Metro Ethernet, which is a term coined from Metropolitan Area Networks, is a networking concept that extends Ethernet services beyond the LAN and provides network connectivity and services. Nowadays, it has moved from a metropolitan scale to a much larger scale and is used for long-distance WAN links and to connect subscribers to Service Provider networks or as a transit service. Benefits of Metro Ethernet technologies is the ability to carry customer traffic across the Service provider network while providing assurance; resiliency; Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM); and other features in a flexible, scalable, and elastic manner.
MEF Forum, the standardizing body, provides definitions and attributes for such services. From the service types defined by MEF Forum and as displayed in the Figure below:
- E-Line: A service that provides point-to-point connectivity between two sites
- E-LAN: A service that provides multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity between multiple sites. It emulates a topology to the customer of a bridged Ethernet network connecting the different sites.
- E-Tree: A rooted multipoint service like a hub-and-spoke topology
The right Metro Ethernet service for your needs will depend on several factors, including the size of your enterprise, the number of sites you need to connect, and the applications you need to support.
To provide implementations for the MEF Forum services mentioned earlier, there are multiple transport technologies that can be considered for the Operator networks. Shortest Path Bridging (SPB), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or standard Ethernet bridging can be considered as underlay transport technologies to provide MEF defined services.
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniSwitch Metro Ethernet portfolio, including the OmniSwitch 6570M, OmniSwitch 6560, and the OmniSwitch 6465T families can provide Metro Ethernet features which helps Service Providers, Operators, Smart City, Enterprise, and other Metro Ethernet users provide the required services from their customers. Some of the key features include:
- OAM features:
- CPE Test Head
- Service Assurance Agent
- Ethernet OAM Service OAM – IEEE 802.3ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) Service OAM – ITU-T.1731 Performance Monitoring (PM) LINK OAM – IEEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) Advanced Ethernet Loopback PPPoE Intermediate Agent Layer 2 Control Protocol Tunneling VLAN Stacking IP Multicast VLAN (IPMVLAN) MAC Forced Forwarding (Dynamic Proxy ARP) ITU-T G.8032 / Y.1344 Ethernet Ring Protection Please refer to the product datasheets for the full feature list.
To sum up, Metro Ethernet services offer many benefits including reliability, flexibility, performance, and security. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise MEF 3.0 certified products help to provide the Metro Ethernet features required to meet your customers’ agreed SLAs.
To learn more about Metro Ethernet services, please visit our website or contact us today.
