Nile SLAs

overview the nile access service provides a comprehensive set of service level agreements (slas) to ensure the reliability and performance of the network infrastructure our goal is to eliminate complexity and provide a simple, scalable, and secure network that doesn’t need configuration (by humans) we want to ensure the service is always on to achieve this we have taken an outside in approach using physical and virtual sensors that are deployed across the nile network (including aps and switches) we call this the "outside in approach" because of its simplicity and the ability to easily verify the nile sensor data nile measures and guarantees these slas on a per building basis, providing customers with visibility and accountability into service delivery if a nile network within a building does not meet its commitment, customers are eligible to receive service credits towards future monthly billing cycles as outlined in nile’s service contract what slas does nile offer nile’s performance guarantee is designed to continuously validate the following in real time and is backed by a 99 95% commitment on a per building basis availability the ability to pass traffic through the nile service block (nsb), encompassing all wired and wireless network elements coverage ensuring end users and iot devices receive video or voice grade quality wireless coverage while connected to the nile network within the building capacity determining that the deployment is designed to handle the total user, iot, and application throughput, as well as latency requirements across the network this allows nile to take action, ensuring that service quality is proactively maintained per site, as each location is viewed and treated separately how does nile measure slas? the first piece of the puzzle is the use of physical and virtual sensors deployed alongside wi fi access points (aps) the sensors act like synthetic user devices providing us an outside in view for a high degree of visibility as a group, the sensors continuously run tests every minute to discover any issues related to network and application performance availability in this instance, physical sensors are used to send probes throughout the network, identifying the availability of all connected network elements when physical sensors are not being used, the dedicated radio in nile aps assumes the responsibility of performing this health check and sending these probes when responses are received, it is considered a “good” minute and if not, we record a “bad” minute the number of good minutes per month is used in the following formula to determine if the nile access service deployed within that environment has met its target availability = (# good minutes / # total minutes) 100% coverage the coverage sla measures the availability of voice quality signal strength nile considers a signal strength of 67 dbm or above as the threshold for voice quality nile's wall pluggable sensors measure the received signal strength indicator (rssi) of the nile aps if the rssi during a minute is equal to or better than 67 dbm, the sensors declare the minute as "good"; otherwise, they declare the minute as "bad" the number of good and bad minutes are aggregated across all the sensors in a building, and the coverage is calculated as a percentage of good minutes out of the total minutes minute by minute coverage can be observed in nile portal by looking at the signal strength seen by sensors in the above image, the sensor on the top cannot see a single ap with 67 dbm or better (the best signal it can see is 70 dbm) this is reported as a bad minute capacity similar to monitoring coverage performance, nile’s sensors continuously scan the 5ghz band, reporting on each ap that is seen, along with its advertised bssid (basic service set identifier) nile considers the availability of a defined number of access points (aps) as an indication of the wireless capacity nile's wall pluggable sensors scan for nile aps and report their availability to the nile cloud the nile aps also send their availability by reporting their advertised bssid (basic service set identifier) to the nile cloud every minute nile combines these data points and counts the number of aps that are both advertised and seen by the nile sensors if the resulting number of aps seen is equal to the defined number, then nile declares the minute as a "good" minute; otherwise, it is declared as a "bad" minute the capacity is calculated as the percentage of good minutes out of the total minutes how is the sla calculated? the monthly uptime status percentage is calculated as the average of the availability, capacity, and coverage slas for the corresponding month nile currently guarantees a 99 95% monthly uptime across these three metrics example sla calculation assume there are 6 sensors in a building, and over a 1 month period (31 calendar days) 2 sensors each had a total of 9 "bad" minutes from an availability perspective the other 4 sensors had no bad minutes availability calculation total minutes = 6 sensors × 24 hours × 31 days × 60 mins = 267,840 minutes bad minutes = 2 sensors × 9 bad mins = 18 bad minutes good minutes = 267,840 18 = 267,822 minutes availability = (good minutes / total minutes) × 100% = (267,822 / 267,840) × 100% = 99 99% exceptions nile does not guarantee slas during the following conditions outdoor aps nile does not guarantee slas in the areas served by outdoor access points due to the lack of outdoor sensors to monitor them maintenance window during pre scheduled maintenance, windows agreed upon with the customer, where nile performs routine software or hardware upgrades, the service availability may be interrupted, and the entire duration of the maintenance window is not considered for sla calculation disruptions to the deployment if nile sensors are displaced from their original position, inadvertently powered off, or damaged, they will not be able to accurately measure the slas any disruptions to the physical connectivity of the nile equipment may also hamper their ability to deliver the service the time period during which these disruptions occur is not considered for sla calculation disruptions to the customer environment factors such as poor air quality, physical interference, or power supply issues in the customer's environment may hamper the ability of nile sensors to measure the slas the time period during which these disruptions occur is not considered for sla calculation by providing these comprehensive slas and clearly defining the exceptions, nile ensures that customers can rely on the nile access service to deliver a consistent and reliable network experience summary due to the rising demand for real time applications like video conferencing, which require high bandwidth connectivity for mobile users, today’s networks must prioritize availability, coverage, and capacity more than ever nile’s access service offers high performance wireless and wired network infrastructure in each of your buildings for optimum results more importantly, a nile network continuously optimizes itself to enhance the user experience and overall predictability of your network nile is the only vendor that guarantees the service and provides service credits if it does not meet those guarantees that are measured from the end user perspective