Network Evolution Toward a Carrier-Grade Ethernet Transport Network

Abstract

In this article, an overview is presented about state-of-the-art Ethernet technology and its evolutions beyond local area networks into metropolitan and wide area networks as carrier-grade technologies. It will be shown that the Ethernet can be used to guarantee the performance of current transport technologies in terms of operations, administration and maintenance, quality of service, monitoring, and test capabilities in support of service level agreements; in particular, the Ethernet could replace current transport techniques, simplifying network design and reducing both capital and operational expenditures. The Ethernet data-plane evolution will also be presented, from the virtual bridged local area network up to provider backbone bridging traffic engineering, including the issues related to the control plane. Also indicated is a future scenarios dealing with close interworking with optical technologies. In conclusion, a summary is given of experimental activities carried out on the virtual private local area network service, a current Layer 2 technique that can be assumed as a first step toward a carrier-grade Ethernet, which show the implementation of reliable wide area networks based only on gigabit Ethernet transmission.