The way you, as an RSP, connect to the nbn® network can differ from POI to POI, depending on your needs, customer base, infrastructure and investment strategy.
One way of connecting to the nbn network is via an NNI (Network to Network Interface). This is great if you want to manage all your own network, and/or want to provide wholesale services to other RSPs.
Virtual NNI / NNI Link
An alternative way to connect at a POI is via virtual NNI (or V-NNI). This is obtained by connecting to an NNI Link, created by a wholesale provider and can be useful at POIs where you have little or no infrastructure, or a small but growing customer base.
Benefits
This V-NNI / NNI Link model enables you to deal directly with nbn for connection and assurance requests, as opposed to purchasing solely from a wholesale provider. You have direct engagement with nbn over the ordering and management of your services and connectivity components and therefore, potentially more visibility over your customer’s experience.
V-NNI / NNI Link model
The NAS and DAS are part of the RSPs network.
NAS contracts with nbn for:
- Access to NNI at each nbn® POI
- Access to NNI Link at each nbn POI.
DAS contracts with nbn for:
- Supply of network services for nbn® Ethernet and business nbn® Enterprise Ethernet
- Access to V-NNI.
DAS contracts with NAS for:
- Access to nbn® NNI Link
- Network backhaul from the nbn POIs back to DAS data centre.
DAS contracts with end user for:
- Retail broadband service that utilises nbn Ethernet and/or Enterprise Ethernet.
How it works
- An RSP who has a physical NNI at a POI can allocate some of the NNI properties (bandwidth and S-tag range) to another RSP, to enable access to a Virtual NNI.
- The RSP with the physical NNI is referred to as the Nominating Access Seeker (NAS) and the RSP with the Virtual NNI (V-NNI) is referred to as the Downstream Access Seeker (DAS).
- The NAS will order an “NNI Link” from nbn with associated properties as agreed between the NAS and DAS.
- The DAS can then order a V-NNI from nbn against this NNI Link. Note that the V-NNI inherits the chassis-diversity option from the NNI. That is – if the NAS has redundancy on the NNI, then this is carried through to the associated V-NNI.
- Once the V-NNI Link has been set up the NAS can order any of the access and connection components of an ordered product and associate them with that V-NNI (which behaves just as an NNI). This applies to both nbn Ethernet and Enterprise Ethernet.
What this means
NNI Link provides an alternative way for providers to connect to the nbn network and to purchase our products and services.