Fiber Optic Private Lines

Companies that need 50 Mbps or more of private line bandwidth find that their twisted pair copper options have pretty much topped out. Downtown in some major metro areas you may be able to get high bandwidth point to point wireless service. Most of the time, though, you’ll be looking at fiber optic options for private line services that have the bandwidth you require.

The traditional fiber optic service for metro and long haul networks is SONET / SDH. The term Synchronous Optical NETwork / Synchronous Digital Hierarchy is aptly applied. The heat of this technology is a highly synchronized Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) protocol that offers very low latency with a range of bandwidth options that can take you to 40 Gbps or beyond. This standard has been proliferated around the world by major telecom companies. You can often get SONET services at the bandwidth of your choice from door to door to all points on the globe.

I say often, because the biggest stumbling block with fiber optic transport is the last mile connection. Estimates are that no more than a third of US business locations are “lit” for fiber. This generally means that either you or the carrier of your choice will need to build out a last mile fiber link to get your building “on-net.”

It’s a prospect that isn’t as daunting as it used to be. Fiber bandwidth providers are aggressively building out their service footprints and are actively looking for attractive locations that will use their service. If you are willing to commit to significant bandwidth usage or can get together with other tenants for a combined offer, you might get a great deal on establishing fiber optic service.

You may find that you have several types of service to choose from. SONET is the legacy service and is at the core of many backbone networks. IP networks are newer and more closely match the protocol that your LAN is running. Ethernet Private Line (EPL) service offers highly scalable bandwidth from a low of 10 to 50 Mbps right on up to Gigabit Ethernet and 10 GigE. These bandwidth options are available in Metro Ethernet Networks and long haul Ethernet transport.

SONET bandwidth services start off with OC-3 running at 155 Mbps. The next level generally available is OC-12 at 622 Mbps. Then you can move up to OC-24 at 1.24 Gbps, OC-48 at 2.4 Gbps, OC-192 at 10 Gbps and OC-768 at 40 Gbps.

SONET is often provisioned in a protected ring topology. There are two fiber strands, each carrying the same traffic. If one strand fails for any reason, the other picks up the full load within 50 mSec. This makes for very high reliability data connections.

If you want even higher performance fiber optic private lines or wish to have more control over your services, you can order wavelength services. Each wavelength is like having a separate line all to yourself. They are typically offered at 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps bandwidth level.

Still not enough? How about your own fiber optic cable from point to point? Sounds nice, but who can afford that? You can by leasing dark fiber that is already in the ground. When companies bury fiber, they bury a lot of fiber at the same time. It’s not unusual to have over 100 fiber strands in one cable. You can lease one or more of those strands and connect them to your own termination equipment. If you light the fiber, you have the ultimate in security and can run any protocol you wish.

Are you in need of higher bandwidth to support your business needs? Have a look at fiber optic private line options to see what services make the most sense for what you are doing.




Note: Photo of fiber optic transmission equipment courtesty of WikiMedia Commons.

Ethernet Over Copper Companies Expand Services

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) has been the David to the T1 Goliath. That’s changing fast. While T1 lines won’t be knocked out anytime soon, the expansion of EoC by Ethernet over Copper companies is bringing more options to more service areas every day.

An example is the aggressive buildout by Integra Telecom into 120 telephone company central offices (COs) serving more than 400,000 businesses. Why colocate in telco offices instead of just building your own points of presence?

The answer has to do with the copper. Copper is gold in the telecom world. He who has the gold, and to some extent makes the rules, is by law the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs), also known as the local telephone companies. All that twisted pair copper in the ground and flying overhead was put there by the ILECs for their own use. Under deregulation, they lease it out to competing carriers, like Integra, who install their own equipment to access that copper within the ILEC COs.

It’s only the last mile that Integra and other carriers lease. The rest of the signal path is through their own proprietary networks. By using that last mile of twisted pair copper wires, EoC providers can provision anywhere from 2 to 45 Mbps of Carrier Ethernet bandwidth and services. That’s faster than even bonded T1 lines can go and competes with low end fiber optic services. That makes connectivity available in the two-thirds of business buildings that aren’t yet lit for fiber.

So, what can you expect from Ethernet over Copper? First of all, it’s Ethernet. This is the same protocol that runs on your network. When adapted to run on telecom services, it’s called Carrier Ethernet. This makes the interface to your network as simple as plugging into a standard RJ-45 Ethernet connector installed by the carrier.

Even more important, your traffic stays on Ethernet as it traverses the path between company locations. The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry standards group, has created several Carrier Ethernet services that support business connections. The first is Ethernet Private Line (EPL). This is similar to the point to point T1 service you may have now. It connects two locations with a Ethernet Virtual Circuit (EVC) for the exclusive use of your traffic.

One difference is that you have a wider range of bandwidth choices available. The other very noticeable difference is that Ethernet services tends to be considerably more cost effective than T1. You can typically get 3 Mbps EoC for the same price as 1.5 Mbps T1. As you increase bandwidth, the cost savings get even more attractive.

A related service is Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL). This is a point to multipoint connection. You could use EVPL to establish a star network with your headquarters location in the center, connecting many other business locations.

Another service gaining popularity is E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service. This is an Ethernet based cloud networking service that connects multiple locations in a meshed arrangement. Because it is Ethernet, you can use it as a bridged network connection to join the LANs at all of your diverse business locations so that they operate as one very large company network.

Ethernet over Copper offers you an expanded range of services than what you have now with an expanded bandwidth selection that is easily scalable and less costly than traditional telecom services. The one question is whether you can get EoC yet? With the rapid deployment by many carriers, the answer is probably YES. Want to find out? Get availability and pricing for Ethernet over Copper services suitable for your business locations.

1 Gbps Point to Point Ethernet Connection

With WAN bandwidth requirements increasing as businesses move to the cloud and become more involved with bandwidth intensive activities such as video and big data, it is not uncommon anymore to be requesting 1,000 Mbps connections. A popular match for this requirement is a 1 Gbps Ethernet or GigE point to point connection. Let’s take a look at what’s involved and your options for Gigabit Ethernet service.

Ethernet is the standard protocol of the LAN. Most network interfaces run at 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps or 10 Gbps. Many standard network devices support multiple speeds, typically 10/100/1000 Mbps. It is only logical to want to extend the LAN through the WAN and to another LAN somewhere else. The way to avoid speed bumps that cause network congestion while avoiding over-provisioning and overpaying for WAN bandwidth is to match your LAN to your WAN. That means standard LAN speeds and protocol.

Fortunately, this has all been figured out by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry group that sets standards for interoperability among vendors. They have created the standards necessary to take LAN Ethernet and transport it through WAN connections. In the WAN, this is called Carrier Ethernet.

It all starts and ends with a User Network Interface or UNI. This is a “port” provided by the carrier or service provider and installed at the user location or locations. The UNI is designed to run at standard LAN operating speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps. That doesn’t mean that you are limited to one of those service speeds. The installed UNI defines the upper limit to the bandwidth it will support. The carrier rate limits the actual speed of the service to match the bandwidth you are paying for. That could be 20 Mbps, 75 Mbps, 450 Mbps or some other value. There are typically many increments to choose from so you only have to pay for the bandwidth you really need.

There is a big advantage to this arrangement. Not only are you not stuck with a service that is too big or too small for your needs, but all the hardware is set up to support the port speed of the UNI. The rate limiting is a software function that can be changed quickly by the service provider with a few keystrokes into their system. That means that you can call up and request a bandwidth increase at any time and have it available in days, maybe hours of your request. The carrier will enter the change and adjust your billing to match. Compare that to traditional telecom service that require truck rolls to install new equipment and perhaps pull new wiring. If your UNI supports 1 Gbps, you won’t need any hardware changes until you want to go above that speed.

The actual transportation takes place on an Ethernet Virtual Connection or EVC. The EVC provides point to point connectivity between designated UNIs and prevents data transfer between sites that aren’t part of the same EVC. The popular Ethernet point to point service is known as EPL or Ethernet Private Line. It is a direct replacement for TDM private lines.

Another interesting feature of Ethernet UNIs is that they can handle multiple EVCs. That may seem a little strange compared to typical telecom UNIs that connect physical wires and transport a single Point to Point (PTP) line service. Each EVC can be considered a separate private line. Multiple EVCs delivered over a single UNI is called EVPL or Ethernet Virtual Private Line service. One popular topology is a hub and spoke arrangement where a headquarters location is connected to multiple branch offices using EVPL. Only a single physical UNI is needed at HQ to support all the private line spoke connections.

Is your operation ready for higher bandwidth WAN service? Find out how little it now costs to support 1 Gbps Point to Point Ethernet Connections using EPL and EVPL.

Ethernet over Copper Connects Nationwide

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) has quickly made a name for itself as a last mile access connection for dedicated Internet, MPLS networking, and linking two or more company LANs. The flexibility, ease of interface, and cost savings make this a service in demand. What’s held it back to date is lack of availability. Well, that’s about to change.

MegaPath, one of the country’s major competitive carriers, is moving in with Telx, a major network interconnection provider. What does that mean? It means that your Ethernet over Copper connection can go a lot farther than it used to.

MegaPath has been on a major construction effort to roll out EoC equipment to over 680 central offices within the next year. The central office is key because this is where the subscriber copper loops terminate. MegaPath used specialized G.HSDL technology with up to 8 bonded copper pair to deliver line speeds to 100 and even 400 Mbps in selected area. Their standard symmetrical speeds are 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 20 Mbps. Both layer 2 and layer 3 services are offered along with QoS/CoS to support business data and real-time voice and video simultaneously.

For its part, Telx operates 15 data centers with direct access to over 950 customers who have chosen to colocate within the Telx facilities. These include major telecom carriers, Internet service providers, content producers and delivery networks and cloud service providers. Telx is a pioneer in Ethernet Exchange, a way for carriers to exchange Ethernet traffic without having to first convert to another protocol like SONET. The E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface benefits each carrier who participates because now they can directly access customers on other carriers and vice-versa.

Ethernet over Copper along with Ethernet over Fiber form the basis of Carrier Ethernet. This is the familiar Ethernet protocol that runs on your LAN adapted for use on telecommunication networks. The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has standardized a number of Carrier Ethernet standards so that they are compatible across network boundaries. These include EPL, EVPL, and ELAN.

EPL stands for Ethernet Private Line. This is equivalent to the point to point private line services familiar with T-Carrier and SONET services. EVPL is Ethernet Virtual Private Line. This is very similar to EPL. The virtual designation means that you can have a number of EPL services running to a single physical Ethernet port. This is particularly useful for companies that want to run private lines from a single headquarters location out to multiple branch locations. Together, EPL and EVPL form what is known as E-Line or Ethernet Line service.

ELAN stands for Ethernet LAN Service. You may also see this written as E-LAN. What differentiates E-LAN from E-Line is that E-LAN is a many to many or mesh network service. You can use it to tie together multiple business locations so that any location can communicate with any other.

Have you been interested in Ethernet over Copper services but concerned that they may not be available to support your particular location or your many locations nationwide? This is a rapidly changing market, with more service being rolled out almost daily. If you haven’t checked lately, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much connectivity is available and how much bandwidth your can get for your telecom budget. Check pricing right now, if you like. Ethernet over Copper prices from 1 to 100 Mbps are available instantly online. Other services for business locations will be promptly quoted by a Telarus bandwidth expert, upon request.

Ethernet Service Providers Offer Cost Savings

One technological revolution quietly underway is the transition from circuit switched to packet switch WAN protocols. Many businesses first become aware that something is happening when they go to get price quotes for bandwidth upgrades or new line services. They expect to be buying a T1 line and find themselves ordering Ethernet over Copper instead. Why is this and what can you get for your bandwidth dollar these days?

The shifting ground of the telecom industry is being driven by a move to all-IP networks. The root cause is that computing devices, such as PCs, web servers, wireless access points, tablets, smartphones, telepresence, and IP PBX systems are generating network traffic that far exceeds traditional telephony. I included IP PBX in that group because an enterprise VoIP system with SIP phones connects via the LAN and uses Ethernet packets, not analog or proprietary digital signals. In most businesses, the common denominators are the LAN and the telephone network, with the phone network on the way out.

We’re now at a point where the crying need is to connect LANs together and to the Internet. We’ve been doing that with traditional telephone technologies such as T-Carrier and SONET for decades. If you were designing a comprehensive networking approach, would you pick one technology for the LAN and something completely different for metro and long haul networks? Wouldn’t you try to have a common protocol that runs everywhere for efficiency and ease of connection?

That’s what’s behind the rise of Carrier Ethernet. As more competitive carriers enter the market and older networks are upgraded, IP core networks are becoming more and more the rule. These are high speed fiber optic networks that have regional, national or even international service footprints. The last link in the chain is appropriately called the last mile connection. This is the wireline, fiber or wireless link that connects you to the service provider point of presence.

Ethernet services are available at every level of networking, from simple Internet access through international MPLS networks that link hundreds or thousands of sites. Most companies will want some type of dedicated Internet access. A 2x2 Mbps or 3x3 Mbps Ethernet over Copper line is a direct competitor to T1, at about the same price. It’s not uncommon to get twice the bandwidth for the same cost by choosing Ethernet rather than T-Carrier T1 or T3.

Ethernet is also more scalable than other telecom services. Typical bandwidth options include 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 75 and 100 Mbps. Other increments between these levels may also be available, depending on the carrier. Those are just Ethernet over Copper offerings. Ethernet over Fiber takes you to 250, 500, 750 and 1,000 Mbps or up to 10 GigE.

You may want to install Ethernet Private Line or Ethernet Virtual Private Line service for a point to point connection between two business connections, like headquarters and a branch office. This replaces T1 or DS3 private line service at a better price.

One service that Ethernet offers, that you won’t find with traditional point to point connections is E-LAN or Ethernet LAN Service. It connects multiple LANs in a mesh topology at the layer 2 level. This lets you build one giant LAN that includes all of your remote location LANs.

Would you like to expand your service options and save 50% or more on line pricing compared to what you have now? Get instant online Ethernet service pricing up to 1 Gbps now. More complex multi-site networks need a bit of manual work, but will be quoted promptly.

EtherSphere Spans The World With Ethernet

Global Crossing is circling the globe with standards-based Carrier Ethernet services under the umbrella of its EtherSphere solutions portfolio. For multinational corporations and other companies with an international reach, this offers one-stop shopping for a network that unites geographically diverse business locations.

EtherSphere offers a number of Ethernet services that have been established as standards by the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). These include Point to Point Ethernet Private Line (EPL) or E-Line and multiple private line or Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), Point to Multipoint or E-Tree, and Multipoint to Multipoint Ethernet Private LAN or VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) E-LAN.

This suite of standard Ethernet services accommodates whatever connectivity is needed to interconnect multiple locations. All connections are made using EtherSphere’s Smart Demarcation Network Interface Device (NID). This allows the network to monitor performance end to end, perform traffic management and offer end to end SLAs (Service Level Agreements). Customers have administrative access through the Global Crossing uCommand online portal.

The Smart Demarcation NID supports 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps Ethernet port interfaces. Bandwidth is highly scalable and can be ordered in committed data rates from 1 to 10 Mbps in 1 Mbps increments, 10 to 100 Mbps in 5 Mbps increments, 100 to 1000 Mbps in 25 Mbps increments, 1000 to 2000 Mbps in 100 Mbps increments and greater than 2 Gbps upon request.

There are six classes of services supported on the network that are identified as premium, premium plus, enhanced and enhanced plus, and basic and basic plus. The service level agreements can be POP to POP or end to end with metrics that include frame delivery, frame delay, and delay variation by class of service, plus installation and mean time to repair.

One beauty of Carrier Ethernet is the ability to provide layer 2 switched Ethernet service over wide area networks, including international destinations. VPLS can interconnect data centers and remote locations in a bridged LAN arrangement that includes all of a company’s offices. With simple Ethernet interfaces at every location, connections between LANs are greatly simplified compared to creating worldwide networks using traditional telecom services.

Global Crossing is expanding this popular EtherSphere service to include more than 40 new locations in the United States, Europe and China by the end of 2011. This will expand the carrier and enterprise offers now available in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and Latin America served by 150 locations served by multiservice edge routers. The expansion in China will deploy EtherSphere Layer 2 VPLS to business centers in China through Global Crossing’s extended reach partner, CITIC Telecom CPC.

Is your company multinational in structure or do you simply need to do business worldwide? If so, perhaps a more comprehensive network solution that links all of your business locations through an Ethernet WAN solution can reduce costs and improve performance. Get International Carrier Ethernet pricing and availability to compare with what you have now.

Broadband Ethernet Internet Services

Ethernet point to point line service and LAN service have become popular with businesses, especially as replacements for T1 lines and now-obsolete Frame Relay networks. But did you also know that Ethernet makes an excellent access connection to MPLS VPN networks and the Internet?

Carrier Ethernet got its start for business as a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) service called Metro Ethernet. Many companies have a need to interconnect multiple facilities located in the same general geographical area. The E-Line point to point services EPL and EVPL give you the same or better connectivity that you’ll get with T1 lines and even multiple T1 lines. E-LAN service links multiple LANs in a mesh network to interconnect your entire organization.

In many cases, what you want is a broadband connection to the Internet rather than a direct link to another private facility. These are traditionally provided using T1 lines and higher bandwidth services, such as DS3, OC3, OC12 and OC48. Now, EFM or Ethernet in the First Mile can provide that same connectivity and likely save you money in the process. Let’s see why.

The reason that T1 lines are so popular is that they are provisioned on ordinary twisted pair telco wiring. That wiring is already in place in most businesses, being used for multi-line telephone service. T1 has been around for more than 50 years and is well established and available most everywhere. The one fly in the ointment is that T1 is bandwidth limited to 1.5 Mbps. Until Ethernet over Copper became available, the workaround to this bandwidth limitation was to bond multiple T1 lines together to make one large data pipe. This proven practice works well, but gets expensive since you have to pay the full price of each T1 line no matter how many you order.

The competition to T1 now is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. As the name implies, this service also uses ordinary twisted pair copper telco wiring that is currently in place. Like bonded T1, EoC uses multiple copper pair to increase bandwidth. What’s different, though, is the cost structure. A popular Ethernet over Copper service is 3x3 Mbps EoC. That’s 3 Mbps upload and 3 Mbps download, a symmetrical bandwidth, delivered over copper wiring. The cost of 3 Mbps Ethernet is pretty much equal to the cost for a 1.5 Mbps T1 line in areas where both are available.

That’s a nice cost savings for any company, but it doesn’t stop there. Ethernet over Copper can be installed at speeds from 1 to 20 Mbps. Bonding T1 lines gets you maybe half that maximum bandwidth and gets real expensive as you add more lines. Ethernet is designed to be far more scalable. You have the provider install an Ethernet port for the highest speed you expect to need. Then order the bandwidth you require today. In the future, you can simply call your service provider and tell them to crank it up to the next level. They can give you a bandwidth increase in as little as an hour because the bandwidth capacity is already installed. No additional construction effort is needed.

What happens if you need more than 20 Mbps Internet service? At that point you need to move up to fiber optic service. The good news is that Ethernet over Fiber is more available than ever before and competitive service providers are willing to make deals on the installation cost, especially if your needs are substantial. Once you have fiber to the premises, you’ll be able to go form 50 or 100 Mbps on up to GigE Gigabit Ethernet and even 10 Gbps Ethernet broadband service if you need it.

Does your business location suffer from inadequate dedicated Internet service or are you just curious if you can save money over your present solution? If so, get prices and availability of Broadband Ethernet Internet Service over copper or fiber as appropriate. Sorry, this service is not available for home offices or other residential use.

EVPL Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service

You are probably familiar with private line services for business. A private line is one where you have exclusive use. An analog telephone line is a private line. So is a T1 voice or data line. Now there is something new is the mix. It’s the VPL or Virtual Private Line.

Telephone lines weren’t always private. Remember the party line? Decades ago, several houses in a neighborhood would be connected to the same physical line. If you picked up your phone to make a call, you might hear one of your neighbors already engaged in conversation. In the pre-Twitter days, listening-in on other phone conversations was often a form of amusement.

That lack of privacy is long gone for telephones. But shared digital services exist today, especially with public access Internet. No, you can’t casually eavesdrop on your neighbors email or Web activities, but if some of the users start heavily downloading large files, your Internet service will slow down. There are also tools available that allow anyone to monitor everything going over a particular WiFi hotspot. The whole Internet is one big party line in the sense that you can’t be sure who’s monitoring the traffic and what they might be doing with information they skim.

It’s the security risk and the lack of consistent bandwidth that have driven businesses to private line service. T1 lines are private lines. They offer the advantages of rock solid 1.5 Mbps bandwidth and exclusive use of the line. The disadvantage is that you pay for that line even when traffic is light or non-existant.

Ethernet also offers a private line service called EPL. It works like T1 in that it is a physical line connection between you and your service provider. The difference is that the protocol is Ethernet and you can often get scalable bandwidth, typically 10 Mbps.

If you have a private line service, why would you want a virtual private line service? For one reason, you may want private lines running from your headquarters out to a number of branch offices. With dedicate private lines, you need separate physical circuits for each of these lines. You pay for the exclusive full time use of each circuit and there may or may not be enough pairs of wire into your headquarters office to give you the number of private lines you desire.

Ethernet Virtual Private Line service, EVPL, uses a single physical copper or fiber circuit to connect you to the service provider. Within that circuit are multiple EVCs or Ethernet Virtual Connection. This is not a party line arrangement. Each EVC carries its own traffic to and from another location without any cross-talk or interference from other EVCs.

The power of EVPL is not only that you only need one network interface at each of your facilities, including headquarters, but that those virtual connections can be extended to other cities or states over the provider’s MPLS core network. The MPLS is a cloud network that carries traffic for many users, but the integrity of each user’s virtual circuit is maintained from point to point regardless of distance.

EVPL is also a switched layer 2 service, which means that you can use it to extend your LAN network across town or across the country. It’s the simplest way to bridge multiple LANs when they are not located in the same facility.

Can EVPL service be of benefit for your organization? Find out with a quick inquiry about Ethernet Virtual Private Line service. Our expert Telarus consultants will be happy to get you price comparisons and service level agreements so you can make the best decision for your company.