Sidera Networks sees a bright Carrier Ethernet future

CEN Feature (Dec 2 2010) Business Ethernet , Regional

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   Privately-held Sidera Networks, formerly RCN Metro Optical Networks, who first offered Ethernet Services in 2001, is in the midst of a Carrier Ethernet uprising of-sorts, as carriers and services providers are moving to Carrier Ethernet-based services.

   With around 1,500 on-net locations served by 355,000 miles of fiber in a network that operates in the nation’s business communications corridor, the service provider provides access in 12 key metro markets, including Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia. The company boasts that it carries every trade made in the major stock exchanges in the New York City metro area and “virtually all” wireless calls made in the Northeast travel across the Sidera network at some point.

   With regard to the move to Carrier Ethernet, Felipe Alvarez, president and COO of Sidera, said, “Enterprises gravitated instinctively to Ethernet. The carrier side took longer and we are seeing great momentum in 2010. We expect it will take a few more years of adoption for Ethernet to be the main access point for carriers.”

   More specifically, Sidera’s carrier customers are moving away from SONET and instead buying Ethernet for both backhaul applications and end-to-end links to individual customers. The company launched two major efforts this year to facilitate Ethernet adoption by Carriers and plans more enhancements in the future.

   “In 2010 , we implemented multiple ENNI connection points, as well as connecting with Carrier Ethernet Exchanges including CENX, Equinix Neutral Tandem and Telx,” said Maura Mahoney, vice president of marketing and business development for Sidera. “Before these, we had to negotiate one-off agreements to create end-to-end solutions and our QoS was not extended past our network. With ENNI, we can offer end-to-end solutions built on Sidera services and QoS.”

   With its Ethernet Services already MEF 9 and MEF 14 certified, Sidera will continue to add more features to its portfolio in the months to come,” according to Alvarez. “As standards evolve, we can continue to provide the scalability, reliability and QoS our customers need,” he said. “Adding classes of service will allow customers to decide what service levels and what amount of bandwidth they will allocate for applications.”

   Despite the talk about 100Gig Ethernet in some circles, Sidera’s customers are requesting lower speeds at this point in time. “The network is capable of supporting 40G and 100G, but what we see is customers who buy multiple 10 Gig links rather than one 40 Gig,” according to Alvarez, “We are prepared to turn up [40/100Gig Ethernet] when someone orders one.”

   Sidera has “two or three” proposals for 40Gig Ethernet connections out at enterprise customers—the primary purpose being a “big pipe between data centers” and Alvarez expects one of those to “hit” early next year.

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