The advancement of globalization, virtualization, video services and mobile computing are creating insatiable bandwidth demands from business subscribers. This in turn, has placed tremendous pressure on service providers to find a technology that can not only satisfy these demands, but also properly manage the network distribution of these new services.

As a result, many of today’s service providers have come to rely on Carrier Ethernet as the technology of choice to address these needs. The technology, which hails from the success of Metro Ethernet Services, boasts an array of in-demand features and is designed to aid the expansion of services across national and global networks. Carrier Ethernet also continues to gain broad popularity due to its combination of low operating costs, ease of deployment and migration path for customers to high-margin, managed services.

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) lists 5 key attributes to distinguish Carrier Ethernet from traditional Local Area Network (LAN)-based Ethernet. These attributes are:

1. Standardized Services. A universal service that provides standardized local and global equipment that requires no changes to a customer’s existing LAN equipment and network connectivity. It is also ideal to provide support for a wide variety of bandwidth and quality of service options.

2. Scalability. A singular, customizable network service that can be used by the variety of applications that extends to the business, information, communications, and entertainment realms.

3. Reliability. Provides reassurance due to its innate ability to detect and recover from link disruptions before there is an impact to subscribers. The technology also boosts a rapid recovery time as low as 50ms.

4. Quality of Service (QoS). Supports the ability to provide end-to-end performance levels based on CIR, frame loss, delay, and delay variation characteristics.

5. Service Management. Capable of monitoring, diagnosing, and centrally managing the network, as well as in the field.

These attributes are the key reasons why there is a growing demand for Carrier Ethernet technology among business customers.

In addition, the MEF reports that businesses are systematically shifting from legacy Frame Relay to Carrier Ethernet services due to the pure economics; yesterday’s network infrastructures are simply more expensive to deploy and support than today’s Carrier Ethernet services.

Due to the rising popularity of Carrier Ethernet technology, the MEF also extended its certification program to service providers who recognize the profitability potential found in offering this technology. The certification program has essentially created a credential system that vouches for the service provider’s ability to deliver high quality Carrier Ethernet service.

The SLA Challenge
As Carrier Ethernet’s popularity continues to rise, service providers are under increased pressure from their customers to meet more stringent service level agreements (SLAs). Though intrigued by the promise of lower cost and increased bandwidth, business subscribers still question whether the technology can uphold the same standards of legacy services and fiercely monitor whether the services delivered align with a service provider’s SLA.

Despite the technology’s broad appeal, service providers face a number of challenges in their quest to uphold Ethernet SLA standards. Some providers, in their eagerness to adopt and deliver Carrier Ethernet technology, neglect to conform their network edge equipment, which must properly limit/shape traffic inbound to the network. Without updated network infrastructure, service providers will be unable to effectively fulfill their customer’s traffic performance requirements.

Providers must also ensure that traffic aligns to the set bandwidth profile that is usually included within the customer’s SLA. This profile outlines the average rate at which customers can transmit traffic, and specifies the amount of burst capacity available to them, which is critical due to the bursty nature of customer applications. Applications using the service often have widely varying transmission characteristics that range from voice and video streaming, which are fairly rate constant, to file transfer, which can burst at rates far outstripping the subscribed average service rate. Therefore, in order to truly guarantee SLA standards are met, service providers must be able to verify the burst nature of Ethernet services, prior to customer hand-off.

The determination of IT managers to expand complex IP applications to their end users, independent of geographic location, technical challenges, and cost-cutting pressures, has prompted the addition of network health visibility into SLAs. Due to the potential technical-related challenges and cost-cutting pressures, service providers must perform continuous verification of SLAs to ensure that budget-strapped OpEx and CapEx are being appropriately managed. Since many Carrier Ethernet services are still best effort services, IT managers need documented proof that the network behind their services is healthy from the point of activation and into the future.

Maintaining Ethernet SLAs becomes even more challenging for service providers when they have to go out of region. In this case, providers have to establish external network-to-network interconnection (E-NNI) agreements with another carrier or work with a Carrier Ethernet exchange. But even with off-net situations, the end customer expects that the service provider from which they receive their service will ensure the QoS and SLA parameters are met as if the service was traveling over its own network.

Tackling the SLA Burden
While Carrier Ethernet testing is still a relatively new realm with much left to be explored, there has been great progress in both measurement topology and the test tools available in today’s market that service providers can leverage to help maintain SLAs.

Service providers can greatly benefit from the recently passed ITU-T Y.1564 Ethernet service activation test methodology. This groundbreaking test suite was specifically designed to help providers do a proper job of verifying a Carrier Ethernet SLA at the time of service activation. The ITU-T Y.1564 methodology is the first set of test procedures to be written specifically for verifying the configuration and performance of Carrier Ethernet services prior to turning the service over to the customer.

In addition, it is the only procedure which verifies that a defined profile meets the desired service acceptance criteria.

At the most basic level, there are 3 key areas service providers should look for during service activation testing. These areas include:

1. Ensuring that test procedures are able to find and locate hindering configuration errors.

2. Confirmation that the procedure is able to verify the network is operating within the QoS standards as outlined in the SLA.

3. Ensuring that the procedure process can be conducted within a minimum time window required to achieve optimal results.

In order to maximize their testing efficiency, service providers should look for a comprehensive test and measurement feature set, in a field-portable solution, which not only incorporates the 3 key areas listed above, but also includes the most up-to-date service activation methodology, such as the ITU-T Y.1564.

Service providers should also look for a solution that carries the capabilities to allow them the flexibility to test multiple streams, while at the same time verifying that the exact service configuration and performance is being delivered to their customers.

By including these key features into one solution, service providers not only save costs on additional equipment, but also receive the benefit of being able to activate services properly the first time, reducing the need for repeat service calls.

Prepared for Any and Everything!
As Carrier Ethernet continues to gain traction in today’s bandwidth thirsty world, service providers must take the time to ensure that they are well prepared to uphold their business customer’s SLA agreements. By leveraging the best-in-class, field-portable test solutions that are available today, and instilling the best practices methodologies, service providers will be able to turn Ethernet SLAs into a competitive advantage.

Forouzan Hojjat is Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Sunrise Telecom. She has more than 20 years of experience in defining and building network elements and test equipment for telecommunication networks. For more information, please visit www.sunrisetelecom.com.

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