Is a Virtual Leased Line Right For Your Applications?

By: John Shepler

Leased lines have been popular with businesses since they were made available from the telephone companies decades ago. But how about a virtual leased line? Could you make good use of this technology?

Before we get into virtual leased lines, let’s take a quick review of what leased lines are and how they work.

Leased Lines vs Shared Bandwidth
A leased line is a telecommunications line that you lease for a particular time period. This is typically 1 to 3 years. During that time, you have exclusive use of the line for your applications.

Contrast that with shared bandwidth, the norm on the Internet. You don’t lease the Internet, you may lease access to the Internet. Once you are on the Internet, your traffic gets in line with everyone else’s and traverses the various networks that get your packets from source to destination.

Last Mile Often Determines Performance
Actually, the core of the Internet works pretty well most of the time. The congestion and latency you may experience is generally caused by the access or last mile connection. Shared bandwidth services such as cellular broadband, satellite, DSL or cable broadband are shared “best effort” services. You get what you get at any particular time because your performance is determined by how much of the bandwidth pool is being used by other customers.

How Can You Improve This Situation?
With a leased line, of course. This is called DIA or Dedicated Internet Access. Typical leased lines include T1 (1.5 Mbps), Ethernet over Copper ( 10 to 50 Mbps), DS3 (45 Mbps), OCx (155 Mbps and up) and Ethernet over Fiber (10 Mbps to 10 Gbps and more).

Why choose this hybrid approach of dedicated access and public shared Internet? It’s to improve the performance of your Internet connection end to end. You need the Internet to connect with customers and vendors and gain access to the wealth of content that is the World Wide Web. DIA gives you the best shot at excellent performance for business.

Dedicated lines are for much more than simply connecting to the Internet. They were in heavy use before there even was an Internet. Radio stations employed specially equalized analog lines to get their signals from studio to transmitter. Fire alarm systems use low bandwidth dedicated lines to send alerts to monitoring stations.

Rise of the T1 Line
Computerization of business made the T1 line popular. This is a dedicated private leased line that offers 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth. It’s still used to interconnect retail franchises to headquarters and for connectivity in rural locations where other services aren’t available. T1 has been the standard way to connect cell phone towers to central offices, but that is giving way to fiber optical lines that support 4G and beyond. If 1.5 Mbps isn’t enough for your needs, you can bond T1 lines to get up to 10 or 12 Mbps. A specialized version of T1, called ISDN PRI, provides telephone line trunking for PBX telephone systems.

What T1 and other leased lines offer beyond dedicated use of the line capacity is low latency, jitter and packet loss, along with the security of knowing that you are the only one with access. This is especially valuable for banks and other financial institutions where maximizing security is a very high priority.

Low latency is an important characteristic in preserving the quality of voice communications and teleconferencing. It’s also key to getting the fastest response from cloud based services.

Addressing the Cost Issue
The one drawback of leased lines is that they get expensive over long distances. Every leg in the path requires dedicating or “nailing up” a hardwired circuit (or fiber channel) almost indefinitely. Is there any other suitable option?

Yes. It’s called the virtual leased line (VLL). “Virtual” may sound a bit like “Internet,” but this is something different. Virtual does mean that you share a connectivity resource. In this case, that resource is a privately run MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) network.

MPLS is the answer to cost effective private bandwidth service for nationwide and International connection. Few companies can afford true dedicated private circuits on transatlantic cable or even to multiple locations in the US. MPLS providers create their own core fiber optic networks with huge service footprints. This gives you the connectivity you need to the locations you want to interconnect. The core of the network runs at 10, 40 or 100 Gbps, so you’ll have all the bandwidth you need now and for growth, without having to commit to line capacity you can’t load up at the moment.

How MPLS Works
MPLS is a specialized technology that uses proprietary label switching to set up communications paths. These paths support IP traffic, but the network is not based on IP. That’s a security benefit. More security is derived from MPLS being a “private” network with no access by the general public. If you still want more security, you have the option to encrypt your traffic. The MPLS network will transport it.

The MPLS network operator sets up your virtual leased line from point to point, as you specify. You have a committed information rate (CIR) that defines the bandwidth you are guaranteed. A bonus is that some MPLS carriers allow you to burst above that rate for show intervals, something a hardwired circuit can’t do. MPLS service level agreements also specify the latency, jitter and packet loss you can expect. These are similar to what you’d get with other leased line options.

Related Services
You may hear VLL also described as Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) or EoMPLS (Ethernet over MPLS). A related service is Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) that is a many to many meshed network. It gives you the option of creating a LAN that interconnects all of your business locations over a large MPLS network.

Does this technology sound like what you need right now for your applications? Get more information and latest pricing on dedicated leased private lines and virtual leased line options now.

Comcast’s 100 Gbps Core Network Supports Business

Major telecom carriers have been in the process of upgrading their core networks from 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps over the last year. Comcast is the latest to make the move, fitting Ciena’s Wave Logic 3 interfaces to their current Ciena 6500 packet optical platforms. Why would a cable company do this and how can it benefit your business?

Comcast is best known as a Cable TV company or MSO (Multi-System Operator). They serve over 20 million residential and commercial customers in 40 states and the District of Columbia with video television, high speed Internet and telephone services. You may already know that Comcast broadband service is highly popular for home, home office and small business use. It comes in on a coaxial cable and is highly affordable. But did you also know that Comcast operates one of the largest fiber optic networks in the United States behind the scenes?

Many people think that cable companies still connect everything from their head-end towers and satellite dishes to locations around town using various size coax. That was true in the early days of analog TV cable systems and master antennas for large apartment buildings. The technology has long since moved on. Now everything is digital and the signals ride fiber optic cables most of the distance to your location. It’s that connection from the curb to your building that is still RG-6 coaxial copper wire.

Why? Because it works just fine and the cost of installation has already been paid. DOCSIS 3.0 modems offer broadband Internet in excess of 100 Mbps. That’s is well within the needs of most users. What’s really important to residential, home office and very small business users is low monthly cost combined with adequate performance. The shared asymmetrical bandwidth (higher download than upload speeds) and “best effort” performance is more than adequate for accessing the Internet and downloading documents, pictures and video.

Where HFC (Hybrid Fiber Cable) services run out of gas is when the need for bandwidth is high, dedicated low latency service is needed, symmetrical upload and download speeds are required, and an SLA (Service Level Agreement) is desired. These characteristics are common for traditional telecom services such as T1, DS3 and SONET fiber and the newer Ethernet services such as FastE at 100 Mbps, GigE at 1000 Mbps and 10 GigE at 10 Gbps.

What isn’t as well known is that Comcast operates an enterprise grade fiber optic core network to interconnect their many offices and provide high bandwidth connectivity to businesses. Would you be surprised to learn that Comcast operates a network that covers 147,000 fiber route miles? How about that business class services are available from 1 Mbps on up to 10 Gbps? Their business class services include dedicated Internet access, point to point Ethernet private lines, Ethernet LAN service to interconnect multiple business locations and converged layer 2 centric VPLS to support voice, video and data.

Comcast, like other major fiber optic carriers, recognizes the increasing demand for higher and higher bandwidth services. What’s driving these speed increases is more use of HD video, big data files and a rapid move to cloud computing services. The cloud, especially, present new challenges for businesses used to having all their processing in-house and connected over the corporate LAN. Cloud service providers offer the opportunity to rapidly scale resources up and down, pay only for what you use during the month, and avoid both capital investments and ongoing maintenance costs. The tradeoff is that you now need much higher and very reliable bandwidth to connect your employees to the cloud.

Comcast’s upgrade to 100 Gbps fiber optic bandwidth meets today’s perhaps tomorrow’s needs for their own use and in support of small, medium and large companies. When even this massive capability fills up, the Ciena system they’ve chosen has an upgrade path to 400 Gbps. It’s likely that we’ll see even higher speeds at 1 Tbps and beyond sooner than anyone expects.

Are you running short on bandwidth and wondering how much you can afford as an upgrade? Get multiple competitive fiber optic service quotes for Comcast Business and other high performance fiber optic carriers now. It’s likely that you can turn up your WAN bandwidth at little or no increase over your current monthly least cost.

Ethernet In The First Mile Advantages

Metropolitan and Wide Area Networks can transport your packets anywhere you wish them to go. Regardless of what type of network you are connecting to, there’s one more thing you are going to need. It’s a way to get to the nearest on-ramp. This is often called first or last mile connectivity. Ethernet offers some real advantages to that first mile link that you should know about.

There are a number of technologies that work well for first mile connections. These include T1 lines, DSL, SONET fiber optic services and even microwave or 3G/4G wireless. The idea is to connect your building to your service provider, or at least a portal to your service provider. In many cases, you can’t connect directly to your preferred network service provider because they don’t have any resources close enough. In other cases, it’s more cost effective to do it in a couple of hops.

A very typical case is the venerable T1 line. These are almost universally used by businesses as first mile links. Why? Because they are highly reliable, reasonably priced and almost always available. That availability is based on using telco twisted pair copper wire bundles that run from the business directly to the nearest Central Office (CO). That CO is owned by the incumbent local phone company, but copper pairs and rack space for equipment are leased to other service providers. This is where you connect to your provider’s network.

In many areas you now have the option of connecting via T1 lines or Ethernet over Copper (EoC). They both use exactly the same bundled twisted pairs but have different interfacing equipment at each end. This may not make any difference to you if your provider is installing a managed router as part of the service. You’ll connect to the router with a standard Ethernet LAN cable. What will make a difference is the lease price you’ll pay each month and the bandwidth options available.

Ethernet over Copper is less expensive per Mbps in most areas. You can typically get 2 Mbps or even 3 Mbps EoC for the same price as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. It’s an even better deal as you go up in bandwidth. T1 lines can be bonded to double, triple or quadruple line speed or even more. You can stretch this technology up to 10 or 12 Mbps, but it starts to get pricey at the high end. Ethernet over Copper scales much less expensively and to higher bandwidths. While 3 Mbps EoC is a popular replacement for T1 service, many companies order 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or even 45 Mbps Ethernet over Copper bandwidth. You can even get increments between these levels so that you don’t have to pay for any more connectivity than you actually need.

In addition to cost savings and increased bandwidth, there’s another reason that you may want to opt for Ethernet rather than T1 in the first mile. Standardized Carrier Ethernet services are now widely available. These include Ethernet Line (E-Line), Ethernet LAN (E-LAN) and VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service). What they have in common is layer 2 connectivity that gives you the option to bridge your company LANs regardless of how far apart they may be separated. You need to keep everything in the Ethernet protocol to make this work. EoC will do that, T1 won’t. However, there is a service called EoDS1 that uses T1 lines to transport Ethernet where EoC isn’t available.

If you need higher speeds than Ethernet over Copper affords, you should take look at Ethernet over Fiber (EoF). It’s a replacement for SONET fiber optic services that include OC-3, OC-12, OC-48 and so on. Like EoC, EoF has both scalability and cost advantages. If you order a 1 Gbps port, as many companies do, you can have your provider deliver any bandwidth up to 1,000 Mbps and pay only for what you need. When your requirements increase, a simple phone call to your provider will get you higher bandwidth quickly. Ethernet over Fiber has the same Carrier Ethernet services available as Ethernet over Copper.

Are you thinking that Ethernet may be a better solution to your connectivity needs that what you have now? If so, get prices, bandwidths and availability of First Mile Ethernet services for your business locations.

What is VPLS Bringing to MPLS Networks?

Companies with multiple business locations have adopted MPLS networks as the low cost high performance way to get the connectivity they need. They may be missing out on a service that can offer them an even better way to connect. It’s VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service.

What is VPLS? It’s basically an Ethernet transport service that runs on MPLS networks. It doesn’t replace the MPLS network. It enhances it.

What does VPLS do that MPLS alone can’t do? The big advantage to VPLS technology is that it bridges all of your individual LANs into a single companywide LAN. That LAN isn’t limited to a single building, campus, metro area or even country. You can have international VPLS connections if your business spans the globe.

VPLS works its magic by keeping everything in the Ethernet protocol. That’s the natural state of affairs on your local networks. Traditionally, there has been a need to do a protocol conversion to transfer data over telecom networks. That’s because telecom protocols were developed by the telephone companies for their own needs. The lowest common denominator isn’t the packet, it’s the telephone channel. Today’s circuitry can make the transfer to and from telecom protocols like T1, DS3 or SONET OCx. What gets lost in translation is that seamless connection between locations.

The other thing to realize is that telecom lines are inherently point to point connections. If you are interested in connecting dozens or hundreds of locations you are going to need a lot of point to point connections. That’s a lot of traffic to manage and a lot of monthly expense. Essentially, you are running your own telecom company to create a WAN or Wide Area Network service.

Fortunately, someone else is willing to do all the hard work for you. That someone is the MPLS network operator. MPLS means Multi Protocol Label Switching. What MPLS providers do is construct their own regional, national or international fiber optic networks. They connect all those fiber runs using label switching routers. These aren’t IP routers like you would implement on your own network. What they do is take whatever packet is received at the edge of the network and wrap it with a proprietary label. That label is used to forward the packets at each router. When the packet reaches its destination, the label is removed and the packet goes on its way intact.

The label system has a couple of big of advantages. First, the network doesn’t care what is in the packet. The label contains source & destination addresses and class of service. That means the packet can be anything. It can be data, voice, video or something proprietary. Also, using the label system makes MPLS networks hard to crack for intruders. Normal IP tools won’t work. Access is limited to customers of the network, not the general public, which increases security further.

Your connections over an MPLS network are virtual as opposed to the dedicated hardwired connections of a point to point telecom line. You are sharing the network with other clients, although you have absolutely no access to any packets that are not your own. This reduces the cost for everyone sharing the network. As a privately run operation, the provider ensures that there are adequate resources so that nothing one client is doing will affect the traffic of another.

Running virtual connections on a very large network offers more than cost savings. You can specify which nodes can talk to other nodes to create everything from a point to point connection right on up to a fully meshed network interconnecting all your locations.

VPLS adds capability to the fully meshed MPLS network setup. It gives you a layer 2 switched Ethernet meshed network. This is how you get that large bridged network covering all your locations. Well, almost. You need one more thing. That’s Ethernet protocol last mile connections. If you switch to a T1 line or OC3 fiber to get you to the MPLS network, you’ll lose the Ethernet advantages. Instead, make each last mile connection using Ethernet over Copper (EoC), Ethernet over Fiber (EoF) or something like EoDS1 or EoDS3 that transport Ethernet over traditional telecom lines.

Would you learn more about the advantages of VPLS for interconnecting your company LANs? Get the latest cost savings and features for VPLS over MPLS network services.

Ethernet Bandwidth For Rural Areas

It is commonly assumed that there is no such thing as Ethernet WAN service beyond the city limits. That’s not really true, as you do have Ethernet connectivity options even in rural areas. Let’s see how that’s done.

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is becoming the bandwidth service of choice for small and medium businesses. It offers the ease of Ethernet interfacing, ability to transport Ethernet services like E-Line, E-LAN and VPLS, relatively high bandwidths of 3 to 50 Mbps and even 100+ Mbps in select areas, all with provisioning over multiple twisted pair telco wiring that is already installed. Best of all, pricing is more than competitive. Where available, you’ll pay a lot less for EoC vs traditional telecom services like T1 or DS3 on an Mbps basis.

"Where available" is the catch. Ethernet over Copper technology has strict distance limitations. The modulation scheme that is used can transport high bandwidth levels, but signal levels fade rapidly as you get farther and farther away from the telco Central Office (CO). Within a mile or so you can get all sorts of bandwidth options using 2 to 8 twisted pair. As you start moving out to 2 or 3 miles away, signal levels degrade to the point where they are unusable even at low bandwidths.

That pretty much rules out EoC for most rural locations. Beyond the city limits, population densities are low and wire runs are long for telecom services. Fiber may be running right next to the gravel road you are standing on. The hitch is that there is no drop-off. The fiber just keeps on going to the next metropolitan area.

Now, there are exceptions. If you have a rural business location that luckily happens to be within a few thousand feet of the incumbent telephone company’s office, you may qualify for Ethernet over Copper services. What’s needed is for the telco or a competitive service provider to have EoC terminal equipment installed in that CO. You are less likely to find EoC equipment in smaller offices because of the limited number of businesses connected to that facility.

Don’t despair. As I said earlier, you may still have options. There is another way to transport Ethernet over copper lines with virtually unlimited reach. This is called Ethernet over DS1 or EoDS1. If DS1 sounds familiar, it’s because DS1 is the Digital Signal protocol used for T1 lines. DS1 is part of the half-century old T-Carrier specifications that define the technology for T1 and T3 lines. DS1 was originally developed to transport telephone conversations in groups of 24 channels or time slots within a time division multiplexed bit stream. Later, a concept called clear channel T1 was implemented to combine all those channels into one larger channel. That boosted bandwidth per channel from 64 Kbps up to 1.5 Mbps and made it practical to transport data using DS1.

DS1 defines the signal. T1 is the particular physical line consisting of 2 twisted pair copper telco wires with particular voltage and signal shape characteristics. Normally, DS1 and T1 go together. However, It is possible technically to transport Ethernet using DS1. What that means is that Ethernet can be sent over T1 lines. Since T1 was designed to use signal regenerators to boost sagging signal levels every mile or so, T1 service can go out into the boonies for miles, sometimes even 20 miles or more.

Ethernet over DS1 gives you the option to get Ethernet service where only T1 is available. You aren’t limited to the T1 line bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps. T1 lines can be bonded to increase bandwidth, which works for EoDS1 too. Add more lines and you get more bandwidth. It’s the number of lines bonded times 1.5 Mbps.

What about cost? EoDS1 doesn’t offer the same cost advantages as EoC because the price of T1 lines doesn’t go down if you bond more of them together. You have to pay for each line. EoDS1 also isn’t available from all carriers or in all locations.

What’s the best bandwidth solution for your company? It depends a lot on where you are located and what services you require. There’s an easy way to compare options. Simply get competitive quotes for Ethernet and other telecom services from multiple service providers, each tailored to your particular requirements.

VPLS over MPLS Connects Locations Worldwide

MPLS networks are replacing older technologies such as frame relay and TDM point to point connections. It’s all part of the switchover from switched circuit to packet switched networks as a realization that legacy telephone traffic plays a minor role in worldwide voice, data and video communications.

MPLS is becoming the WAN of choice because of its versatility. The MP of MPLS stands for Multi-Protocol. MPLS networks aren’t fussy about the type of traffic they transport. Each packet gets a wrapper label and the LS or Label Switching makes sure it gets from source to destination intact.

There’s another networking technology that is also coming on strong. That is VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service. VPLS is an Ethernet WAN service that connects multiple company LANs as if they were one much larger LAN that includes sites all over the world.

“That’s it,” you say. “I want VPLS not MPLS.”

Ah, not so fast. VPLS isn’t a network by itself. It needs MPLS networks to transport it. VPLS is a service running on MPLS. It’s one of those multi-protocols that MPLS networks carry so well.

Technically, VPLS uses a concept called pseudo-wires. Pseudo what? The name suggests what this is. It’s the emulation of a wired connection through a network. A real wire would be used for point to point private line service. You would lease the line and it would be “nailed up” or dedicated to your exclusive use for the duration of the lease. Pseudo wires are a way to establish private lines within packet switched networks. The idea is to create a transparent wire that can be used to carry a service from point A to point B.

Think of a pseudo-wire just like a length of Ethernet cable on your LAN. The wire doesn’t interfere with your protocol. The pseudo-wire doesn’t interfere with your protocol on the WAN. By establishing pseudo-wires through the MPLS network, it is possible to string virtual LAN wires hundreds or thousands of miles long. This is one of the tricks behind extending your LAN beyond the boundary lines of your property.

The other trick is for the network to emulate a switch or bridge to create a meshed network so that all locations can communicate as if they were on a bridged LAN. VPLS is a multi-point service. If all you wanted to do is connect two locations, you’d probably just get Ethernet Line Service using a pseudowire through the MPLS network.

The MPLS network can be thought of as a cloud that transports data and creates a multipoint switched network for interconnecting two or more business LANs. That can be anywhere from a few locations in the same state up to hundreds or thousands of locations across the globe. Because it is a cloud, you don’t have to worry about how the packets get from anywhere to anywhere. That’s the network provider’s job. All you need to do is get to that cloud from wherever you need a connection.

Those “last mile” connections can be a variety of protocols and a variety of bandwidths. If you want VPLS service, you’ll need to have Ethernet connections in the last mile. Those can be Ethernet over Copper, Ethernet over Fiber, Even Ethernet over DS1 or DS3 in situations where EoC isn’t available.

This brings up another option. If you don’t need layer 2 connectivity between LANs and simply want a WAN connection to transfer files between locations, you can set up a MPLS VPN service. This can use layer 3 routing just like you might create with a collection of private lines or over the Internet. One advantage is that you can use any protocol connectivity, such as T1 lines, DSL, SONET fiber optic and so on. Each location can have a different type of connection. The network will accept your packets, wrap them in MPLS labels and get them where they are supposed to go.

How about your WAN connectivity? Could you do better regarding bandwidth, quality of service or cost? Get competitive quotes for VPLS over MPLS and MPLS VPN network services to check available options for your business locations.




Note: World map graphic 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.

Level 3 Network Connections Into Mexico

If you do business in Mexico or are a multi-national company with a strong presence in Mexico, Level 3 Communications has good news for you. They’ve launched a major initiative to bring high bandwidth packet network services to business locations within Mexico.

Level 3 sees a business opportunity in Mexico that may be missed by carriers other than the incumbent, Telemex. it helps greatly that Level 3 recently acquired international bandwidth competitor Global Crossing, which already had significant network connectivity in Latin America. One of those assets is a 3,484 km fiber optic ring that connects Monterrey, Mexico City, Mazatlan and Guadalajara. From there it connects to the Pan-American Crossing submarine cable that runs from South America and Central America to the United States. There’s another connection at Tijuana, with a landing at Grover Beach near San Luis Obispo to connect to the California backbone and trans-Pacific submarine cables.

The Mexico ring is capable of providing Terabits per second of bandwidth capacity for transporting voice, data and multimedia services. Among the network services that Level 3 is now offering in Mexico are EtherSphere, Managed IP VPN, High Speed IP, Dedicated Internet Access, Wavelength Services and Private Line Service.

EtherSphere is a worldwide Ethernet-based WAN service, connecting Ethernet transport services from 150 locations that support 26 cities around the globe. EtherSphere offers Virtual Private LAN services (VPLS) specifically intended for companies with geographically dispersed business locations. VPLS is a mesh network technology running on the Level 3 MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) core network. It’s also called Transparent LAN Service. The idea is to connect multiple Ethernet LANs together as if they are one bridged network serving all locations.

EtherSphere is a comprehensive VPLS service that supports six Classes of Services to prioritize traffic and enable network convergence on a large scale. You can easily scale bandwidth in various increments between 1 Mbps and 2 Gbps, although the system does support bandwidth above 2 Gbps. You have a choice of service types through the network that include multipoint to multipoint (mesh), point to multipoint (hub and spoke) and point to point connectivity similar to Ethernet private lines.

Level 3’s IP VPN service runs on their converged MPLS backbone rather than the public Internet. This gives you six-level Class of Service (CoS) for high performance voice and video transport as well as data connections. Level 3 owns more than 100,000 fiber miles connecting 450 markets in more than 45 countries. Your last mile connection can be anything from T1 through Gigabit Ethernet.

Level 3 is one of the world’s most connected Internet Service Providers. Their Dedicated Internet Access offers IP port speeds from DS-1 (1.5 Mbps) to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. High bandwidth users can opt for High Speed IP (HSIP), a dedicated wholesale high speed Internet service.

For the ultimate in high bandwidth service, Level 3 Wavelength service offers high performance, low latency fiber optic wavelength services over their high speed DWDM network. Available speeds are GigE, 2.5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 10 GigE and 40 Gbps. You can order both protected and unprotected point to point configurations. Native Fiber Channel and FICON protocols are supported.

Level 3 Private Line services are available worldwide in over 45 countries. These connections are delivered over proven SONET and SDH architectures that are protocol independent. You can transport IP, voice, data and video as Layer 2 or Layer 3 traffic.

Do you have connectivity needs that include service to locations within Mexico or other international destinations from the United States? If so, get prices, features and availability for International fiber optic network services.



Note: Map of Mexico courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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.

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.

MPLS VPLS Offers Virtual Private LAN Service

Nearly every business has its own LAN or Local Area Network based on some combination of wired and wireless Ethernet. For businesses with a single office, everything is self-contained other than a single broadband connection to the Internet. What about businesses with many locations that include branch offices, franchises, warehouses, factories and data centers? Each of those locations also has its own self-contained LAN. The question is how to best connect them together.

There are all sorts of schemes used to provide inter-office connectivity, including using the Internet as a VPN or Virtual Private Network. Other companies, seeking more security or higher performance have created their own private networks using dedicated private lines from each location back to headquarters. This is an elegant, but both expensive and management intensive solution. Is there anything better?

The introduction of MPLS networks created the opportunity for companies to get out of the proprietary network business and turn that traffic over to a privately run network that could interconnect their many locations in a secure and high performance fashion. There’s a substantial cost savings involved because MPLS networks aren’t dedicated to the traffic of only one customer. The cost of the network is amortized over the entire customer base, reducing the cost for each.

Isn’t this the same as using the Internet to communicate? Not by a long shot. The Internet is a public resource that allows easy access to anyone and everyone with the modest price of a connection. There are no performance or security guarantees. Even so, for connection to the general public, the Internet is a terrific bargain. It’s just that you may not want your internal company communications on such a public network.

MPLS networks have inherently better security because they don’t use IP routing in their core. Instead they use a proprietary system called label switching that determines how packets get from one location to another. It’s all very deterministic and programmed by the network operator to ensure that each company’s data is visible only to that company. Resources are managed to ensure a committed level of bandwidth and technical characteristics such as latency, jitter and packet loss.

It sounds like MPLS networks are ideal for interconnecting business locations. In fact, MPLS networking has been growing rapidly and now includes the ability to connect to sites nationwide and even internationally. The quality of service controls make it particularly well suited to support latency sensitive applications such as VoIP telephony and teleconferencing.

VPLS is a particular service offered by MPLS networks. It stands for Virtual Private LAN Service. Like any MPLS network, it interconnects two or more locations anywhere served by the network. But VPLS has some unique characteristics. It’s not just a mechanism to transport traffic. It’s a system that interconnects multiple LANs as if they were all part of a single bridged LAN. In other words, two offices on opposites coasts are just as close on the network as if they were right down the hall from each other.

With VPLS, companies can truly create virtual organizations that are co-located on the network if not physically. There are a couple of technical requirements that must be met to do this. The virtual LAN depends on everything being connected through layer 2 switching rather than layer 3 routing. That means you’ll need Ethernet connections to the MPLS network. These can be Ethernet over Copper, Fiber, Fixed Wireless, or DS1 (T1) connections as appropriate. VPLS arrangements are also meshed by nature. They operate on an any-to-any basis, just like you’d expect on a LAN.

Does a VPLS network sound like what you need to interconnect your business locations? If so, get prices and availability on MPLS VPLS Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Service for as many locations as you need to support.

VPLS Is The Ethernet Cloud

We’re all familiar with the term cloud network. Various technologies are used to provide the infrastructure of the cloud and the services you can get through the cloud. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have your own cloud that included all your business locations?

In a way, you can. While it’s generally not practical to create a completely proprietary cloud network, you can get very close with VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service.

The “virtual” in VPLS means that you are sharing a privately operated multipoint network that you don’t own. The most popular network for this purpose is MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching. A characteristic of MPLS networks is that they can transport any type of traffic from point to point, point to multi-point or in a fully meshed network. That includes Ethernet traffic of most any bandwidth.

VPLS is an Ethernet based meshed network that is implemented using an MPLS cloud with Ethernet access connections. Pseudo-wires are used to create any-to-any Ethernet connectivity through the MPLS network. Using layer 2 pseudo-wires allows maintenance of a single bridged domain. This is what gives the perception that all of your sites are interconnected on your own Ethernet cloud. It is truly a virtual private LAN.

VPLS makes sense if you have multiple sites in a single metropolitan area but want the experience of having everyone working in a single large, indeed very large, office building. With VPLS the PC or printer in the next office is exactly as close on the network as the PC or printer ten miles away. But VPLS isn’t limited to metropolitan area networks. You can network many cities in the state or many cities in many states. The extent of your network is limited only by the service footprint of your service provider.

Actually, provider footprint is not even a limiting factor anymore, thanks to Ethernet Exchanges like Telx that interconnect participating carriers. It is even possible to include international locations in your VPLS cloud. AboveNet is a competitive carrier that offers international VPLS for the US and major cities in Europe.

Any company or organization with multiple point of presence should have a look at VPLS as a cost effective and seamless way to interconnect their voice, video and data networks. It is right for you? Find out with a quick inquiry for cost and availability of VPLS services serving your locations.

VPLS Connects Your Many LANs

Does your company have multiple locations? I’ll bet each one has its own LAN for computing and perhaps VoIP telephony, doesn’t it? So, how do you connect them all together?

The answer is probably, “With some difficulty.”

Well, how would you like to be able to do that with very little difficulty, and perhaps at a considerable cost savings over your present point to point communications links?

The network service you’ll be interested in is called VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service. It’s offered by Layer2 Communications and other highly competitive network service providers.

VPLS is a class of VPN or Virtual Private Network that connects multiple sites to form a single bridged domain. It is implemented using a MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching Network. That makes it protocol-transparent so that all services, regardless of which location the are physically located at, appear to be on the larger LAN that serves all locations.

VPLS is sometimes called Transparent LAN service. That’s because WAN communications moves from level 3 to level 2. Your connection to the network is via a managed edge switch that is provided by the network operator. The inherent broadcast nature of Ethernet is preserved, creating a “plug and play” environment as new services are added to the network and discovered by other members connected to the VPLS.

VPLS might be the right service for your company or organization if you need to connect anywhere from a few to a few dozen locations as if they were on a single Local Area Network. Advantages of this approach, compared to a private network arrangement with individual point to point connections back to headquarters, include lower latency, higher efficiency, and lower cost... perhaps much lower cost.

Will VPLS save you money and make your network more versatile and easier to operate? Why not discuss your needs with one of our expert consultants and get a complementary quote that meets your business needs? Our telecom brokerage service represents Layer2 Communications and other high value network service providers. Request a VPLS service quote online right now.