Fiber Optic Service FAQ, Part 2

Here are some more frequently asked questions and answers about fiber optic service for your business You may also be interested in the first list of fiber FAQs.

Q: What types of services are available over Ethernet fiber?

A: The Metro Ethernet Forum has standardized three popular services that are of interest to business users. Ethernet Private Line or E-Line is a dedicated point to point connection between two business locations or from your location to the Internet. Ethernet LAN or E-LAN provides a meshed network service that interconnects multiple locations. Ethernet Tree or E-Tree is a one to many connection popular with companies that distribute content to many subscribers.

Q: How do you connect multiple location LANs together

A: E-Line and E-LAN can do this easily. E-Line is appropriate for two locations to connect as a single bridged network. E-LAN makes sense for 3 or more locations, even those located internationally. E-LAN can make many separate LANs work like they are one larger network.

Q: What is Ethernet over SONET?

A: Most Ethernet providers offer a “native” Ethernet that powers their entire network. If you are in a location that can only get SONET, some carriers offer Ethernet that runs over the SONET fiber. From your prospective, this is the same as any other Ethernet over Fiber.

Q: Can Ethernet carriers interconnect?

A: Yes. The equipment that does this is called E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface. It allows service providers to seamlessly transfer network traffic back and forth. This allows both carriers to expand their service footprints to wider geographical areas.

Q: What are low latency fiber routes?

A: Most fiber networks strive to minimize latency or time delay between locations. Those advertised specifically as low latency routes are specially engineered to minimize the fiber route length using the straightest path available. They also minimize equipment along the route that can introduce additional latency. Low latency fiber services are in big demand for financial companies that deal in high speed trading.

Q: What is Metro Ethernet?

A: Metro Ethernet or MetroE is a fiber optic network that connects business and other locations within a limited geographic region, usually a single city or metropolitan area consisting of city and suburbs. MetroE connections can also connect to other locations nationally or worldwide.

Q: Does Ethernet support telephone service?

A: Ethernet is a great choice for enterprise VoIP phone service. A specialized service known as SIP Trunking connects your networked telephones or IP PBX to a distant service provider. The higher the bandwidth, the more simultaneous conversations can be supported. Traditional analog phones are better supported with analog phone lines or ISDN PRI service over T1 lines.

Q: Is Ethernet over Fiber distance limited like Ethernet over Copper?

A: No. Fiber offers unlimited transmission distance at any speed you wish. Most service providers have regional networks that serve multiple states or offer nationwide service. Some carriers connect worldwide using undersea cable between continents.

Are you interested in what fiber optic bandwidth service can do for your business? If so, get get instant online pricing up to 1 Gbps and complementary consultation with a bandwidth expert if you wish.


You may also be interested in reading Fiber Optic Service FAQs, Part 1 and Part 3.

Ethernet Connects Businesses Throughout Latin America

Over the last few years, Carrier Ethernet services have become the choice of many, many businesses for Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), private line point to point connections, last mile access to MPLS networks and meshed any-to-any connections to link multiple business sites in the United States. Now that capability is rolling out worldwide. As an example, Level 3, a major international carrier, has won an award from the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) for their service to the Caribbean and Latin America.

International voice and data services have been available for decades. We’re well aware of the extensive undersea fiber optic cables that link continents. What’s different now is a change of protocol and the availability of new services for companies and organizations worldwide.

The reason that Ethernet is displacing earlier protocols is that IP packets are now the dominant packaging for electronic communication. Nearly all Local Area Networks (LANs) are Ethernet based. The Internet, the largest and most connected set of networks, is based on routing IP or Internet Protocol packets. So why wouldn’t you simply extend the networks you have now using an Ethernet protocol?

The only thing stopping a faster switch over to IP based core networks is legacy. The massive investment in infrastructure over the last century isn’t going to go away all at once. That infrastructure was largely built by the telephone companies for their own use and is based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) telco standards such as T1, DS3 and SONET.

Fortunately, it isn’t necessary to rip out all the existing telecom equipment that works perfectly well just to have Ethernet services available. Carrier Ethernet can run over IP core networks or TDM networks. Ethernet over T1 (EoDS1) works well as a last mile connection to join MPLS networks or as a point to point private line. The existing T1 infrastructure is so extensive that it can be brought into nearly any business, even in rural areas. Ethernet over DS3 (EoDS3) up the bandwidth to 45 Mbps. Ethernet over SONET picks up at 155 Mbps and goes to at least 10 Gbps, with some connections available at 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps.

One factor that has hastened the adoption of Carrier Ethernet is the existence of an industry standards group called the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). This group serves to establish and maintain the standards that all manufacturers and Ethernet service providers will use to enter the Ethernet marketplace. One standard of note is the E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface. This provides a predictable and carrier-agnostic way for two networks to exchange traffic. As they do this, each carrier expands the reach of its own services. It is no longer necessary to lay fiber around the world to connect to international destinations. Carriers can create peering arrangements through E-NNIs to gain access to the markets that they don’t directly serve.

Level 3’s award winning project involved one of the world’s largest banking and financial services companies. The Ethernet business solution supported this customer’s connectivity throughout Brazil. More and more large and medium size corporations are looking at Ethernet services to interconnect their various locations worldwide. Smaller companies are finding that the cost advantages and easy connectivity of Ethernet makes it well worthwhile to switch services at contract renewal time for for new installations.

Does your large, medium or small organization need better connectivity at lower prices than what you’ve traditionally paid for legacy telecom services? If so, check pricing and features of Carrier Ethernet services now.



Note: Map of Latin America image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Latest Evidence Of An Ethernet Juggernaut

There’s an overwhelming force building. If it hasn’t gotten to you yet, it will soon. This force looks to redefine the telecommunications industry in a way that will fundamentally alter our communications networks from a telegraphy and telephony orientation to a digital packet orientation. After nearly a couple centuries of evolution, we’re now looking at a revolution that’s arisen in a couple of decades. That revolution is Ethernet and it’s gaining speed while we watch.

The acceleration of Ethernet services into traditional metropolitan and long distance telecom networks points out that the digital network, particularly the local area network, has become the center of communications activity. Worldwide traffic was primarily telephone calls until recently. Actual voice conversations are now the small part of the traffic. Data file transfers and video are now the big network activities. In fact, video has taken over the Internet and is driving the deployment of more and faster content delivery networks (CDN) to offload high definition video programming from the Internet.

Think about how you communicate. The office desk phone used to be the primary tool for business communications. “Data” was on paper and the interoffice mail was the network that moved it around. Today, you are as likely to use email, text messages and social media as you are to pick the phone and dial somebody. Data is now on hard drives and electronic data networks move it around. Even cell phones are still called “phones” out of tradition. Texting, Tweeting, emailing and posting are used as much or more than the voice side of the system. Wireless voice channels have been established technology for years. All the scrambling and innovation is focused on building more and faster data channels.

The switchover of the worldwide electronic communications network from telegraphy to telephony to computer data networking has taken place in steps with one methodology gradually yielding to another. Most long distance computer links use trunk lines originally designed to transport telephone calls digitally. The process of using analog phone lines to carry digital signals, called “dial-up,” ran out of capacity quickly at less than 100 Kbps. Digital telephone trunks, known as T1 lines, DS3, and SONET fiber optic services, start at 1.5 Mbps on the low end and go up to 100 Gbps on the very high end.

This system works, but the translation of loading data packets into telephone channels and then back again costs in efficiency and a limitation of network services. Since nearly every LAN is now running Ethernet, the most sensible change is to re-work the metro and long haul networks to also use Ethernet. You can then optimize for one protocol from end to end.

One technology shift that has enabled long distance or “Carrier” Ethernet is the industry shift from the original collision domains to switched Ethernet. This change doubled the speed of the links, since nodes can transmit and receive at the same time. More importantly, there is no need to constrain the length of the network to ensure detection of colliding packets. Nearly all LANs now use switches in place of hubs as a matter of course. This adds the possibility of running very long connections between switches, say 1,000 miles or more, and still create networks that behave like one large LAN.

Some of the latest announcements in this field are that a major carrier, Windstream, is now offering a product called Carrier Switched Ethernet. This is a wholesale bandwidth service that allows other carriers access to Windstream’s 980 network exchanges. Using E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interfaces greatly expands the service footprint of any network to include the networks of other service providers. Another announcement is that MegaPath, a major North American network service provider, has been building out its Ethernet over Copper (EoC) capability so that it is now the largest EoC provider in the country with 19 major markets serving millions of businesses at speeds up to 45 Mbps. That’s significant because it means you can now get last mile Ethernet connections over twisted pair copper lines, replacing bonded T1 lines and DS3 bandwidth.

The triple threat of Ethernet over Copper, Ethernet over Fiber and Ethernet Network to Network Interfaces creates the opportunity to go “all Ethernet” in connecting multiple business location and dedicated access to the Internet. There are big cost savings available with this new technology, as well as multi-point mesh network services that were hard to implement previously. Could your company benefit from these Ethernet services? Check Carrier Ethernet pricing, availability and features and compare with what you are using now.

What is an Ethernet Connection?

When we think of connecting to the outside world, what comes to mind is traditional telecom services. Those include POTS and PRI telephone lines for voice and T1, DS3 and OCx SONET for data. A newer technology that deserves a closer look is Carrier Ethernet. It’s Ethernet in the WAN to match up with Ethernet on the LAN.

The idea of extending an Ethernet connection from your building or campus to the Internet or another facility on the other side of the country might seem a bit odd at first. After all, the legacy telecom carriers have pretty much owned that space for over a century. That’s all changing fast. New competitive service providers are coming into the bandwidth marketplace without the history or traditions of using telco standards to define their networks. That frees them to take a “blank sheet” look at what a Wide Area Network (WAN) should be, how it should be priced and what services it should offer.

Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, that the WAN starts where the LAN leaves off. I know that there’s often something called the MAN or Metropolitan Area Network in-between. MAN and WAN technologies are more alike than different. It’s mostly a matter of scale. While the MAN tends to cover a city and perhaps suburbs, the WAN has no geographical limitation. WAN services can be regional, national or even international.

Now let’s consider Ethernet WAN connections. Ethernet is the packet switching protocol now nearly ubiquitous on Local Area Networks. It wasn’t always that way. Even a few decades ago, there were competing standards such as Token Ring. Ethernet has become so popular now that the economy of manufacturing scale makes it more economical to implement than other standards. Ethernet has taken over the LAN, but it is just starting to make inroads on the WAN. In the coming decades, we may see a repeat of Ethernet dominance for local, metropolitan and wide area networks.

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has done the standardization work necessary to establish what’s known as Carrier Ethernet. This frees LAN Ethernet from its distance limitations so that it can connect from your building to the other side of the world. The MEF has also standardized Ethernet services so that the Ethernet you get from one carrier is the same as you get from another. This makes competitive bidding possible, driving down the cost for the buyer. It also enables carriers to extend their service footprint by interconnecting with other carriers through Ethernet Network to Network Interfaces (E-NNI).

WAN Ethernet has some definite advantages over the legacy telecom services we’re used to. First is the interface. If you want to connect to a T1 line or DS3 service, you need a specialized piece of equipment or a very specific plug-in module for your router. You can’t just take an Ethernet patch cord and connect your edge router to the carrier’s “smart jack.” The protocols are completely different. However, you can do exactly that with an Ethernet connection. Most often the carrier provides a common RJ-45 jack or a managed router that you simply patch into.

Second is services. You can order Ethernet Line Service to mimic the point to point or last mile dedicated Internet connections that you have with T1 or DS3. You can also order Ethernet LAN service. That’s a multipoint networking service that ties together multiple business locations. You don’t need to mess around with running individual private lines to each location. They all connect through the Ethernet LAN service.

Unlike T-Carrier and SONET services, Ethernet is highly scalable. In other words, you can get a wide range of bandwidths delivered to your installed Ethernet port. That will prove valuable if business suddenly increases and you need to increase your WAN bandwidth to handle the traffic. A change in bandwidth level can often be handled with a telephone call to your provider, with no need wait for equipment to be replaced.

Finally, Ethernet WAN connections have a cost advantage. It’s not uncommon to get twice the bandwidth for the same price as a T1 line. At higher speeds, the cost savings is even more dramatic.

You owe it yourself to at least compare services and pricing for Ethernet WAN connections to what you have now to see if you may be missing out on cost and performance benefits. Ethernet WAN is available over both twisted pair copper and fiber optic cabling.

Ethernet Networks Interconnect in Arizona

Ethernet is rapidly becoming the new metropolitan and wide area network protocol of choice. Indications are that IP networks transporting standard Ethernet services will eventually supplant the century old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). What’s holding that back is that many Ethernet service providers are a diverse mix of incumbent and competitive carriers with service footprints that only cover a given metro area or regional group of states. E-NNI is the technology that is linking them all together.

E-NNI is an Ethernet Network to Network Interface. Network interfacing is the cross-connection that allows different networks to exchange traffic. Each has to advertise the other’s routes so that users on either network can reach destinations on the other network as easily as they do on their own network. The result is an interconnected network with a service footprint the size of both networks combined.

An excellent example of an Ethernet to Ethernet network connection is taking place in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Integra Telecom and Saddleback Communications are connecting their fiber networks using enterprise-class Carrier Ethernet technology so that they can easily exchange data at high transmission rates.

Saddleback Communications is an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) serving the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) in the Phoenix metropolitan area, bordered by Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe and Fountain Hills. Their core network infrastructure is comprised of multiple fiber optic rings and two Class 5 Soft Switch Central Offices. Unlike most commercial areas, 100% of the commercial developments on the Pima corridor of the SRPMIC are fed with both fiber optic and copper facility connections.

Saddleback’s business services include dedicated Ethernet Internet access, Ethernet transport services and private line services. Their BusinessLAN Ethernet Transport transparently connects business locations via native Ethernet at speeds from 5 Mbps to 1000 Mbps (GigE) with scalability in 5 Mbps or 100 Mbps over the same interface.

What Integra Telecom brings to the table is an extensive fiber optic network that serves 11 Western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Their 5,000 mile long haul network is one of the largest in the U.S., complemented by a 3,000 route mile (160,000 fiber miles) metropolitan area network that serves 200 business communities including 1,700 fiber-fed buildings. Integra is the 4th largest Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in the United States.

Integra offers Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) standardized Ethernet services that include Ethernet Private Line (EPL) and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), as well as a layer 2 configuration for high performance Wide Area Networks (WANs). Class of Service (CoS) technology makes voice/data/video converged networks possible so that sensitive real time packets aren’t overwhelmed by less critical but more numerous data packets.

Both Saddleback and Integra operate high performance fiber optic networks and both serve a wide range of customers, including corporate clients that need highly reliable high bandwidth Ethernet services. By interconnecting their networks for Ethernet to Ethernet transport, they can offer companies on both networks the opportunity to connect as if they are working under a common “digital roof.”

Does your business need reliable high bandwidth network connection service? Carrier Ethernet now spans the nation and the world with network to network interconnections. Get competitive pricing for fiber optic Ethernet network services now. You may be surprised by what is available.



Note: Map of Arizona courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Extending Ethernet over MPLS Networks

Ethernet started out as a local area network protocol, but is quickly becoming the metropolitan area network protocol of choice. It offers easy interfacing to existing wired and wireless business networks, rapid bandwidth scaling without equipment changes, and a lower cost structure than traditional telecom services. If Ethernet is so great for the LAN and MAN, how about Ethernet for the WAN?

Ethernet WAN is enjoying a rising popularity, especially among companies with multiple business sites located across the United States and across international borders. You can get dedicated point to point wired Ethernet connections between any two locations, but a competing methodology that is gaining steam is Ethernet over MPLS.

Why use an MPLS network to transport your Ethernet traffic? The first reason is that MPLS networks are already in place and going where you want to send your traffic. Sure, you can custom engineer a dedicated private line service, but why re-invent the wheel? Ethernet is easily transported over MPLS networks using Pseudowire encapsulation that emulates the wireline it competes with. Which do you think is going to be less expensive? Paying for a custom point to point wireline connection or being one stream of traffic on a large MPLS network?

The way it tends to work out is that short haul Ethernet links have the cost advantage when implemented as dedicated lines. This is especially true if you are nowhere near an MPLS carrier node. Once you start looking at coast to coast transport or a situation where you want multiple Ethernet LANs connected in a transparent mesh network, MPLS networks gain the advantage. MPLS also has the edge when you want to cross international borders to include foreign sites on your corporate network.

Carriers may be muddying the water even further by offering Ethernet line services that consist of copper or fiber Ethernet access connections to their MPLS network core, where the long haul Ethernet transport really takes place.

There are several types of Ethernet services that are really popular right now. One is E-Line or Ethernet Private Line service. This is a standardized service specified by the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). It gives you a Carrier Ethernet connection that bridges two LANs. A variation is EVPL or Ethernet Virtual Private LIne. What EVPL does is let you use a single physical Ethernet port to connect to multiple Ethernet private lines going to out to geographically diverse locations. This is something you could use to replace a star network built on independent wireline connections to those same remote locations.

Another popular service is E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service, also called VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service when implemented on an IP/MPLS network. While Ethernet Line Service replaces dedicated point to point telecom lines, Ethernet LAN is a meshed network service that interconnects multiple locations on an any-to-any basis. With VPLS, you bridge your multiple LANs so that they act as one giant LAN network. That’s true even if you have a hundred or thousand sites in the U.S. and and equal number spread out over the globe.

What carrier can offer this level of MPLS networking? Actually, there are several to choose from. If one can’t serve all your sites, multiple carriers can share traffic through a E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface to reach all locations with VPLS or E-Line connections. If you need this type of connectivity, you may be surprised by how affordable it has become recently. Get Ethernet over MPLS service prices now and see how far your network can really reach.

What is Ethernet Service?

Carrier Ethernet services for business are becoming more and more popular. If you’ve been hearing about Ethernet service and wondering if it makes sense for your company, here’s what it’s all about.

Ethernet is the most popular LAN protocol by far. It’s hard to remember that not that many years ago there were all sorts of competing network protocols. Now switched Ethernet is almost universal. Something similar is underway with telecom services. We’re in the process of changing over from switched circuit technologies popularized by a century of telephone development to packet switched networks more compatible with computing devices. As you might suspect, Ethernet is making its bid to become the universal protocol of metropolitan and long haul networks.

Ethernet originated at Xerox PARC as a short distance communications technology to interconnect computing equipment. It was intended for use within an office or building. Communication farther than this required interface to telecom technologies, such as T-Carrier, SONET and Frame Relay.

Over the years, Ethernet has been extended and improved with the introduction of switching to eliminate the problem of collisions and fiber optics to increase network speeds. What has remained the same until recently is that connection to the outside world required conversion to a different set of protocols and back again at the other end. This is the last frontier of Ethernet networking that is now being addressed by Carrier Ethernet.

What is Carrier Ethernet? It’s the same as Ethernet, only extended to work over long distances on a telecommunications network. Carrier Ethernet standards have been developed by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry standards body. By introducing MEF compliant Ethernet services, carriers can be assured that their services will work with readily available customer and provider interface equipment and that network providers will be able to exchange traffic. They do that through an Ethernet Network to Network Interface (E-NNI).

Two of the most popular Ethernet services are E-Line or Ethernet Line Service and E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service. E-Line is a point to point dedicated line service that replaces traditional private lines such as T1, DS3 and OC-3. One end of the line can be connected to an Internet Service Provider give you Ethernet Internet service. In addition, E-LAN offers a many to many or meshed connection so that numerous business locations can be tied together on one large Ethernet network.

How about bandwidth? There are two physical layer options available. They are Ethernet over Copper (EoC) and Ethernet over Fiber (EoF). Ethernet over Copper is a direct T1 line replacement. It uses the same twisted pair copper telco wiring that T1 is provisioned over. Multiple pairs are employed to increase line speed. Popular EoC speeds are 2 Mbps, 3 Mbps, 5 Mbps, 10 Mbps 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps. Copper based Ethernet is distance sensitive, so the closer you are to the central office, the higher speed you can obtain. It’s not uncommon to get 25 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps or higher bandwidths for connections under a mile.

Ethernet over FIber picks up where Ethernet over Copper leaves off. Bandwidths from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps are readily available, meeting the needs of just about any business.

In addition to easy interfacing and options such as E-LAN, a major draw of Carrier Ethernet services is their reduced cost. It’s not uncommon to get twice the bandwidth for the same money with Ethernet versus other telecom services. Also, that bandwidth is more easily scalable. The carrier equipment design makes it easy and fast to increase and decrease bandwidth as needed, up to the maximum speed of the installed port.

Are you interested in what Carrier Ethernet can do to support your business? If so, get instant online pricing for Ethernet services up to 1 Gbps and prompt quotes for other services to 10 Gbps.



Note: Ethernet patch cords photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

GTT Expands Ethernet Footprint With PacketExchange

Global telecommunications carrier GTT is moving to expand its Ethernet service footprint worldwide by acquiring Ethernet service provider PacketExchange.

PacketExchange is a London based carrier with an impressive 10 Gigabit fiber optic IP backbone network that covers Europe, the United States and Asia. A good portion of this network was acquired when PacketExchange acquired MZIMA Networks in 2010. The combined resources provide private line services plus MPLS and VPLS networking and peering.

GTT’s acquisition of PacketExchange reinforces the idea that we’re entering the age of Carrier Ethernet. Up till now, the world’s networks have been dominated by telephone company technology for switched circuit operations. The popular T-carrier wireline services and SONET/SDH fiber optic services were all devised to be compatible with time division multiplexed voice and data. The new paradigm is packet switched networks, with Carrier Ethernet gaining prominence.

You see this reinforced by the emergence of Ethernet Exchanges, such as Telx, that offer E-NNI (Ethernet Network to Network Interface). What E-NNI does is create a peering opportunity for IP network operators to exchange data and, thus, expand the reach of their networks. This opportunity speeds up the ability of Ethernet to take over the world’s telecommunications traffic without the necessity of one dominant international carrier to dictate standards.

PacketExchange makes a nice complement to GTT which is already a global network integrator with many POPs (Points of Presence) in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. GTT serves 80 countries in all with a wide portfolio of Private line, Ethernet, DSL broadband, point to point Wireless and managed network services. They are often the carrier of choice for companies that need to interconnect offices across international borders. MPLS network services that are particularly useful in linking multiple locations include MPLS VPN and VPLS services.

Ethernet and MPLS networks complement each other nicely. MPLS networks use a proprietary routing technology called label switching in place of IP routing or SONET/SDH multiplexing. Label switching encapsulates virtually any protocol and transports the packets form location to location. At the network edges, packets enter and leave the network unaltered. This allows MPLS networks to support layer 2 switched services such as Ethernet Private Line and Ethernet LAN. It’s entirely possible using Ethernet access to MPLS networks to create an international bridged LAN that includes locations worldwide.

The power of Ethernet as a universal network protocol to support converged voice, video and data networks is only beginning to be seen. It’s a natural development, considering that corporate LANs long ago standardized on the switched Ethernet protocol. What makes more sense than to seamlessly expand those LANs into the metropolitan and long haul connections necessary to support regional, national and international business.

Does your company have a need to connect multiple business locations, domestically or internationally? If so, take a closer look at Ethernet business bandwidth solutions to support your organization’s technical goals at a cost often lower than with traditional telecom services.



Note: Ethernet switch photo courtesy of Justin Smith on Wikimedia Commons.