Metro Ethernet Services: Paradise found

Telecommunications Americas, March, 2005 by Bob Wallace

It seems like ages since service providers finally addressed the big WAN bandwidth bottleneck between enterprise user sites running LANs at 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and beyond in major cities. Corporate IT long had to do the equivalent of downshifting from fifth gear to first, when high-speed data left the four walls of a building or campus network onto lower speed telco links for another critical location.

But several key advances in optical technologies and the fast pace with which carriers have deployed related equipment have all but eliminated the bandwidth bottleneck problem. An ever-increasing array of high-speed MAN services are being quickly devoured by corporate users who continue to push for bigger pipes and wider geographic service coverage.

Check out our 10 Optical Technologies that Rock feature on (page 16) and then jump to our BellSouth Ethernet Services piece on (page 10) to quickly get up to speed on the latest MAN developments and trends. This combination also provides a vivid look into the future of optical services and equipment necessary to support these next-gen offerings.

Unlike for emerging services such as VoIP, telcos don't need to focus big resources on educating and marketing Ethernet MAN services to users. That's largely because user organizations have had applications requiring these services, including data backup and recovery, bulk file transfer and videoconferencing, for many, many years.

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From a vertical market perspective, the auto industry has always needed to move huge, graphics-intensive design files just as hospitals need to transmit medical images and universities need to support distance learning initiatives.

Telcos that focus their MAN services strategy on rolling out more and faster offerings that cover wider geographic areas, while deploying Ethernet services in many more metro markets will be greeted with open arms and wide smiles by corporate IT executives, regardless of their vertical markets. A word to the wise would be to keep these customers apprised of technology and standards developments already underway that promise to make the above a reality for the masses.

After all, in this ongoing era characterized by a greater need for metro speed, nobody's interested in downshifting--period.

Editor-in-Chief