Carrier Ethernet Hot Topic at TIA 2011

CEN Feature (May 12 2011)

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   Attendees of next week’s TIA 2011 “Inside the Network” Conference & Exhibition in Dallas, May 17-20, will take a close look at the converged network from two vantage points: the growing number of converged applications, and the technologies that support them.

   This year’s speakers, panels, and sessions aim to help all the players migrate legacy networks and equipment toward an all-IP future and enable any kind of new service, says Timothy Downs, Content Director for the show.

   While there are many technologies converging worldwide, Carrier Ethernet will enjoy much of the spotlight at the show. The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) is hosting a Carrier Ethernet Workshop on May 17, at the show venue, the Gaylord Texan.

   Workshop attendees will learn about the growing Ethernet business services market, mobile backhaul, Ethernet services global interconnect and new specifications that help make Carrier Ethernet easier to manage and troubleshoot. They also will hear about the latest developments in the MEF’s Certification Programs for equipment and services and the new Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (CECP) certification.

   “It’s important for the MEF and companies such as Overture Networks to be in attendance at TIA 2011 because so many of the great minds in the industry are going to be gathered in one place, discussing the most important issues of the day in Carrier Ethernet,” says D. Mark Durrett, director of marketing for Overture Networks and co-chair of the MEF Access Technologies Working Group.

   For example, Overtures’ vice president of product management, Mark McDonald, will speak at TIA 2011 in a session about “What Must Happen for Ethernet to Replace SONET/SDH at the Network Edge?” on Wednesday, May 18, at 9:00 AM EDT. Don MacNeil, vice president carrier services operations for service provider XO Communications will be a co-presenter with Overture during this session.

   “As an industry, we are working hard to eliminate the few remaining obstacles that are preventing Carrier Ethernet from displacing legacy technologies such as SONET and SDH,” says Durrett.

   Vendors are working diligently to develop the required resiliency, protocols and features, while also tackling remaining business issues including business/systems integration and market perception.

   Another related topic of interest at TIA is the mobile network.  For example, smartphone proliferation over the last three years has put the carriers into a quagmire of OpEx and CapEx spending because of all the data downloading. A 2010 Deloitte Consulting survey revealed that it costs carriers almost 37 percent more to furnish their data revenues than it does their voice revenues, according to Frank J. Bernhard, Director Deloitte Consulting LLP.

   “So they have a huge amount of drag. As they add more and more devices to their networks, they create an impairment on their balance sheets that has to be resolved in some fashion,” says Bernhard, who will chair the MEF-sponsored TIA 2011 panel, “The Economics of Mobile Backhaul: It’s All About Cost per Bit.”

   Carrier Ethernet is one of the legs of the stool that is helping to resolve the transport of data- and IP-based mobile backhaul and allow carriers to take advantage of a lower cost footprint in terms of relative speed and network agility. When compared against other alternatives, Ethernet offers greater resiliency and ease of “fixing” the network, Bernhard explains. Another TIA panel sure to discuss this need for resiliency is “Carrier Ethernet with Advanced SLAs: The Emerging Operator Differentiator.”
   

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