OPTICAL ETHERNET
Imagine this. You have been asked to manage the information services for a leading multinational bank. The financial institution, that supports 8 million Individuals, 1,50,000 business and over 1,00,000 corporate costumers. In addition you are responsible data centers hosting critical financial operations, e-services applications and databases for its 1,500 odd branches.
The most formidable adversary that you have to overcome is the issue of High-speed access and transfer capabilities for managing the huge amount of Voice and data traffic that spreads across wide geographical area. Addressing similar issues, 80 percent of the traffic in corporate intranets today, is through Ethernet, though at a smaller scale. While the Ethernet has been the simplest and the most reliable of the technologies used for local area networking, which actually obviates the issue of bandwidth, the primary concern has been that of reaching out to the core network that connect to the backbone. Thereby comes the thought of extending the capabilities of local area network (LAN) over a core network.
With the telecom sector being deregulated in India, many incumbents and emerging carrier networks have taken up the issue of bandwidth seriously. Optical fiber technology has provided access to a virtually, unlimited option in the core network.
In light of the recent debacles of the dot-coms, where in the world law a plethora of dotcoms mushrooming without proper business structures, and then law them closing operations equally soon, the recently opened up telecom sector needs to be treated with care. While molt of the existing and emerging carriers are hollering about bandwidth, which in fact is a core issue, nevertheless, they have not focused on providing their subscribers value-added services. Providing secure point-to-points connectivity with gigabit speeds is one area that ought to be liven a lot of thought.
Service provider providing solution for such issues came up with options like lease tine connections and wireless,and are also the means to this problem. It would be much simpler and coat effective if the power of the Ethernet in its native were exploited through the entire journey from the LAN, to the MAN, to the backbone.
In the wake of deregulation, most of the aspiring and existing telecos are just looking at providing a basic telephony and WLL. Most of them forget the being a longer race player, providing value added utility services is what the competitive environment demands. Just al important it providing a fast core networks facility, and the first and the last mile connectivity, which, unfortunately is suffering. This is where the problem is, as core network entry point traffic jams are the essence of the issue of solving the bandwidth problem.
What is necessary is the robust, cost effective, scalable end-to-end network based on one common language – the Ethernet. S more and business are upgrading LAN to fast Ethernet (100 mbps), to gigabit Ethernet (1000 mbps), and are looking to extend mission critical e-business extranets at native speeds to MAN and WAN, this provides a great opportunity for various players. IDC reports suggests by 2003, Ethernet based technologies will account for more than 97 percent of the word’s network connection shipments. This means that the market opportunities for service providers could reach $5 billion in that time frame.
These users would want to interconnect their LAN’s at native speed throughout tile network rather than having to go through service adaptations. The respite for them would come from what is called the “OPTICAL ETHERNET”. This technology attempts at combining the power of optical and the utility of Ethernet via an integrated business,
service providers optical network based on one common language-Ethernet technology.
By eliminating their need for translations between Ethernet and other transport protocols, such al t1, DS3 and ATM, optical Ethernet effectively extends an organization’s LAN beyond its four walls, enabling a radical shift in the way computing and network resources are deployed.
The idea is to capitalize on the de facto global LAN standard to network end to end. Ethernet no longer being just a LAN technology, has grown up from 1gbps to 10 gbps in the future. Thus, by marrying the of optical technology with the reliability, simplicity and cost- effectiveness of the Ethernet, optical Ethernet does more than just find answers o entry point log jams.
Unlike conventional public switched telephone network (PSTN) networks standards on which man topology rely upon Optical Ethernet uses a metro optical ring
that includes customer premises al a part of it, this server as a answer to problems of
managing lay. 2 service over layer 1wan infrastructure.This is done by connecting IP routers via layer 2 switches directly over the optical network .This is called resilient packet ring (RPR),and is implemented by integrating Ethernet interface with the optical
network elements.In simpler RPR converts a portion of the fiber optic ring into a logical Ethernet segment,which allow all or part of the bandwidth to be shared among RPR equipped optical network elements. This is combining the best of the worlds, synchronized optical network (SONET) and Ethernet, to form a true best of Bread solution.
Alook at the economics of RPR optical ethernet over packet over SONET and A TM over SONET, in terms of network coats in hubbed networks, is to the tune of 25 to 60 percent. This, apart from providing optimal optimized use of equipment, also demonstrates the fact that LAN interfaces are more economical than leased lines. This is because of the reduced number of interfaces required at the hub through the optical Ethernet RPR port consolidation, and the lower price of RPR and Ethernet router interface. While in the meshed network, the RPR optical Ethernet provides a 40 to 60 percent of savings al compared to PoS.
The shared bandwidth concept of RPR optical Ethernet allows the unused portion of the wan optical bandwidth to serve the revenue generating traffic. This delivers a 30 percent up gradation in the total bandwidth utilization.
Thus, on the whole, Ethernet remains the high runner for supporting high value added broadband and wideband services. The future belongs to service providers who can deploy a successful wan or man strategy. Or should we say extending the nativity of the LAN to core networks through optical Ethernet is the solution, and should provide food for thought to thought who want to run the race for long.
