International Journal of Computer Science and Communication Vol. 2, No. 1, January-June 2011, pp. 173-178

ABSTRACT

NEED OF BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT AND FORMULATION OF POLICY FRAMEWORK FOREFFECTIVE UTILISATION OF INTERNET SERVICES WITHIN A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

Vikas Sharma1, Vikram Kumar and Balvir Singh Thakur2

1 ICDEOL, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, India,E-mail: vikas_doeacc@rediffmail.com.2UIIT, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, India,E-mail: er.vikram@gmail.com and balvir.thakur@gmail.com.

As the web has evolved from mere an information exchange system to a knowledge creation and disseminationplatform, the Internet is being viewed as a critical component of success by the researchers, teachers and students inhigher education system especially within the universities and colleges. The IT managers dealing with networkservices within these institutions are very much concerned to make proper utilisation of available network bandwidthand to make it sure that sufficient bandwidth is available to every user for productive work. With the exponentialgrowth of digitally rich contents and Internet computing demands for the last few years, the users often perceivethat there is insufficient bandwidth available to completely satisfy their needs whereas the problem lies at the endof management who fails to identify certain bandwidth eating unproductive applications. In this paper an attemptis made to design and analyse a policy framework for optimal utilisation of Internet bandwidth by consideringCampus-wide Networking System of Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla as a case study. Thefindings of the study indicate that there is a need to take all stakeholders in confidence before designing andimplementation of Internet Access Policy in addition to deployment of sophisticated and secure communicationequipments for optimal utilisation of bandwidth.Keywords: Bandwidth, Internet Access Policy, Viruses, Spam, Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Traffic.

1. INTRODUCTIONThe campus-wide networking system is one of the mostessential assets for any university to support and delivernumerous key services. This is also an integral part offaculty computing environment that supports teachingand research works [6]. It is not viable for any highereducation or research institution to operate if it is notconnected to the wider academic community. This means,the survival is dependent on good working access ofInternet. The Internet has become essential component toaccess the outer world, to undertake and publish researchworks and therefore to attract funding also [8]. The Internetconnectivity is readily available now and carries manybenefits but the organizations have realised that thisconnectivity also results in numerous unwanted side effectssuch as frustrating and inevitable experience of networkcongestion caused by the flood of IP (Internet Protocol)traffic [5]. Effective Internet Access requires an informationdelivery chain consisting of four essential links: (i) content,(ii) connection, (iii) local resources, and (iv) bandwidthmanagement. The content must be in a form accessible bythe user. The connectivity is essential to access the content.Furthermore, the resources are required to deliver thecontent to the end users. These include the local network,computers, necessary tools and skills of networkadministration team. But bandwidth management is the

core issue that attracts attention to provide seamless flow ofinformation. Without proactive management, networkcapacity fills with viruses and inappropriate traffic, andthe connection becomes ineffective [12]. In that case,network management becomes essential. The networkmanagement is defined as the control, planning, acquisition,allocation, deployment, coordination and monitoring of theresources of the network [6]. In the current paper, one of thecore issues of network management system, i.e. to makeavailable adequate bandwidth is discussed in detail byconsidering case study of Himachal Pradesh University,Summer Hill, Shimla. This university has various categoriesof users with varying network requirements and serviceutilisation trends. This paper has also tried to identify themajor bottleneck applications which generally eat one ofthe most valuable and limited resources of the universitysnetwork, i.e. bandwidth followed by designing of policyframework by considering both technical and managerialpossible solutions.2. NECESSITY OF BANDWIDTH AND ITS

MANAGEMENTThe bandwidth simply represents the capacity of thecommunication media to transfer data from source todestination. Wider the route/path for data transmission,more packets of information will be transmitted to the user's

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Internet enabled devices. Bandwidth is a gross measure-ment, taking the total amount of data transferred in a givenperiod of time at a particular rate, without taking intoconsideration the quality of the signal itself [10]. Further-more, the bandwidth is responsible for data transfer speedand commonly used in Internet connections. Bigger thebandwidth quota is, the higher the connection speed andhence quicker it will be to upload and downloadinformation. The basic measurement unit of bandwidthis bits per second (bps) and it can be kilobits per second(kbps), megabits per second (mbps) and gigabits persecond (gbps). Various Internet connections are offeringdifferent bandwidth standards. For instance, thetraditional dial-up Internet Connection provides a verynarrow bandwidth limit of about 56 kbps, while thecurrent broadband connections allow data transfer atmuch higher speed ranging from 128 kbps to 2mbps.Bandwidth is both absolutely and relatively much moreexpensive for any institution. Many institutions arefinding that they still do not have reliable, usable InternetAccess for their students and staff despite considerableinvestment. Improving the performance of the informationdelivery chain is urgent if researchers and students are tobe benefited from the Internet and take part in theinternational academic community [8]. The performanceof the existing Internet Connection can be enhanced bymonitoring and controlling mechanism and this is knownas bandwidth management. The bandwidth managementmeans to improve the performance of an InternetConnection by removing unnecessary traffic. Bandwidthis like a pipe and if the flow of the material inside the pipeis not monitored and managed properly then it will clogup with unwanted traffic. Similar is the case for computernetwork bandwidth where it can be hijacked by viruses,spam, peer-to-peer file-sharing traffic, etc. Furthermore,the useful resource of any organisation will be eaten byunproductive applications and may be difficult to availuseful services by the needy ones [8]. Bandwidthmanagement is a process of controlling and measuringcommunication (traffic, or packets) on a network link inorder to avoid filling up the link either to its capacity orcrossing the capacity which could result in networkcongestion and poor performance [3]. If the university hasa much slower connection, Internet Access will stillfunction, however if the connection is increased and themanagement removed, useful access to the Internet willdecrease immediately and soon become impossible [8]. Abandwidth management functions by sorting outboundnetwork traffic into various classes according to serviceand application types. Traffic is then planned out accor-dingly to the minimum and maximum bandwidth that isconfigured for each of the traffic types [3]. Bandwidthmanagement requires three activities: ( i) Policy,(ii) Monitoring, and (iii) Implementation. If any one ofthese activities is missing then the management ofbandwidth is significantly compromised. These activities

inform and reinforce each other [8]. The Fig. 1 shows therelationship among bandwidth management activities.

Fig. 1: Bandwidth Management Activities

Monitoring is important for defining and enforcingpolicy. Network monitoring informs the process ofcreating an enforceable policy that reflects the actualneeds of the user group. It is also the necessary partof enforcing policy. Furthermore, monitoring is alsorequired to diagnose faults and troubleshooting ofthe network.

Without an Acceptable Internet Usage Policy noamount of bandwidth is enough to satisfy thedemands of an unrestricted user community.Individuals downloading music and other files fortheir personal use can absorb an institutionsbandwidth. Frequently it is the minority thatconsumes the majority bandwidth. In this situation,user education is far more productive than technicalsolutions. The institutions policy needs to beunderstood and enforced. It becomes theresponsibility of the network administrators to findout which users are not adhering to the policy andto interact with them on a face-to-face level.

There are number of tools and techniques that helpnetwork administrators to ensure that bandwidthis being managed properly and policy is adhered.The key components are: (i) Network Analyzersfor monitoring traffic; (ii) Firewallsfor blockingmalicious and unwanted traffic; (iii) Anti-Virus-forprotecting network; (iv) Cachesfor efficiently usingbandwidth, (v) Traffic Shapersfor prioritising andcontrolling traffic; and (vi) Quota Systemsformanaging user behaviour. The above discussion hasmade it clear that network management is the coreconcern but bandwidth being a limited and valuableasset attracts immediate attention of the networkadministrators and researchers to do efforts so thatadequate network services may be provided to thegenuine users.

3. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY1. To identify unproductive network based applica-

tions responsible for eating valuable bandwidth ofuniversity network system.

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2. To design a bandwidth management policy frame-work to enhance utility of productive applicationson a university network.

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYTo identify unproductive web applications responsible foreating valuable bandwidth of university network system,monitoring of network traffic was conducted by configuringCyberoam as a gateway between university networksystem and outer world environment. A time period of 15days was set to monitor the behaviour of Internet Users andtheir bandwidth utilisation trends. The following toolswere used to monitor network traffic: (i) Traffic reportsprovided by Cyberoama product of Elite CoreTechnologies, and (ii) Bandwidth usage graphs providedby ERNET (Education and Research Network), India. TheCyberoam Identity-based UTM (Unified ThreatManagement) appliances offer comprehensive protectionagainst existing and emerging Internet threats, includingviruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing and more.Cyberoam delivers the complete range of security featuressuch as stateful inspection firewall, VPN (Virtual PrivateNetwork)SSL (Secure Socket Layer), gateway anti-virusand anti-spyware, gateway anti-spam, intrusion preven-tion system, content filtering in addition to bandwidthmanagement and multiple link management over a singleplatform [3]. A detailed analysis of above reports wascompleted followed by categorization and classificationof applications as productive (academic and researchrelated) and unproductive (personal and non academicand non research related) activities in addition toapplications which are consuming high bandwidth.Thereafter a bandwidth utilisation policy framework wasdesigned by throttling unproductive works and prioritisingacademic and research relating activities.

5. INTERNET CONNECTION TYPE AND BANDWIDTH UTILISATION TRENDS IN HIMACHAL PRADESHUNIVERSITY

The bandwidth is one of the most expensive resourcesavailable in the present time which needs to be managedeffectively and efficiently. In Himachal PradeshUniversity, a connectivity of 512 kbps through satellite(VSAT- Virtual Satellite Aperture Terminal) was available.There were 809 information outlets in the universitycampus and out of these only around 250 outlets wereactive. So every outlet was statically getting a bandwidthof around 500 bps which is very low in present contextespecially when user wants to download digital contentscontaining images, graphics or heavy pdf documents,etc. In addition to above, following facts are also relatedto bandwidth utilisation within the campus:1. Students typically have more time, less supervised

and are under less pressure of work targets as com-pared to employees. Therefore, a university network

is one of the most challenging environments tomanage where students have more curiosity to doexperiments with existing network infrastructureand available services.

2. People use the Internet in many different ways. Forexample, while it may not generally be a problem ifa student downloads a music file, plays on-linegames, etc. But it becomes a problem when thebandwidth consumed by above applicationsprevents a researcher to get something useful forhis/her research from the web.

3. Students experiment with their computingknowledge and connect to exposed computersystems elsewhere in the world to invite viruses,worms, spyware, etc. which in turn chock the wholenetwork bandwidth. In addition, the peer-to-peer(P2P) network applications such as KaZaa, etc. arealso popular among students but very highbandwidth consuming applications.

From the above discussion, it has become very clearthat users need sufficient amount of bandwidth to doproductive work and some of them are using unproductiveapplications which need to be discouraged. To provideadequate bandwidth for genuine users is the primeresponsibility for any institution in this digital world. Tosolve this problem, following two options were available:(i) Go for Higher Bandwidth, and (ii) Proper Managementof Bandwidth.5.1 Go for Higher BandwidthIn this era of Information Technology, the universitiesand colleges are needed more Internet computing powerto meet the growing needs of their teachers, researchersand students. The applications of ICT have enhanced theefficiency and capacity of the universities to providequality education and conduct high caliber researchworks. Due to little or no access of electronic resources,the traditional Indian Universities are lacking behind oninformation production and dissemination of knowledgeat world level as compared to the other private/foreignsector universities [7]. With the exponential growth ofinformation resources in the era of web 2.0 and e-Science,almost all kinds of online text and multimedia informationare expanding rapidly. The web becomes an enormousacademic-related document repository and Internet turnsout to be an important platform for people participatingin academic research [11]. The traditional libraries aregradually migrating from print documents to digitisationof contents. There are several forms and types of electronicresources which are available on the Internet. So thevolume of resources on the Internet is growing exponen-tially and becoming ever bandwidth-hungry. Newapplications of Internet in education such as ElectronicLearning or Virtual Classrooms which demand highbandwidth may present new opportunities in future. To

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go for higher bandwidth is a very complex and timeconsuming solution due to its expensive nature becauseit needs to get approvals from various authorities in ahierarchical manner within the university and also at thegovernment level, and as a result bureaucratic delay forimmediate solution. So it was decided to go on parallelfor second option, i.e. Proper Management of Band-width for immediate relief to the genuine users. TheFig. 2 shows a graph of bandwidth required (and band-width required per user) against number of users can beexpected to look something like this [4]:

consumption levels of network bandwidth. Thisdata provides valuable insight into the usage of theInternet service.

2. After getting insight of the consummation trends ofavailable bandwidth, a Bandwidth Usage Policyis designed by implementing certain technical andmanagerial solutions. This policy consists of anumber of rules that define how bandwidth is to beallocated and prioritized for data flow forindividuals, groups and types of applications orservices using some technical solutions such asTraffic Shaping, etc.

3. The system must be sophisticated enough todynamically react to changing network conditions,such as allowing a low priority flow to burst upinto unused bandwidth if available.

4. Once the Bandwidth Usage Policy has been activated,there should be a continual need to gather morestatistical data in order to monitor the effectiveness ofthe policy. Provision of automatic alerts to the systemadministrator when rules are bypassed.

5. Above all, the system must be simple to administer andoperate, but sophisticated enough to provide completecontrol of the bandwidth usage, based on the uniqueneeds and business priorities of the organization.

During network monitoring process, the applicationswhich contributed significant bandwidth load are shownin Fig. 3.

Around the 20 percent the traffic was due to due tothe access of Orkut, Facebook and Twitter websites. The

Fig. 2: Bandwidth Required Against Number of Users

Two reasons why bandwidth per user reduces (butoverall bandwidth demand increases) are as follows [4]:(i) Higher the available bandwidth, the less is needed peruser because requests can be satisfied faster, leaving thebig pipe to the Internet open for the next user. Also, thewaste of bandwidth due to retransmissions is reduced, and(ii) Not all connected users use bandwidth all the time,because in between requesting Web pages they are alsoreading them. This means that demand for high bandwidthwill go on increasing at every moment but it is in favour ofthe organisation to control its misuse. So ProperManagement of Bandwidth is the ultimate solution.5.2 Proper Management of BandwidthThe goal of managing network capacity is to have theright amount of bandwidth in the right place at the righttime for the right set of users and applications. Networkcomponents have two common characteristics: a finitetransmission capacity and a measurable utilization orload. Bandwidth management requires that the load orcapacity relationship of key facilities must be understood,in order to ensure sufficient bandwidth to keep a businessor service functioning properly and profitably. To ensureenough bandwidth, bottlenecks must be identified anddealt with on a case-by-case basis, based on businesspriorities [1]. The bandwidth management is not one timejob rather it is continuous cycle where consistent monito-ring of the network traffic is done followed by implemen-tation of solutions as policy matter. The Elron Softwarehas suggested following guidelines for proper manage-ment of bandwidth as a policy matter [5]:1. Initially, the system must generate comprehensive

and detailed reports, graphs, and charts of the

Fig. 3: Application Category-wise Traffic Load

Orkut website was on the first rank in the list of top tenwebsites visited by the users. Nearly 30 percent of thetraffic was due to the updates of various applicationsinstalled on users computer. Major contributor was thewindows update. The porn websites contributed a trafficload of about 12 percent. About 20 percent traffic was dueto audio and video downloads. The dating and matri-monial websites had 8 percent traffic load. A load of about5 percent was observed due to email traffic. There was asignificant load of about 4 percent on the bandwidth dueto DNS (Domain Name System) queries. Because the

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university was using DNS of its Internet Service Providerand every request is routed to it for resolving universalresource locator. It was very disappointing that there wasa very little access (about 1 percent) of electronic resourcesbeing provided by the UGC-INFONET throughINFLIBNET free of cost. The above facts are clearlyindicating that nearly more than 60 percent traffic is dueto unproductive practice of applications which are notcorrelated with academic or research works. So, it wasdecided to frame polices for Internet Access in theuniversity campus after getting above feedback.

6. FORMULATION OF POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNET ACCESS

Keeping in view the above mentioned bandwidthutilisation facts which came into picture during the trafficmonitoring phase, the university prepared a first versionof the policy framework for Internet Access. The main aimof this framework as described [9]. Internet access isprovided to achieve or sustain our educational goals.Using it for personal reasons compromises that goal bypotentially slowing or halting important network services.This is why we have chosen to prohibit personal Internetuse, except for the limited use. The research resultsindicate that there is a need to block following webapplications with immediate effect: (i) social networkingwebsites- Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, etc. (ii) Audio andVideo Downloads, (iii) Dating and matrimonial,(iv) Chatting-Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, etc.(v) Hacking, (vi) Weapons, (vii) Alcohol and Tobacco,(viii) Nudity and Pornography, (ix) Games and Gambling,(x) Online Trading, Broking and Real Estate, etc. Inaddition to above, the traffic related to updates of anyapplication was blocked in working hours. Users wereadvised to schedule their updates in late hours. To dealwith DNS traffic, it was decided to install universitysown DNS serves. But for the time being, the Cyberoamwas used for this purpose because it had the capabilitiesto provide DNS service to some extent. Furthermore, thefollowing types of application protocol category wereblocked: KaZaa, Napster, Auto Galaxy, etc. In addition toabove solutions, it was also decided to install followingservers: Mail Server, Web Cache Server, Windows UpdateServer, Antivirus Update Server, etc. in second phase/version of the policy to minimize traffic on network byresolving users request locally.1. Mail server receives incoming emails from local

users (people within the same domain) and remotesenders and forwards outgoing emails for delivery.The implementation of a mail server in the HimachalPradesh University will allow fast and concisecommunication among multiple users in additionto efficient method of information dissemination.Emails can be checked out any time, anywhere. It

will also facilitate in reduction of traffic earliercaused by accessing other email services.

2. Web Cache Server caches web documents (e.g.,HTML pages, images) in order to reduce bandwidthusage, server load, and perceived lag. A web cacheserver sits between web servers and clients, andsaves copies of the responses coming from webservers to the clients. Then, if there is another requestfor the same URL, it can use the response that it has,instead of asking the original server for it again. Itreduces the amount of bandwidth used by clients.This saves money and keeps the bandwidthrequirements lower and more manageable.

3. Windows Update Server can provide regular updateslocally to the users. By implementing this server, theunnecessary traffic related to windows update willbe reduced. Even the windows server can beconfigured to get updates during night hours to avoidindividual rush during peak hours. This will help tosave the bandwidth in working hours and can makethe use of bandwidth available in night.

4. Antivirus Update Server can also help to reduceunnecessary anti viruses update traffic during daytimings. The anti virus updates on a single systemcan serve the purpose of whole university usingcentralised controlling environment. This will alsohelp to reduce unnecessary load on bandwidthduring peak hours. But for this, there is a need topurchase a common enterprise edition anti virussoftware so that all uniform updation is possiblewith less traffic load.

7. ANALYSIS OF SIDE EFFECTS OF INTERNET ACCESS POLICY

By implementing first version of Internet Access Policy,the university got success to reduce bandwidth loadsignificantly and this also enhanced the response timeconsiderably. Unfortunately, this solution workedperfectly only for less period of time. Meanwhile, the ITsavvy persons especially the engineering students foundsome solutions to bypass the restrictions imposed throughCyberoam using web proxies. Some of the restrictedapplications which they started using again were:(i) Social networking websites such as: Orkut, Facebook,Twitter, etc. (ii) Download movies with the helps oftorrents, and (iii) Usage of download accelerators. Someof the genuine users were not able to access academic andresearch related contents of various discipline such aspsychology, biology, commerce, journalism, law, etc.because of content filtering restrictions imposed on certainsubjects like sex, trading, audio, video, etc. In mean time,number of users also got increased. So the university wasat the same stage as it was earlier. Some of majordrawbacks observed in the first version of the aboveInternet Access Policy were:

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1. The policy was not implemented from theappropriate level of the authority. As this was goingto affect the entire university community, so it shouldput into operation from appropriate level. Due tothis reason, the people also start showing theirresentment for the policy implementation.

2. There was not any type of agreement signed betweenthe users and university that they have to followthese policy guidelines, rules and restrictions, etc.otherwise administrative and legal actions may beinitiated against them.

3. Last and not least, the policy was not made inconsultancy with general users; it was imposed bynetwork administrator responsible for maintainingthe university campus-wide networking services.

4. The design and implementation of Internet AccessPolicy cannot be the fully responsibility of technicalpersons. There is also of supportive attitude of theuniversity administration and management peopleafter all bandwidth in an asset and university hasinvested significantly in it.

8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSBandwidth management is a serious and emergingchallenge for almost all organisations in the present worldof Information Technology. Lack of appropriate band-width management is preventing useful Internet Accesswhich in turn yielding low quality of academic andresearch works. Better management of bandwidth makesInternet Access wider especially for those who need it inactual. Unfortunately there is relatively little under-standing about the importance of managing bandwidthbecause of low awareness, lack of technical staff, improperimplementation of Internet Usage Policy, non supportiveattitude of authorities, etc. Bandwidth is a very valuableand limited resource, so there is a need to enhance aware-ness level among all stakeholders- students, researchersand staff within the university education system inaddition to implement a common acceptable policy. Policyshould encourage academic and research relatedactivities and throttle of unproductive and individualcentric activities. The IT professionals responsible formanagement of university network system have to monitornetwork traffic and users behaviour continuously onnetwork followed by analysis of web applications eatingvaluable resource. Furthermore, provision of trainings andtechnical tools is not sufficient for bandwidth manage-ment but there is a needto have a rich coordination among

all stakeholders, authority and IT staff on a commonacceptable Internet Access Policy.

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