The Art and Science of High Performing Networks

By Van Macatee

After a couple of decades and many rounds of technology evolution in the network business, I have learned an immutable truth.  It will come as a shock so brace yourself! Networks break.  There, I said it.  Furthermore, hope is not an operating system.  Ouch…  Standing up a network and hoping it makes everyone happy is a recipe for disappointment. Which is to say that left to nature, your network will atrophy.  The network owner had better understand that and put in place a system to monitor, maintain and optimize that network continuously over time - unless of course, your goal is atrophy…

Consider this; 

• The number of devices connected to an indoor wireless network goes up virtually every day.  
• Demand for bandwidth will rise as device count grows.
• If the network is held steady, a performance gap emerges and grows wider every day!
• Therefore a steady-state network is really a network suffering performance atrophy.

Even in today’s climate of rapid development and emerging technologies, the truth is that performance will fall apart unless the operator does certain things.  The good news is that with the right approach, network atrophy can be replaced with continuous improvement.  

How?  I have found it has far more to do with the team who designs, runs and operates the network than the network itself.  While technology and world-class manufacturing are certainly vital, execution is where continuous improvement is made. In a sense, the performance of a network is a reflection of the team that executed the design, installation and operation.   

High performance does not just happen.  In fact, the opposite is true.  High performance must be willed into place and it takes a certain combination of science and culture to make it so.  This is the first installment in a series that will make a case for culture and methodologies that produce continuously improving high performance. I am about to share what I have learned about the network game over four decades.  I have made every mistake in the book and then some but have constantly searched for ways to get better.  The Search for Excellence, Process Re-engineering, Business Process Improvement and Six Sigma were all the management methodology dejour and all came, and to a certain degree, went. Each had enduring and effective components. I tried them all.  

While most had their origins in manufacturing, a small rebel band of us figured out how to apply them to a service process – like networks.  All through the ‘90s, we experimented and tested. Somewhere along the line, the tool collection became known as Operations Science.  These concepts and notions were battle tested in the trenches on some of the most sophisticated networks ever built.  Like gravity, this stuff is immune to technological advancement.  It is just as pertinent and powerful today as it was back when 9600 bps was high speed.  Some of this will seem ridiculously simple and obvious. Other techniques are technical, requiring specialized skills and tools.  But make no mistake about it: to defy naturally occurring atrophy, it takes every trick and method you can find.  For me, these are truisms in the quest for continuously improving network performance.  The search goes on…

So here is the question: if you could obtain a new tool to make your network better, wouldn’t you?

To be continued…

Van Macatee has 40 plus years of experience operating large telecomm networks and in now the Founder of Xspand.net. 

Xspand specializes in wireless solution for indoor commercial spaces with a focus on the emerging world of The CBRS in a series based Private indoor LTE networks and IoT.

To learn more go to https://xspand.net