alot of cash on lets say FCoE only to realize customers are not interested, or realize it wont scale, or wont matter squat in multivendor environments because other vendors have decided to go their way?

The data center is still morphing. We still don't have important standards for lets say 'cloud' 2 'cloud' mobility. Again this have to be done. Heck down here using cloud is still hindered by access (say what you want 3G is not good enough, and broadband penetration is still sucky). So while some big companies benefit from companies like Safaricom shelling out some serious cash for several nexus, and going by how accounting tends to be done, expect it to be out of reach for most people.

source: Juniper Networks

So over and above everything else -and there's quite alot to be done - Im looking at how I can make direct contributions to openstack and a few other areas of interest to me even if its just simply learning and talking about it:

We have huge gaps in Africa. It is very easy for technology to pass us by because:


1: the best discussions and forums and meetups happen in Europe or the in the US. When nice things happen around here, they almost always happen in SA, Kenya or Egypt (not much anymore). but travel within Africa is crazy expensive. A flight to senegal from kenya is costlier than a flight to Berlin for instance. However its harder getting the visa to visit berlin - its a friggin pain.
2: Most companies here consume products/technology and rarely innovate. So you won't for  instance find a Kenyan writing RFC's because - well Im not sure why but personally the fact that I dont really get down to work with new technologies enough to be the 'go to guy' makes me feel like I am better off just waiting - until now:-)
3: Groups like afnog are like nanog focused on training.
4: Money and general social security - I have learnt first hand how difficult it is to focus on 'new' stuff while constantly worrying about how to make basic ends meet.  Im stuck in this weird 'fear' loop at the moment thats driving me nuts. but more on this later and probably elsewhere.
5: Its really really hard to focus on a single area of interest (ok maybe Im speaking for me on this one). After 10+ years in service providers, getting excited in data center technologies was not easy - fun but not straight forward- upon realizing i could pick it up faster than most helped.

So much that Im currently looking at HP's solutions for this area (between trying to get the cisco DC certification) and going Hmmm! They (HP) have a full inhouse stack that should make them very competitive in this market in direct competition to Cisco UCS.

I imagine cisco and Juniper at a classic 'innovators dilemma'. If they dont deal with this, companies like Nicira will have a really nice and easy time. It will take time to get market share but I can see them getting there if the incumbents dont innovate. well they will I suspect outright buy a startup out....we'll see...

Third world networkers view on simplicity

Greetings bloglings!

Simplicity in design is often overlooked. We have done some really impressive networks over the last couple of years. The data center networks have evolved. VPN's are now IAAS and Im pretty sure marketing guys will keep churning buzzwords to confuse (and unlock customer wallets).

RFC 3439 states in part:

'The Simplicity Principle, which was perhaps first articulated by Mike
O'Dell, former Chief Architect at UUNET, states that complexity is
the primary mechanism which impedes efficient scaling, and as a
result is the primary driver of increases in both capital
expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX). The
implication for carrier IP networks then, is that to be successful we
must drive our architectures and designs toward the simplest possible
solutions.'

there Ive saved you money.

Every once in a while after a design team is done and implemetation happens. Things start going wrong. a link here, a backdoor over there. statements like Oh I dont understand IS-IS can I use OSPF for this segment? are heard!

recently/actually currently Im on leave for a month and it just so happens that a friend wanted me to help them re-design their network. Its a hospital (large hospital) big budget for gear, sadly not enough for 'people' to run/support the network.

Anyway. thinking about it, I dont see for instance why hospitals in Kenya cant come together like banks and do a common core. It would save them al lots of money. If a service provider like Safaricom were to be bold enough, nothing stops them from selling their core to the same hospitals. It would save everyone money and some serious future support issues (considering they dont want to hire people).

the task of building a large scale packet network is not easy it can be done, but its not as easy as these guys tend to think. ok back to the drawings....

Third world networkers view on relaxing

its a rare month. I somehow had excess vacation/leave days and managed to take more than half the number in one go. How long - All of Otober andpart of November:-). My plans are simple:

1: Reverse ccie laziness - As I type this, my sitting room is a mess of bike parts freshly imported to give it a fresh feel. I fully intend to add a minimum 500Km within the month on it.So if you see a nerd on a bike at 'kapchorua' please wave him on.
2: Farmken finally has a product, customer development is at advanced stages. Not a single negative feedback so far. But we have issues: packaging for retail consumers needs a rework. A kilo of fruits is around 15-20 fruits (don't get conned). sell by the dozen, use egg trays, wrap them up with a nice clear cling type paper with our logo - this also preserves the fruit? we'll see....

• The site will feature an online shop from next week - make it easier to cut out the middle men that come to the farm and make it more expensive to buy fruit for retailers.
• We will work directly with some of the larger 'supermarkets' again in the hopes that our fruits reach the consumer faster and cheaper - need to sort out the packaging issue above. How to do that without charging more is the fun question right now. Im thinking we can swing 170 (Ksh) for 30 fruits which is around 1.5Kg.

3: I was at the IGF and sat in two panels:

1. 63. SWOT analysis of the impact of Mobile Internet on Internet Governance in Africa
2. 165. Understanding IPv6 Deployment and Transition  

I had a lot of fun and intend to build up on the two. I also met some incredible people and can probably see a pivot to policy discussions when the tech ta;ks get a bit much.!:-) 

For IPv6, Im working on some new training materials and validating lab output for the said slides. I'll be teaching IPv6 and advanced network related classes. I'll let you know where/when and how that works with my current job - Just FYI, most of the training is internal but hopefully - considering this are free, I'll check to see if we can include outsiders. I think that would be cool.

Im also looking at how we can bring together the network user  group together more often. throw in some comments if you have any idea. I can probably help arrange a meeting venue, maybe some snacks or whatever if we can raise enough quorum to make it worth the time. We can pick on topics to discuss from trends in the local environment, some design issues you have at work, IPv6 whatever....or just catch up. East African Network User Group (EANUG) anyone?

4: Catch up on technology. The data center excites me. So expect stuff around vxlan/nvgre etc etc etc.....

5: I'll relax alot, read - I paid for a full years subscription of Ivan's webinars that I have not really listened to. I expect alot from there....so there..thats my month...oh I'll probably also blog alot....

just too cool

The coolest thing/site I just visited http://liquidr.com/ If only.....

Third world networkers guide to feeling terrible about a wasted day

its a simple school of thought. - you don't need things, as I don't. You are nothing, as I am. Now don't go preparing the firing squad yet. At least let me explain in two paragraphs.

I spent the whole morning, the most productive time of my day filling and refilling RFP and justification documents to be read by people who won't understand them, who will then explain them to a tender committee that is even more clueless about my technical needs for a very critical tool; which eventually will be sent out; hopefully to clueful vendors.

I felt like walking out right there and then. Out of sight hopefully to never see another word document, or pages, oe excel or numbers.

My future definately won't look like the present. I felt divorced from the fruits of that labor. It was definately not worth it. And since I chose not to walk out or speak up, I am nothing, and so are you...if you've ever felt the same and done nothing !

Third world networkers guide to umm nothing

seriously...nothing, its been busy. One cisco data center exam is throwing me around like a drunk packet. but it's all good fun.....its also coold...too cold to type lengthy posts...that and a couple of things (a few friends ecommerce stuff - i hope they pay me some day:-)) are taking up an already short day.....:-)