Carrier Ethernet for Dummmies

Dummies probably sounds a bit rude, but isn't meant to be.

By Dummies, I am referring to those people in organisations who aren't particularly familiar with technology in general, least of all Carrier Ethernet (CE). Instead they are very familiar with budgets, balance sheets and P&L. And, importantly, they play the Dummy role quite well when it comes to being confronted by techies, like me, demanding investment and Capex.

They tend to be reasonably technically literate, in being able to understand the importance to the company of having reliable and secure connectivity. However, they wouldn't have a clue how to actually make any of this actually work to the 100% standards they take for granted. If anything goes wrong, they're the first to yell. If it's working ok, they're not really interested in why it should be upgraded.

So, it's all about getting the Dummies to approve the business case for upgrading to CE (from leased lines), and consequently enabling me to run my company's network the way I know it should.

What I'm hoping to get is some feedback out there that I can throw at my Dummy colleagues, and get them to sit up and take notice. I need stats on cost-savings of CE, on how VoIP might be able to be enabled by CE, and anything other bits of advice that might be interesting for me to use in my business case... industry stats, reports etc... anything I can use to win the argument..

I'm assuming there are quite a few people out there like me, a techie working for a SME in a metro area, so the point of this blog is to help others with their Dummies and accelorate to a world dominated by CE..

So, any vendors who want to contribute would be welcome. You're best one-liners, or elevator pitches, on the benefits of CE, would be welcome... Likewise any other techies out there who think CE isnt the way forward, I'd welcome your thoughts to share to the blogsphere...

I have been keeping an eye on Carrier Ethernet Market.com for a while and have been quite impressed with the new look.

Now they have a totally new look and feel with a cool video and a useful jargon buster section.

There is a good summary of the three main uses for Carrier Ethernet. Internet Access, LAN to LAN networks and data centre connectivity.

And the number of ethernet providers seems to be growing steadily.

Overall, I think they have done a good job in making Carrier Ethernet more accessible for non technical types.

They've a long way to go, getting more Ethernet providers to sign up and more addresses in the system too, but with a free advertising option I can not see why this growth should not happen...

It looks to me that they are trying to realise the dream of enabling businesses to one day buy Ethernet services online, with the site acting as a kind of booking agent acting on behalf of each of the Ethernet providers advertising.

Provided the pricing is still good and they do not try and hide the identity of the underlying Ethernet provider, I think this could be quite popular.

For years now those of us in the industry have been listening to the analysts and self-proclaimed Ethernet evangelists predicting massive growth of Carrier Ethernet services globally. The argument is over, the evangelists proclaim. Carrier Ethernet is going to be the de-facto networking technology of the future. Sonnet is dead. IP VPNs are dying a slow death too. All hail the new king, Carrier Ethernet!

But aren’t we forgetting something? Ok, so the global financial companies and MNCs have clocked onto the fact that Carrier Ethernet gives them more bang for their buck, but what about the rest of the business world? Ask your average medium size enterprise whether they understand what Carrier Ethernet do for their business and you’ll probably get a suspicious shrug of the shoulders. And why should they? There is a load of information out there on what Carrier Ethernet is and if you’re technically minded you might be able to make sense of it. But if you’re not technical and you just want to understand, in a nutshell, how Carrier Ethernet can help your business you’re not going to find too many answers out there. Sure, lots of service providers are talking about Next Generation Networks, fibre optic cables, IP packet based whizz bang networks... but what’s the elevator pitch? How, in layman’s language, is it going to really benefit my business?

It is my opinion that there are some interesting lessons we can learn from by taking a look back over the past 10 years or so. I recall conferences in the 1990s when there were heated debates about various DSL technologies. Analysts would offer their predictions for massive growth of the different flavours of DSL services, all pointing towards a future dominated by DSL. All hail the king DSL!

However, the industry didn’t have much success getting people excited about DSL. What the market wanted was a fast and always on alternative to pay-as-you-go dial up “narrowband” Internet connectivity. Some clever fellow then coined the phrase “broadband” and the market boomed. Suddenly ISPs weren’t talking about DSL services, instead they promoted their Broadband services. Clearly, the word Broadband made more sense to the market than the rather ugly phrase DSL. Sure, broadband is based on DSL, but the lesson to learn here is to try and understand what customers want rather than trying to tell them what they should have.

So, what’s the lesson that can be learned here? Well, maybe the industry should start thinking about how prospective customers think about some of the service names that have been used for Carrier Ethernet services. Do we really expect E-LAN, E-Line, EVC, ESP and other E-words to be what drives business customers to order Carrier Ethernet services? Why not just keep it simple and call it Ethernet? From that standing point the industry can rally around this one word as being the new big thing , with the finer details as to the particular type of Ethernet service being fleshed out in the sales collateral.

All hail the new King, Ethernet!!

Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) refers to a situation when an operator has installed fiber optics to the cabinet (FTTC) and is able to offer an Ethernet based connection to the customer, either over fiber (EFM Fiber) or copper pairs (EFM Copper).

Whilst strictly speaking EFM Copper is not a Fiber Optic broadband service, it is referred to as such because, although the final (or first) mile of service is delivered over copper, the lion's share of the network connectivity, either to the Internet or to other office LANs, will be over fiber optic Next Generation Networks. Consequently, many providers are marketing EFM Copper as a Fiber Optic Broadband service.

For EFM copper, there is a distance limitation of approx 3km between the user and the cabinet and the likelihood is that VDSL technologies, capable of 40mbps down and 10 mbps up, would be used to deliver service to the customer premises.

This service is very much a business service, but lower cost and quicker to install than having fiber optic cabling installed. That said, having a fiber based service and you have the ability to up to 100 mbps or even 1000 mbps, if you can afford it.

According the MEF, in 2007 only 10-15% of businesses currently have access to optical fiber, so using existing copper phone lines to enable SME business customers to access the Internet at speeds of 40 mbps or, with VDSL2, 100mbps is going to be the way that business broadband is heading. Fiber Optic Broadband.....

Useful links

Excellent blog from CTO of Timico, Trefor Davies, describing FTTC in UK

Wikipedia definition of EFM or Ethernet in the First Mile

A whole website dedicated to Ethernet in the First Mile

This is a list of UK based ISPs who can offer high speed Internet connectivity, delivered by Ethernet circuits. More often than not these companies will be using BT's Ethernet circuits for connectivity to the customer's site.

All are relatively unkown compared to the likes of Virgin Media and BT, but would definitely be worth contacting in the event you want to upgrade from an unreliable broadband connection or look for a more cost-effective way to upgrade beyond an E1 (2mb/s) leased line.

Typically, the minimum CIR (committed rate) for an Ethernet Dedicated Internet connection would be 2Mb/s. From this it's easy to request an upgrade upto 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s or 1000Mb/s, depending on each service provider.

Buyers should check with their suppliers what they would be entitled to "burst" to, in order to handle surges in usage. Ideally, you should be able to burst up to the full limit of the port, but some ISPs may charge more for that.

Here's a quick, not necessarily comprehensive, list of ISPs in UK offering Ethernet based Internet connectivity:

AAISP.
Claranet.
Easynet.
Entanet.
FastNet.
Griffin Internet.
Kcom.
node4.
Thus.
Timico.
Vaioni.
Zen Internet.

Colt are the big guns of Carrier Ethernet in Europe. A massive network that extends deep in all of Europe's main metro areas, but also across to Chicago, Boston and NYC in the US, and out to Singapore and Asia.

Colt are probably more interested in major customers, like banks and governments, than they are in SME's. I've never dealt with them, but have heard they do have quite a cumbersome provisioning process, which isn't anything unusual in telecoms. I've also heard they can be a bit pricey, but have also heard they can be competitive. So, who knows... Big, established and very focused on Carrier Ethernet, they've even got their own website just for the service. There is also an excellent resource section, with case studies and other interviews all about Carrier Ethernet.

Useful links:

Colt Ethernet Home Page.
Colt Ethernet Resource Center.
Metro Ethernet Forum's (MEF) award.
Colt Network Map.
Colt Ethernet Service Mix