Manufacturing Companies Still Prefer MPLS Connectivity Here's Why

Summary: Manufacturing companies typically have widespread production and distribution facilities that now leverage IoT, data analytics and other digital tools. Their back-office teams also use voice and video services to collaborate with vendors and technology partners. With its abilities to prioritise traffic and improve bandwidth utilisation, MPLS helps organisations to enhance the efficiency of such processes. It also adds an extra layer of security to their cloud network.

The primary operations in a manufacturing company concern the design and development of products. On the other hand, these organisations also collaborate frequently with the different entities in their supply chain, the vendors who supply the raw materials or parts for their products, and engineering companies that guide them on key technologies and production methods.

As they use data solutions to stay connected with such partners, distributors, suppliers and clients, it is essential for manufacturing organisations to maintain a private network that enables them to exchange mission-critical data securely.

The increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, augmented reality and virtual reality technologies in manufacturing also necessitates the use of a speedy and secure online network.

Deploying MPLS VPN for Networking in Manufacturing Organisations

Given the diverse requirements of manufacturing companies, is multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) a suitable technique for building their virtual private network (VPN)?

As a connectivity technology, MPLS ensures that data packets reach their destination via the most sensible routes and are prioritised as per their significance for the sender and receiver.

The data packets are labelled, and as each packet traverses through the network, the labels may be added, replaced or removed. The network distributes information in a way that each switch knows what it is supposed to do in response to instructions from a certain label.

MPLS is particularly useful for situations wherein:

• -Different kinds of traffic share a data connection, and some of the traffic constituents have higher priority than others
• -Network uptime is critical, and key work locations have multiple connections so that traffic can be routed through alternative paths
• -There are occasional possibilities for network congestion on some connections
• -Some sites need to connect multiple locations while being completely invisible to other sites on the network

The top characteristics of an MPLS-based network that make it apt for the manufacturing industry are:

Optimal Bandwidth Utilisation with Class of Service

Back-office workers at a manufacturing concern may be using the Internet to send regular e-mails to suppliers or to exchange data on messaging apps. The team for mechanical operations may need to access information from engineers through AR-VR apps.

To serve these diverse purposes efficiently, MPLS distributes adequate bandwidth and prioritises the traffic flow – according to pre-defined norms – without the need to rigidly partition bandwidth between different applications. The prioritisation of traffic is a concept under the Class of Service (CoS).

It allows enterprises to define their high-priority traffic and enable it to borrow capacity from other traffic streams as and when required. They can also set low latency paths for such data. Conversely, when the low-priority traffic is ready to burst beyond its usual amount of bandwidth, it can use the idle capacity that is not being used by higher priority applications.

Any-to-Any Connectivity with Business Continuity

MPLS builds a unified network connecting multiple offices and factories of a manufacturing company and can securely bring its remote workers on the official network.

As it allows the routing of traffic through various data connectivity paths, MPLS continues to maintain business continuity even if one location is affected by an outage. Being a self-healing and highly redundant technology, MPLS supports multiple back-up systems.

Network Security

MPLS VPNs are based on private network services provided by a single provider and are not vulnerable to the threats of the pubic Internet. This attribute makes MPLS more reliable for a manufacturing company that shares sensitive data with its business partners and cannot afford the vagaries of a public Internet connection. MPLS also safeguards their networks against DDoS attacks.

With an extra level of network security as compared to Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) VPNs, MPLS users are assured that their data packets are never out “in the wild”. Even as they reach their ultimate destination, they pass through the privatised virtual network set up by their service provider.

Flexible Bandwidth Management and Private Cloud

Like cloud solutions that enable users to add capacity to their platform on an as-required basis, MPLS VPN makes it easy to manage the bandwidth assigned to the online network. This is important for users of cloud services because expanding the capacity of their (cloud) platforms may not do them any good if they cannot simultaneously increase the capacity of the online connections to them.

The combination of cloud applications with MPLS VPNs also makes the cloud seem like an extension of the premise-based network and services, building a “virtual private cloud”. This feature suits the operations of manufacturing companies that are regular users of cloud apps.

Network Monitoring Capabilities

With MPLS, a manufacturing company’s IT team can track the performance of every data packet passing through the network. Advanced monitoring tools enable them to decode, display and aggregate reports according to MPLS labels. This capability keeps MPLS labels visible to local network engineers and allows them to identify and quickly address any problem in the mesh. This could be misconfigured MPLS routers or unexpected behaviour from the labelling scheme.

MPLS monitoring tools also make it easy to monitor and optimise the performance of the individual applications used by manufacturing companies.

Summing up

In a global economy wherein products are devised far away from where they are eventually sold, manufacturers must leverage the right technologies to maintain the efficiency of their bandwidth-sensitive apps. With MPLS, they get a higher assurance on the optimal working of the digital tools that support their operations and client/vendor/business partner collaboration.

This is why, despite the evolution of newer alternatives such as SD-WAN, MPLS continues to be relevant for manufacturing organisations that are aware of its true benefits.

The Smart VPN WAN Connectivity solution by Tata Tele Business Services originates from the MPLS technology and has been further optimised with Secure Connect for private cloud, wired and wireless last-mile connectivity, and Internet VPN for ubiquitous reach. The combination makes it an ideal connectivity option for BFSI companies and other businesses that seek robust networking, privatised access to their data, high-performing enterprise apps, and multiple connectivity options to work collaboratively with their remote teams. What’s more, all these benefits come with a favourable price model.

Contact Tata Tele Business Services at 1800-266-1800 to know more about Smart VPN.