MEF: Carrier Ethernet 2.0 pioneers pave way for Ethernet access surge

A surge in the number of access providers in the Ethernet community, new markets for regional providers, application-oriented SLAs, optimised mobile backhaul and cloud service delivery... these are among the benefits now on offer, according to Ihab Tarazi, Chairman of the Board, MEF (MetroEthernet Forum), speaking today at the gala announcement of the first 20 vendors to offer Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certified products. Other speakers included Ethernet inventor, Bob Metcalfe, and MEF President, Nan Chen.

"The companies' achievements are a testament to their commitment to outstanding delivery for the Carrier market," said Tarazi. "Certification will enable service providers to choose equipment vendors with greater speed, clarity and certainty. CE 2.0 Certification marks a significant moment in the life of the MEF and Carrier Ethernet."

The first 20 vendors certified are: Accedian, Altera, BTI Systems, Ciena, Cisco, Cyan, FibroLAN, Huawei, Infinera, Juniper Networks, MRV, Omnitron, Overture, PT Inovacao, Pulsecom, RAD Data Communications, Telco Systems, Tellabs, Transition Networks and Transmode.

Next-generation CE 2.0 extends the original purpose of Carrier Ethernet with vital added features, including multiple classes of service, greater manageability, and easier interconnect for eight standard service types, enabling new levels of efficiency for mobile backhaul, making it easier for a large number of access providers to join the Carrier Ethernet community and establish Carrier Ethernet as a business-class cloud service carrier. According to Chen: "The main market drivers continue to dominate business: bandwidth growth, mobile data and LTE migration, and the growth of public and private cloud computing."

Bob Mandeville, President and Founder of test lab Iometrix, responsible for MEF's testing process, outlined the challenges of meeting the new exacting standards: "CE 2.0 is a difficult accreditation to achieve. To be recognised as CE 2.0 certified, each company must pass a suite that totals 634 stringent tests. Over 155 companies are now certified for CE 1.0 and the adoption signs for 2.0 are exciting. The demand for certified products and services is a driving force, and we expect a significant increase in service provider certifications, not only from established markets, but also from developing economies in 2013."

Carrier Ethernet has become the industry's biggest success story of the past decade. For the first time this year, CE services' share of bandwidth exceeded the sum total of all legacy telecoms services across the world, making it the dominant technology in the carrier space, according to Vertical Systems Group. Last year, over 1.2 billion new Ethernet ports were shipped (400 million wired and 800 million wireless), according to IDC, and Frost & Sullivan, Vertical Systems and Infonetics predict a near $48 billion+ services market by 2015.

Bob Metcalfe, Inventor of the Ethernet, summed up the gala certificate award ceremony, saying: "Forty years after its inception, Ethernet continues to innovate. CE 2.0 gives service providers and vendors the ability to drive global interconnection and deliver a whole host of services to enterprises rapidly and with multiple classes of service and robust service level agreements. These 20 companies are the first to recognise this enormous potential. It gives them a distinct competitive advantage, as Carrier Ethernet continues to dominate and surpass all other technologies and services on the market."