This month, RAD is launching a new generation of Carrier Ethernet solutions. RAAG met with Yacov Cazes, RAD's Director of Carrier Ethernet Business Development, to discuss how these solutions address recent developments in today's Carrier Ethernet market.
The most notable trend is Carrier Ethernet’s expansion, in more than one respect. First, it is growing beyond the Metro network. Ethernet services are now offered with a national and global reach, which means they’re spanning multiple provider networks. This is generating, among others, an evolving need for “wholesale demarcation” between wholesale and service provider networks, to maintain end-to-end QoS and service performance visibility. The high adoption rates of Carrier Ethernet services are also leading to growing competition among operators, which results in their need to differentiate their offering, as well as in increasing price pressures that are naturally passed on down the chain to equipment vendors, like RAD. Another clear trend is the move towards converged network infrastructure for wholesale, business, mobile backhaul, and even cloud connectivity services, so that multi-functional solutions from a single vendor have become more attractive. A fourth trend is the pickup of Carrier Ethernet in markets that were previously not considering EVPL services.
It varies. Service offerings and network requirements normally correspond with the level of maturity Carrier Ethernet has reached in a particular market. We call this the OpEx/CapEx divide. Mainly in developed economies, but not exclusively, such as North America, Western Europe and Japan, these services have been available for some time and (business) users are expecting sophisticated offerings, such as always-on SLA reporting. In these markets, service providers tend to be OpEx-driven in their deployment-related decisions with typical requirements including enhanced traffic management and end-to-end performance monitoring from the customer premises. Such capabilities allow them to drive down the cost per Mbps, minimize down time and improve remote or automatic fault management. In CALA, Eastern Europe/Russia and some parts of APAC, on the other hand, a greater weight is placed on lowering equipment cost and CapEx. Where Carrier Ethernet is just beginning to transform from a Best Effort to guaranteed, multi-CoS service, customers are not yet demanding sophisticated attributes, and service providers focus on lowering their initial investments. Of course, as demand picks up and competition intensifies, the first carrier to offer premium services tends to lead the way for the rest of the market.
This month we are launching a new range of solutions as part of the EtherAccess® portfolio, purposely-built to provide a uniform Carrier Ethernet “look and feel” from the CPE to the PE, while supporting all deployment scenarios, market segments, service requirements, and transport technologies. These solutions are designed to provide the most effective answer to recent developments:
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A full selection of NTUs supporting access speeds from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps and, for the first time, a carrier-class high capacity Ethernet aggregation platform
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Smart aggregation allows carriers wishing to minimize equipment costs to use simpler, and thus cheaper, NIDs at the customers' premises
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The smart CPEs, on the other hand, are designed for those wishing to realize the full potential of Carrier Ethernet by implementing advanced service lifecycle management tools end-to-end
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Wholesale demarcation functions enable complete visibility, control and CoS consistency across multiple networks, with seamless hand-off between wholesale and SP domains
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License-based port activation and cost-optimized design based on our own-developed ASIC help providers meet increasing cost pressures by lowering their TCO (total cost of ownership). In addition, modular, all-in-one devices reduce inventories and eliminate the need for forklifts when, for example, infrastructure is upgraded to fiber
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Multi-functional capabilities support network convergence for those fixed-mobile carriers that are opting to consolidate their infrastructure
All in all, we're offering carriers a comprehensive toolbox, so that they do not have to resort to “patched” solutions for different parts of the network or service, or when their needs evolve.
By far, our ability to provide a full gamut of devices from a single source, using the same management and provisioning system, and enabling consistent performance for all access scenarios is one of our key strengths. No other access vendor has been able to compete in this regard – most have focused on a single network segment or access technology, or, when faced with the fact that most networks are rarely uniform, opted to enrich their offering by way of M&A. This, however, has created a whole new set of problems in terms of interoperability, management integration and provisioning efficiency, risks that are completely avoided by our portfolio.
As I've mentioned earlier, our internally-developed ASIC is unique, as are our timing synchronization and traffic management expertise. These, together with our extensive involvement in industry standardization, have helped us support our carrier and SP clients in their initial Carrier Ethernet deployments, as well as in meeting new market challenges.
