Metro Ethernet service has been growing by leaps and bounds. That’s not surprising, considering that Metro Ethernet services generally offer higher bandwidths at lower prices than traditional telecom services. They also offer features such as virtual private line and LAN service that weren’t previously available. As business appetite for Ethernet in the WAN grows, it’s only natural that businesses look to connect everywhere through their Metro Ethernet connections.

Metro Ethernet was intended to be just that. The "metro" in Metro Ethernet means metropolitan. It’s a service that is perfect for connecting two or more business locations within the same city or greater metropolitan area. The geographical range of coverage is set by the service footprint of the carrier providing the service.

Many competitive carriers now base their core networks on IP packet switching technology, not the traditional circuit switching architecture. They’ve embraced Carrier Ethernet to offer Ethernet services that span metropolitan areas so that companies can interconnect branches in cities across the country.

What’s been more difficult is getting the same type of universal access that companies have enjoyed with the Public Switched Telephone Network. After all, the days of monopoly in telecommunications are long gone. What’s needed is a standardized way for all those competing carriers to exchange traffic so that their customers can have a much wider geographical presence. Thats what E-NNI is all about.

The Ethernet External Network-to-Network Interface (E-NNI) is an industry standard ratified this year by the Metro Ethernet Forum. It provides a way for carriers to exchange traffic without having to worry about losing service features or having to create ad-hoc interfaces carrier by carrier. A separate UNI or User Network Interface connects each customer to its respective carrier.

The E-NNI specification makes it easy for carriers to exchange voice, data and video traffic at Ethernet layer-2. This make switched networks that span multiple carriers possible. To the user, the Ethernet WAN may look like one large cloud. To the service providers, it is a collection of clouds interconnected by peering through E-NNI connections.

The ratification of the E-NNI standard is giving rise to Ethernet Exchanges, such as Telx, that provide worldwide interconnection services for service providers at a carrier-neutral facility. Rather than having to build-out their service footprints to everywhere customers want connections or going through the laborious process of negotiating Private Ethernet NNI agreements, carriers can simply connect with each other through an Ethernet Exchange so that each participant has access to a much larger geographical footprint.

Can you company benefit from the growth of Carrier Ethernet and the many services it offers? The best way to find out is to get a competitive quote for your connection needs, be they across town or to the other side of the globe.

Is your organization bandwidth frustrated? With online technology moving as fast as it has been, many organizations find that the bandwidth they need exceeds the bandwidth they have. Ok, no problem. Just call up your service provider and tell them to crank up the line speed. Oh, no. They say you have all the speed you can get. Now what?

Have you considered moving? The sad truth is that bandwidth availability and pricing are highly location dependent. Some locations offer a wealth of options and low prices. Others may not even be able to support your basic needs no matter how much you are willing to spend.

There are two ways to move. You can relocate physically or you can relocate virtually. Between the two, you should find an acceptable solution.

Physical relocation is what it says. You pack up and move to another building. If you’ve been thinking of doing this anyway because you’ve run out of space or the rent has gotten to high, or you’d like to be closer to your customer base or suppliers, then lack of bandwidth could be the impetus that gets you going.

Don’t just blindly pick a spot based without checking out broadband availability first. You may be in for a rude shock. Sometimes service is available across the street, but not where you are. It’s hard to tell by looking, at least from the outside. You might talk to other tenants if you’ll have neighbors in the facility. See what they have for telephone and connectivity. Tenants of the buildings next to your pick should also be close enough to give you an idea if the bandwidth you want is available.

The best way to know for sure is to get competitive quotes from a telecom broker. Generally you need an address and telephone number for that address to get accurate quotes. Your consultants can work with you on getting something close enough to ensure you won’t be disappointed when you actually order service.

What if you can’t move or really don’t want to? In that case, a virtual move may be in order. Keep your offices and staff in place. What you’ll be moving is your servers and any appliances that need high bandwidth connections. Where will you be going? To a colocation center, of course. A colo, or carrier hotel, is a facility that provides rack space, power, cooling, and bandwidth for many clients. The cost of bringing bandwidth to your particular equipment is trivial because the service providers are also present in the colo facility. It’s usually just a matter of a wire or fiber line to another room. You can relocate the equipment you have now or sometimes rent servers that the colo technical staff maintain.

Are you ready to make the move for higher bandwidth? Before you make any commitments, be sure to talk with a Telarus expert consultant. You’ll get options, recommendations and prices on what services are available at your candidate destinations.

Bandwidth is booming in the Mile High City, or soon will be. AboveNet is installing nearly 100 route miles of dark and lit fiber to meet the mile-high bandwidth needs of Denver’s telecommunications, media, financial services, health care, retail and government users.

This could be a sign of things to come for nearly all metropolitan areas. The fact is that our productivity and economic growth is becoming more and more dependent on high levels of bandwidth to connect businesses, supplier, customers and remotely located employees. Copper can take us just so far. Then it’s time to connect with the nearly unlimited resources of glass fiber cables.

How much bandwidth are we talking about? AboveNet has fiber optic networks in cities nationwide that offer single wavelength service of 40 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps or 1 Gbps to extend a corporate LAN/WAN to multiple, metro area locations. You can have 40 Gbps fiber connectivity via an OC-768 handoff at your premises. That’s a level of bandwidth that was available only to carriers themselves not so long ago.

It should also be noted that each fiber strand can support more than one wavelength using a process called WDM or Wavelength Division Multiplexing. Each wavelength, or Lambda, is a slightly different color of laser light. Dozens or hundreds of wavelengths can travel through the same fiber without interfering. Each of those wavelengths can support up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth.

But is even this enough for the demands of major corporate or government users in a city the size of Denver? Well, those fiber cables that AboveNet is installing don’t just have one strand of fiber inside. These cables bundle 432 or 216 separate fibers within a large cable assembly. Multiply all those fiber strands times the number of wavelengths each fiber can support times the Gbps that each wavelength can carry and you’ve got some serious bandwidth. It’s more than is needed right now, so some fibers won’t be activated. These are the dark fiber that’s held in reserve for future needs or sold to organizations that want to have complete control over their communication resources by lighting their own fiber.

Do you have a need for metro or long haul fiber optic services from 40 Mbps to 40 Gbps? There are dark fiber and lit fiber optic services available now in most metropolitan areas from AboveNet and other high bandwidth competitive carriers. Prices are lower than they’ve ever been, thanks to improved technology and increased competition. You may be able to afford more bandwidth than you imagine. Find out with a competitive pricing quote and complementary consulting support from our Telarus bandwidth experts.

Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber are the hot new WAN network connections. They are growing in popularity because of high competition reducing Ethernet prices and services such as layer 2 switching available with direct Ethernet connections. So, why would you want a solution such as Ethernet over DS3?

It sounds like a hybrid arrangement. DS3 is a commonly available telecom service offering 45 Mbps from a T-Carrier standard TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) technology. Most users of DS3 order it for dedicated point to point connections, broadband business access for larger organizations, and high volume telephone trunking in enterprise contact centers and commercial call centers. Why put a new protocol like Ethernet over a legacy protocol like DS3?

The big advantage of Ethernet over DS3 is that it gives you the Ethernet connectivity and services you desire in areas where Metro Ethernet or Carrier Ethernet services are not yet available or too expensive. You may already have DS3 brought into your building. If so, the physical layer already exists to transport any protocol that is compatible with that DS3 service.

Another situation is when SONET fiber runs close to your location and it is quite affordable to demultiplex a DS3 connection and bring a drop to your building. The native Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber networks may not have build-outs anywhere near you. While the range of services and pricing from competitive carriers operating their own IP-core networks can be impressive, they may not have a service footprint in your area. DS3 is a more mature transport technology and may well be available to business locations nearby.

What can you expect from Ethernet over DS3? Bandwidth is limited to DS3’s rate of 45 Mbps, although Ethernet services are often very scalable and can be ordered from a few Mbps right on up to the limit of the port speed. If you need higher bandwidth, say 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or higher, it may be possible to bond DS3 services the way T1 lines are bonded to multiply bandwidth. Also, If DS3 is available it is likely being carried on a SONET fiber optic service, such as OC3 at 155 Mbps. You may be able to get a higher bandwidth connection if there is extra capacity in the fiber service that delivers your DS3.

Is Ethernet over DS3 the right option for your business? The best way to find out is to get a set of competitive quotes for all bandwidth services available at your business location. There may be more options at lower prices than you expect.