Ethernet Commentary
Trouble ahead, trouble behind
As the country feels itself slipping into the fog of a potentially lasting economic downturn, those in the telecom industry can name the sensation more precisely...
Telecom's Global Warming
Over the past year, I've taken to calling mobile backhaul, "telecom's global warming." Why? Well, the similarities are striking....
CLEC silver lining
Quarterly earnings calls have become the weather vanes of the uncertain economy, each one drawing interest as a gauge of spending trends in telecom....
IP's customer advantage
Most operators around the globe are engaged in next-generation network transformation projects or IP transformation projects, moving from multiple single-service TDM networks to a single multiservice packet network...
Will PBT go away?
PBT was supposed to be simple. And it is, according to Fujitsu Network Communications, which today announced that it is now going to push the connection-oriented technology as the “ideal” choice for metro Ethernet transport...
Why carrier-class Ethernet is an intelligent choice
Services that enable increased bandwidth and the ability to scale alongside business needs will become even more critical to enterprises seeking to increase productivity without increasing costs. One such service allowing this is carrier-class Ethernet...
Are you smarter than Ethernet?
At NXTcomm08, you’re likely to hear a lot of talk about making Ethernet more sophisticated, more discerning, and most of all, “more intelligent.” Of course, stressing the need for a more intelligent brand of Ethernet isn’t very flattering to the plain-vanilla kind. But let’s face it, Ethernet has always been in some ways like the Forrest Gump of the networking world...
Ethernet complex
Simplicity has long been listed among Ethernet's greatest charms. (I can relate.) But some of the same folks who can't stop praising Ethernet's simplicity are constantly imbuing it with ever more complexity...
Waiting for Ethernet's third guy
Carrier Ethernet equipment vendors generally fall into two camps these days. Most carriers would prefer to camp somewhere else...
Slicing the pie
The Landscape of service providers vying for a slice of the more than $2 billion U.S. business market for carrier Ethernet services has split into three segments: incumbents, competitive providers and cable multiple systems operators...
Survival of the fittest -- Carriers need partners not vendors
Providers need more today than just high-quality infrastructure. In today’s climate of “what have you done for me lately,” the litmus test for choosing an infrastructure vendor is not only equipment, but also services that deliver quantifiable benefits to the top and bottom lines...
Hammerhead shows its claw
As the folks at Hammerhead Systems briefed me on their new system for interworking PBT and MPLS, a spokesperson pointed out that it addresses two of the biggest criticisms of PBT so far from entrenched MPLS router vendors: namely, that it’s a just point-to-point technology, and it can’t handle multicasting...
Slinging speed
If you haven’t listened to the podcast of my recent interview with Cogent Communications CEO Dave Schaeffer, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. In it, our hero is forced to confront his “dark” side—that is, the areas of Cogent’s footprint not yet connected to its fiber optic network...
Copperheads
As Ethernet provider Cogent Communications vows to double the pace at which it brings its fiber network to new buildings, it seems as though everyone and his brother is focused on Ethernet over copper...
In the Spotlight: Kamran Sistanizadeh, Yipes
Yipes co-founder and chief technology officer Kamran Sistanizadeh recently spoke with Telephony’s Senior Writer Ed Gubbins about managing carrier Ethernet services and SLAs and where the industry’s habits in that regard are headed...
Do telcos get it?
For years, people said, "Telcos just don't get Ethernet," and for good reason. They were busy pushing ATM and other solutions for local area network access and management even though Ethernet--a technology born of the enterprise, rather than the public network--quickly became the dominant LAN standard...
