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Carrier Ethernet 2.0 gets under way

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 30 Jan 2013
The main market drivers are bandwidth growth, mobile data and LTE migration, and the growth of cloud computing, says MEF president Nan Chen.
The main market drivers are bandwidth growth, mobile data and LTE migration, and the growth of cloud computing, says MEF president Nan Chen.

In what the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) says will pave the way for a global Ethernet access surge, the first wave of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) products, as well as the first 20 certified vendors, were announced last night.

Ihab Tarazi, chairman of the board of MEF, an alliance that seeks to accelerate the worldwide adoption of carrier-class Ethernet networks and services, says the new standard brings with it a host of benefits. These include a surge in the number of access providers in the Ethernet community, new markets for regional providers, application-oriented service-level agreements (SLA), optimised mobile backhaul, and cloud service delivery.

Tarazi, together with Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe and MEF president Nan Chen, announced the first 20 vendors to offer CE 2.0 at a gala evening in San Diego, California, last night.

Next generation

Carrier Ethernet refers to extensions to Ethernet to enable telecommunications network providers to supply Ethernet services to customers and use the technology in their networks.

According to the MEF, the next-generation CE 2.0 extends the original purpose of Carrier Ethernet with added features. These include 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.

Chen says the relevance of CE 2.0 lies in the fact that the main market drivers that continue to dominate business are bandwidth growth, mobile data and LTE migration, and the growth of public and private cloud computing.

The first vendors certified for CE 2.0 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.

Tarazi says the certification of these companies 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."

Rigorous vetting

Bob Mandeville, president and founder of test lab Iometrix - the entity responsible for MEF's testing process - outlined the challenges of meeting the new exacting standards.

According to Mandeville, obtaining CE 2.0 is no mean feat. "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."

Success story

The MEF says 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."

According to the IDC, over 1.2 billion new Ethernet ports were shipped last year, including 400 million wired and 800 million wireless. Frost & Sullivan, Vertical Systems and Infonetics predict a near $48 billion (over R430 billion) services market by 2015.

Metcalfe says Ethernet "continues to innovate, 40 years after its inception". CE 2.0, he says, gives service providers and vendors the ability to drive global interconnection and "deliver a host of services to enterprises rapidly, and with multiple classes of service and robust SLAs".

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