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Decide what to base your hotel or resort voice / data network infrastructure on … T1, DS3, OCx, fiber, ethernet, etc. … can be complicated and frustrating. There is a lot to consider in making a decision that makes business sense. Making sure to cater to the guest’s needs for laptops, PDAs, etc. it is, of course, paramount.
First, I would put the hotels in the multi-dwelling unit / multi-tenant unit (MDU / MTU) category.
Second, we need to divide this into high-speed connectivity within a hotel and high-speed connectivity for return traffic from the hotel.
Third, we must consider physical media, that is, copper, fiber, or microwave.
An end-to-end Ethernet architecture is emphasized at all layers, that is, the physical interface, service, and transport layers. Every hotel room will come with an inexpensive Ethernet port for connectivity and can easily meet bandwidth requirements. Common areas such as the pool and lobby will have wireless broadband access.
The thing about the backward movement of traffic to the service provider is that the service providers have their capital “sunk” in their E1 / T1. An end-to-end Ethernet infrastructure promises a lot, but is highly dependent on these service providers conducting a review of their access networks.
This, in turn, depends on the demand and also on the availability of the product. Why? As an example, we should consider managing Ethernet SLAs in the same way as E1 / T1, so we need an equivalent to Smartjack devices. Yes, they are available, but then we need the economies of scale to make it worthwhile. Why add costs to the E1 / T1 revenue stream?
There will also be other cases to consider. Tall buildings, such as hotels, often have masts at the top for cellular access. There will be timing requirements for these rooftop cell sites. Although the push is towards Ethernet and packets, TDM (T1 / E1) will continue to play an important role until the end of this decade. That being said, standards bodies like the MEF and also equipment vendors (not surprising here as they could do so with upsell) are speeding up Ethernet development and deployment.
The connectivity of the laptop can be achieved through a data card that makes use of the cellular network. Mobile phone operators now also offer (co-located) WiFi access.
Wireless broadband and wireless broadband services are driving wireless evolution (2G -> 3G -> 3G + -> LTE) and also convergence.
WiFi, WiMAX, etc. all provide the “front-end” air interface. Wireless broadband is driving wireless evolution (3G +, HSPA, LTE, WiMAX).
We also need to have enough bandwidth to roll back the additional bandwidth requirements caused by these air interfaces. When we talk about E1s / T1s (PDH), we are talking about this bit of backhaul. The hotels belong to the MTU / MDU category. Very often, especially in metropolitan areas, such buildings will have fiber laterals that connect to a MAN fiber infrastructure provider.
You should probably look at VOIP and data / internet differently. My suggestion is that you can choose to offer the second but not the first. Why?
– Internet / data access is now a “must-have” for guests and meetings, and the hotel is probably the organization best placed to provide it.
– VOIP is a cost effective solution, but there are other solutions: mobile phones or hotel phone lines.
You may consider that you MUST provide good Internet access, with some business model that allows you to provide the necessary bandwidth, for example, “free” for hotel guests, and a fixed daily rate for meeting planners (a price low depending on the number of attendees).
For the phone, you may consider blocking VOIP (or more precisely SIP) access and allowing third parties to handle that with your business model. This will of course allow some skype-like calls over your data connection, but you won’t be judged on quality here. Generally speaking, any hotel looking for which network technology makes the most business sense for guests, dedicated business suites, and conference activities … should do its homework and not jump in without a thorough analysis. For help with that assessment, I suggest you take advantage of the free research and support available through DS3-Bandwidth.com.