A NEW WORLD OF COMMUNICATIONS

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(Telephony Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Carrier Ethernet is rapidly becoming the network and service that powers next-generation Internet, where the future world economy, cultures and communities emerge, borderless and limitless.

The world of carrier Ethernet, which started in the metro network space, now has expanded to a variety of access technologies and global networks and is becoming the default offering and network of many service providers worldwide. This initiative has its home in the Metro Ethernet Forum, which has defined specifications that interwork with other standards bodies to enable carrier Ethernet. It has gained almost instant traction with equipment vendors, service providers and others.



The speed of adoption has been so rapid that many people may not be familiar with what carrier Ethernet actually is, so here are its primary characteristics:

Carrier Ethernet is a ubiquitous, standardized, carrier-class service defined by five attributes that distinguish carrier Ethernet from familiar LAN-based Ethernet (see sidebar).

Carrier Ethernet brings the compelling business benefit of the Ethernet cost model to achieve significant savings.

Carrier Ethernet promotes the use of Ethernet in the global, metro and access network space, but also facilitates the scalability of Ethernet services across a variety of existing and new aggregation network technologies.

The use of common infrastructure for business, residential and wireless services enabled by carrier Ethernet creates the opportunity for high-speed, high-performance, high-mobility and low-cost services that pave the way for a new generation of growth for enterprise, residential and mobile applications Carrier Ethernet revolutionizes how business operates and information flows within or among businesses. The applications enabled or greatly enhanced are site-to-site access, server consolidation, disaster recovery, service-orientated architecture and Internet access. The attractions to the IT departments are high-speed, control, reliability, performance, scalability, cost reduction and simplicity of implementation.

The ubiquitous nature of carrier Ethernet services also makes it an ideal way to deliver Internet, entertainment and broadband data, voice and video to residents and create an on-demand experience. These are made compelling by the underlying favorable attributes for converged networking at low cost.

Our interaction with the world is converging on an Internet-centric model for business, information, entertainment and communication. And of course, we want it all to be delivered as one high-performance service that can fuel world economies.

The attributes of carrier Ethernet mean it is poised to be that one service borderless, limitless, ubiquitous and seamless that truly creates a new world of communications.

NAN CHEN ([email protected]) is president of the Metro Ethernet Forum (www.metroethernetforum.org) and vice president of product management and marketing for Strix Systems.

THE FIVE ATTRIBUTES OF CARRIER ETHERNET

STANDARDIZED SERVICES

E-Line and E-LAN provide transparent, private line, VPL and LAN services.

A ubiquitous service provided globally and locally via standardized equipment.

Requires no changes to customer LAN equipment or networks and accommodates existing network connectivity such as time-sensitive TDM traffic and signaling.

Ideally suited to converged voice, video and data networks.

Wide choice and granularity of bandwidth and QOS options.

SCALABILITY

The ability for millions to use a network service ideal for the widest variety of business, information, communications and entertainment applications with voice, video and data.

Spans access and metro to national and global services over a wide variety of physical infrastructures, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, DSL, cable and a variety of optical networks implemented by a wide range of service providers.

Scalability of bandwidth from 1 Mb/s to 10 Gb/s and beyond, in granular increments.

RELIABILITY

The ability for the network to detect and recover from incidents without impacting users.

Meeting the most demanding quality and availability requirements.

Rapid recovery time when problems do occur as low as 50 milliseconds.

QUALITY OF SERVICE

Guaranteed end-to-end performance matching the requirements for voice, video and data, delivered over converged business, residential and wireless networks.

Wide choice and granularity of bandwidth and QOS options.

Guaranteed end-to-end performance to defined service level agreements based on equipment identity register, committed information rate, frame loss, delay and delay variation characteristics.

SERVICE MANAGEMENT

The ability to monitor, diagnose and centrally manage the network, using standards-based vendor independent implementations.

Carrier-class OAM.

Rapid service provisioning.

Copyright 2006 by Prism Business Information. All rights reserved.www.prismb2b.com
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