Archive : August 2017

What is (Gigabit Passive Optical Networks) GPON?

GPON stands for Gigabit Passive Optical Networks. GPON is a point-to-multipoint access mechanism. Its main characteristic is the use of passive splitters in the fibre distribution network, enabling one single feeding fibre from the provider’s central office to serve multiple homes and small businesses.

GPON uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for security purpose.

GPON also supports all types of Ethernet protocols.

Why Choose GPON?

GPON gives the end user the ability to consolidate multiple services onto a single fibre transport network. This technology reduces costs and infrastructure while increasing bandwidth. It provides 2.5 GB/s of downstream bandwidth and 1.25 GB/s upstream divided by the split ratio to each customer delivering a customisable, high capacity fibre network for forms of IP based services.

These networks are the perfect solution for environments with multiple separated nodes / points or buildings. GPON provides for a large range of benefits that enable rapid, flexible, mass‐market fibre deployments at the lowest possible cost of ownership and rollout.

Combining full IP‐based connectivity and the latest fibre to the end point innovations, gigabit passive optical networks (GPON) are increasingly appearing as the key mature network technology.

• GPON supports triple – play services, providing competitive all-services solutions.
• GPON supports high-bandwidth transmission to break down the bandwidth bottleneck of the access over twisted pair cables.
• GPON supports the long-reach (up to 20 km) service coverage to overcome the obstacle of the access technology over twisted pair cables and reduce the network nodes.
• With complete standards and high technical requirements, GPON supports integrated services in a good way.
• GPON is the choice of large carrier in the international market
• GPON is a fully optical architecture option that offers the best of all worlds
• A GPON system consists of an optical line terminal (OLT) that connects several optical network terminals (ONTs) together using a passive optical distribution network (ODN).

5 Benefits of a Cloud-Based PBX Phone System

Before discussing the benefits of the cloud-based PBX phone system, it’s important to understand the terminology. PBX stands for private branch exchange, and it originally referred to business phone systems with local lines between employees plus a certain number of external lines. Traditional PBX includes a “trunk” of multiple lines and an optional console or switchboard.

The hosted (or cloud-based) PBX phone system delivers the functions of the PBX system as a service, over broadband internet. Companies using a hosted PBX phone system may rent or buy the phones that employees use. Hosted PBX allows a single number to represent the entire organization, even if the organization is widely distributed geographically. With hosted PBX, employees can access the network using a variety of telecommunications devices, including mobile phones. Here are 5 benefits of a cloud-based PBX phone system.

1. Hosted PBX Phone Systems Save Companies Money
   Traditional PBX phone systems were expensive. Installation was labor-intensive and involved the placement of physical wires throughout an organization. This is eliminated with hosted PBX phone systems, and with many systems, the only up-front capital expenditure is for the actual phones employees will use. With traditional PBX, companies had to estimate usage long term and ensure enough lines were installed to accommodate growth, which meant paying for lines (and maintenance on them) that went unused. With cloud-based PBX, setup and programming costs are far less, and companies only pay for the lines they need at the time.
2. Hosted PBX Phone Systems Scale Easily
   A cloud-based PBX phone system helps companies avoid paying for installation of lines that may or may not be used in the future. Hosted PBX systems are easy to scale up or down. Your phone system can grow one seat at a time, or 100 seats at a time. Adding lines to a hosted PBX phone system is quick and easy, and can often be done through a web portal. This is true even if you open an office in a different location, because the hosted phones you add become part of your existing system. If you hire remote or telecommuting employees, you can install a “seat” on your network on their mobile phone or in their home office. Rather than taking days to add new users, hosted PBX allows adding users in a matter of hours.
3. Moves and Reconfigurations Are Much Simpler with Hosted PBX Systems
   Moving office with a traditional PBX system was fraught with complication and could take a long time. But with a cloud-based PBX phone system, your phone system and its features are hosted in the cloud, so there’s no on-site management. Moving office, adding, or subtracting users can be administered remotely through a web portal, and rather than wait for the service provider’s truck to arrive, you simply pack up the phones and take them with you. Connect once your new broadband system is up, and you’re ready to go. As you might imagine, moving a hosted PBX phone system is much less expensive than moving traditional PBX, keeping your total cost of ownership far lower.
4. Hosted PBX Phone Systems Are Feature-Rich
   The standard features you expect from traditional PBX systems, like call waiting, conference calling, and caller ID are all standard on hosted PBX systems, and hosted PBX systems have many more features, including auto-attendant, find me / follow me, calling groups, call screening, voicemail to email transcription, and many more. Changing features through a web portal is easy, too. Your company may have multiple branches in different locations, but your hosted PBX phone system works as if everyone is gathered in one place.
5. Hosted PBX Phone Systems Have Superior Reliability
   Convenience, cost, and features wouldn’t mean much if hosted PBX phone systems weren’t reliable, but they are extremely reliable. Have you ever worked where a traditional PBX system failed? It may have taken days for the system to be up and running again – days when your competitors were busy scooping your clients. Cloud-based PBX phone systems are run from the cloud sometimes with geographic redundancy, so if an active server goes down, the system is instantly connected to a working site. This change can happen so quickly, your business may not even notice. Furthermore, you don’t need an IT expert on staff to maintain your hosted PBX system. If there’s a problem, the provider takes care of it at their location, providing continual service.

There’s simply no reason to put up with the expense and time involved with traditional PBX when you get more features, great reliability, and easy scalability with cloud-based PBX phone systems. Nexogy provides hosted PBX phone systems tailored to individual business’s needs, saving them money and time that businesses can then devote to doing what they do best.

The Latest ZyXEL News

Product and Solution Information, Press Releases, Announcements

Zyxel Announces Enhanced Capabilities Of Nebula Cloud Network Management Solution

New Enhancements to Nebula Control Center, Access Points, Security Gateways, Switches Improve Ease-of-Use, Increase Security, Streamline Management and Reduce Costs for Businesses and MSPs

ANAHEIM, Calif.-Zyxel Communications, a leading provider of secure broadband networking, Internet access and connected home products, today announced major feature enhancements to its flagship Nebula Cloud Network Management Solution.

The new functions and capabilities added to the growing Nebula family of wireless access points, security gateways, and Ethernet switches make it even easier for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and businesses of all sizes to deploy and manage an affordable, scalable Cloud-managed high-performance network infrastructure. The Nebula solution is centrally and remotely managed via the easy-to-use, intuitive Nebula Control Center.

Nebula Control Center

The Nebula Control Center makes it easy for MSPs and businesses to monitor and manage their Nebula networks spanning multiple sites and organizations from a single intuitive dashboard. The new enhancements make it even easier to set-up, manage and maintain Nebula network infrastructures.

Limited Lifetime License – Provides MSPs or businesses with the flexibility to subscribe to a hassle-free license that does not require annual renewals. In the event that subscribed Nebula devices need to be replaced, service continues at no additional cost, lowering the total cost of ownership over the life of the solution.
Quick Startup Wizard – Enables the user to manage the network on their own or delegate authority to someone else, and makes it fast and easy to add Nebula devices to the network.
Site Roles and Privileges – Adds new roles for installers, organization owners, and guest ambassadors at the site level, providing more flexibility and granularity for network administration.
Batch Imports – Quickly register multiple devices or add multiple administrators and users by simply importing an Excel file.

Nebula Access Points

The enterprise-class Nebula access points provide auto-configuration making it easy for even non-IT professionals to provision, monitor and troubleshoot the Nebula network infrastructure. The new enhancements to the access points make this process even easier.

• SSID Scheduling – Administrators can establish up to five SSID schedules, enabling them to provide services during specific timeframes to manage network access and bandwidth.
• SSID Availability per AP – Nebula Access Points can now be configured to individually broadcast specific SSIDs to limit access to specific SSIDs in multiple AP environments.
• Social Login – Enables users to sign onto the network through the Captive Portal using their Facebook login.
• Captive Portal – Enables administrators to allow or block HTTPS websites, and automatically authorize guest accounts.

Nebula Security Gateways

Zyxel Nebula Gateways feature Zero-touch VPN connections, streamlined policy management, effective network protection, and powerful application security making them highly-effective, yet easy-to-use solutions to protect the network and its connected resources. Enhancements to the Nebula Gateways include:

• Dual WAN Support –WAN status display, load balancing and fail-over capability is now supported across the product line.
• Client Information – Clients can be added into a whitelist, bypassing captive portal authentication to access the network. New displays show OS information including the OS information including the OS version, number of clients and usage.
• Gateway-based Guest Portal – Captive portal, walled garden, captive portal access attribute, and NCAS disconnection are integrated into the Nebula Security Gateway providing hotspot functionality to wired and wireless networks.
• VPN – VPN links can be prioritized at the organizational level ensuring your most important links can connect when VPN connections exceed capacity.
• L2TP Client –L2TP clients can now be authenticated with Nebula cloud authentication.

Nebula Gigabit Ethernet Switches

The growing family of centrally-managed Zyxel Nebula Gigabit Ethernet switches provide a stable, reliable, high-performance network environment. The switches automatically discover wired and wireless devices connected to the network and create a network topology to enable network administrators to easily monitor the network and troubleshoot issues. The enhancements to the Zyxel switches include:

Live Tool Enhancements – Cable diagnostics enable physical wire-pair testing of Ethernet cables, and the Nebula Switch LED locator makes it easy to find a particular switch in a server rack or server room.
Loop Guard and Storm Control – Detects and blocks a port of a loop is detected in the network. Enhances network reliability by limiting packets flowing through a port to reduce the effect of a broadcast storm.
Digital Diagnostics Monitoring for SFP – Digital Diagnostics Monitoring Interface (DDMI) displays real-time SFP transceiver information and operating parameters on a specific SFP port to perform component monitoring, fault isolation and failure prediction tasks.
DHCP Server Guard – Eliminates network conflicts by ensuring that Nebula switches are only able to receive IP addresses from a specific server.
The Zyxel Nebula Cloud Network Management Solution carries a limited lifetime warranty and US-based phone technical support. The Nebula products are available now through all Zyxel authorized resellers and e-Commerce partners.