MPLS and Carrier Ethernet Multi-Vendor Interoperability

The EANTC’s multi-vendor interoperability event for the 2009 MPLS and Ethernet World Congress tested 78 devices from 15 vendors during a two-week hot staging in EANTC’s lab in Berlin, Germany, in January 2009. The event, titled “MPLS and Carrier Ethernet: Service – Connect – Transport”, was showcased at the February 2009 MPLS and Ethernet World Congress in Paris, France.

Representing the cardinal importance of these issues in mobile backhaul, this year’s tests included 1588v2 and Synchronous Ethernet clock synchronization and ATM and TDM pseudowire emulation over packet switched networks, as well as SLA (Service Level Agreement) and OAM (Operation, Administration and Maintenance) performance monitoring. Based on ITU Y.1731 parameters, the latter consisted of continuous measurements of service availability, delay, delay variation and packet loss between different vendors’ equipment, while emulating real-life network impairments.

Additional tested areas included IPv6 support in MPLS networks and MPLS inter-carrier connectivity.

The test particulars and key results are detailed in EANTC’s white paper. For the complete white paper, download the PDF.