MEF Makes Strides with Ethernet Interconnection

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Metro Ethernet Forum's (MEF's) upcoming adoption, E-Access, will be used to address issues left behind by its last adoption of a "Phase One" External Network-to-Network Interconnection (ENNI) standard that was meant to ensure smoother interoperability, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Insider (www.heavyreading.com/insider), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

Ethernet Interop Center Stage 2012: MEF Builds on ENNI With E-Access identifies and analyzes progress made toward developing a standardized approach to Carrier Ethernet interconnection, focusing on the role played by the MEF in supporting Ethernet interconnect. The report assesses the role that the new E-Access standard will play in facilitating Carrier Ethernet service interconnection. It also updates the status of Carrier Ethernet exchange (CEE) services and evaluates the role that exchanges will have in Ethernet service interconnect.

"Ethernet has become the carrier market's fastest-growing service worldwide and its reach has become increasingly comprehensive and global," notes Steve Koppman, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. "And emphasis within the Ethernet market – and the sector's lead trade/standards organization, the MEF –  has shifted increasingly to issues of interconnection and service alignment between providers."

While the MEF's adoption last year of a "Phase One" ENNI standard was meant to ensure smoother interoperability, it left major ambiguities, Koppman says. The new pending MEF E-Access service standard – projected for January 2012 adoption – attempts to address more comprehensively. As a more definitive implementation guide, E-Access will mark another major step toward standardizing Ethernet interconnection and so potentially enhancing service competition and availability, variety and quality worldwide," he adds.

Key findings of Ethernet Interop Center Stage 2012: MEF Builds on ENNI With E-Access include the following:

• By facilitating inter-connection and lowering transaction costs, the MEF E-Access service standard should be an additional market accelerator for Ethernet worldwide.
• Less expensive Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) will particularly benefit from new wholesale standards, meaning lower costs and greater flexibility.
• Wireless backhaul and cloud services are major drivers for growing Carrier Ethernet Exchanges (CEEs), as well as new Ethernet wholesale standards more broadly.
• Standardization continues to embody a chronic conflict for vendors and carriers, making it inherently difficult and time-consuming.
• Interconnection is an increasingly important Ethernet growth source, especially as wholesale growth exceeds retail.

Ethernet Interop Center Stage 2012: MEF Builds on ENNI With E-Access is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Heavy Reading Insider, priced at $1,995. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

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Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com) is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the $4 trillion global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

SOURCE Heavy Reading