Oct 17, 2005 12:00 AM,

Ethernet Evolution

By Ed Gubbins

And before long, the MEF will have to tackle one of the biggest obstacles to Ethernet's arrival as a true carrier-grade service: the network-to-network interfaces (ENNI) at the handoffs between different carriers. Today these connections are proposed through three basic methods: Q-in-Q (the VLAN way, derived from traditional enterprise LANs), VPLS (an MPLS-like format for MPLS backbones) and VPWS (virtual private wireline service, also called Ethernet over MPLS or pseudowire). But for the services to pass seamlessly among networks, the standards must be cemented.

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“For enterprises to get end-to-end nationwide Ethernet service is a big challenge right now,” said Umesh Kukreja, director of product marketing for Atrica, an equipment vendor certified by the MEF. “Every service provider uses different service level agreements, different platforms, different technologies for Ethernet services.”

“It's a problem the MEF needs to get involved in,” said Michael Kennedy, managing partner at consultancy Network Strategy Partners. “The concept is not just bringing out another service. The concept is to migrate those traditional services to a modern converged network. To do that, you've got to work through an awful lot of standards, as [the industry] did with ATM and frame relay.

“If you don't do it, you're not going to see [cross-country Ethernet] become a mainstream deployment. It'll be a nichey sort of thing.”

In the next few months, the MEF is likely to create a spec dictating the ENNI handoffs that are essential for Ethernet to become a true national or global service, Mandeville said.

“As you see a common thread of metrics, I think you'll see a harmonization of service descriptions and SLAs that are offered across the nation and across the world,” Kukreja said. “So as you go from one service provider to another, the descriptions are identical. That will make it easier for IT managers to operate and manage [Ethernet services], as opposed to being a point product they can use for one or two applications within a company.”