The service provider market is changing rapidly as more companies adopt advanced network applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) and videoconferencing. Service providers are under mounting pressure to support the high-bandwidth, multipoint Ethernet and IP characteristics that these emerging applications require, while continuing to deliver traditional voice and data. They have two choices: They can employ the traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) model to provide basic, Layer 1, point-to-point Ethernet circuits, or follow a more scalable multilayer approach that is capable of supporting advanced multipoint data applications.
No matter which model service providers choose, Cisco Systems® offers a portfolio of high-performance Ethernet interface cards for the Cisco® ONS Family of multiservice platforms to meet their needs. Cisco Carrier Ethernet (CE) Series interface cards provide reliable, interoperable, standards-based point-to-point Ethernet provisioning, with added intelligence that only Cisco can offer. Cisco Multilayer (ML) Series Ethernet interface cards provide intelligent multipoint Ethernet provisioning that supports advanced data applications and helps enable new revenue-generating services.
This paper discusses the capabilities and advantages of Cisco Carrier Ethernet and Cisco Multilayer Ethernet provisioning, including sample deployment scenarios for each approach. Service providers can use this paper as a resource to compare Cisco CE-Series and Cisco ML-Series Ethernet solutions and determine when to choose one or the other.
INTRODUCTION
The Information Age transformed the service provider industry, creating a variety of new data services in addition to traditional voice, and unprecedented business opportunities. Many service providers around the world found that the most efficient way to support customers' data needs while continuing to provide highly reliable voice service was with multiservice provisioning platforms (MSPPs). Using platforms such as the Cisco ONS 15300 and ONS 15400 series, service providers have effectively delivered traditional TDM voice circuits and a variety of IP and Ethernet services for several years.
However, the service provider market is changing once again. Businesses worldwide are increasingly adopting advanced data applications such as VoIP and videoconferencing that require more bandwidth, multipoint capabilities, and end-to-end quality of service (QoS). Service providers face growing customer demand for the intelligent, multipoint Ethernet and IP services to support these applications. At the same time, service providers must also continue to support the traditional point-to-point voice and data services they already provide to their customers.
As service providers map out their future data-services strategies, they face a choice between two distinct models for delivering Ethernet over SONET or SDH networks.
1. They can continue using a TDM model to provision Ethernet through a mesh of physical point-to-point circuits.
2. They can implement intelligent multipoint networks over SONET/SDH infrastructure, and use Layer 2 switching intelligence to support both traditional voice and data services and advanced multipoint applications.
Whichever strategy service providers adopt, Cisco offers intelligent IP and Ethernet technologies for Cisco MSPPs that help enable more efficient, flexible Ethernet provisioning than ever before, and lay the foundation for delivering the advanced data applications customers demand.
Cisco Ethernet Solutions for Cisco ONS Platforms
The Cisco portfolio of Ethernet interface cards provides the full range of provisioning choices to support any service provider's short- and long-term strategy for delivering data services and applications.
• Cisco CE-Series interface cards provide fast, efficient mapping of Ethernet onto SONET/SDH payloads. Service providers can use Cisco CE-Series to provision physical point-to-point Ethernet circuits the same way they currently provision TDM voice circuits.
• Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards bring unparalleled Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing intelligence to service provider networks. Service providers can deploy intelligent multipoint networks over SONET/SDH infrastructures, facilitating much more efficient bandwidth utilization and support for advanced revenue-generating data applications.
Whether a service provider chooses Cisco Carrier Ethernet, Cisco Multilayer Ethernet, or even a combination of both, Cisco Ethernet interface cards offer a number of advantages, including:
• End-to-end solution-Cisco offers 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet solutions that interoperate across the entire network-core, metro, and access. Cisco Ethernet interface cards also integrate easily with all Cisco ONS platforms and facilitate end-to-end Layer 2 and Layer 3 service capabilities, offering a complete Ethernet solution from the customer premises through to the core network.
• Multivendor interoperability-Cisco Ethernet solutions for MSPPs use common industry standards such as generic framing procedure (GFP) to help ensure interoperability with virtually any other standards-based service provider platform.
• Network convergence-Whether using Cisco ML-Series or Cisco CE-Series interface cards, service providers can deliver both Ethernet and TDM voice services over a single, converged infrastructure. This eliminates the need to deploy multiple overlay networks to support different service types, as well as the substantial capital and operational costs associated with an overlay approach.
• Native intelligence-Cisco CE-Series interface cards-and even more so, Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards-provide built-in intelligence that no other Ethernet provisioning solution can offer. Cisco Ethernet cards draw on two decades of Cisco experience as the worldwide leader in IP networking.
• Superior manageability-The Cisco Transport Manager element management interface provides simplified, easy-to-use tools for provisioning both point-to-point and multipoint Ethernet services.
However, there are distinct differences between Cisco CE-Series and Cisco ML-Series solutions. Service providers should carefully consider the capabilities and advantages of both approaches. The best solution depends on the type of deployment a service provider has in mind, and ultimately, the data applications customers want to deploy, both now and in the future. When building a long-term foundation for Ethernet provisioning, service providers must consider whether a solution that offers simple, point-to-point physical Ethernet circuit provisioning will continue to meet customer needs, or whether support for multipoint data applications will be required.
CISCO CARRIER ETHERNET
Cisco CE-Series interface cards provide a straightforward, easy-to-implement method for deploying Private Line Ethernet services over traditional TDM networks. Using Cisco Carrier Ethernet with a Cisco ONS metro or access platform, service providers can easily map Ethernet onto SONET/SDH payloads and provision point-to-point Ethernet service the same way they have provisioned TDM voice circuits for years. However, Cisco CE-Series interface cards also employ the latest provisioning technologies to dramatically improve efficiency of delivering Ethernet over SONET/SDH infrastructures.
In the past, service providers simply mapped Ethernet directly to SONET/SDH. This strategy provided a means of delivering IP services over TDM networks, but it was extremely inefficient. The fixed bandwidth requirements of SONET/SDH meant that service providers often had to set aside much larger portions of bandwidth than the private-line service actually required. For example, to provide a 10-Mbps Private Line Ethernet connection, service providers previously had to tie up a full 50-Mbps STS-1/VC-3 circuit. In addition, traditional TDM circuits must be removed from service to add or subtract bandwidth, making them extremely inflexible for scaling with customers as their bandwidth needs grow.
Over the past several years, however, a series of new protocols has emerged that facilitates much more flexible, efficient provisioning of point-to-point Ethernet circuits over SONET/SDH. These protocols include:
• Virtual concatenation (VCAT)-VCAT allows service providers to provision data circuits in increments more suitable for Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbps), as opposed to standard bandwidth units used in SONET and SDH, which were designed entirely for fixed-bandwidth voice circuits. Using low-order VCAT and high-order VCAT, service providers can now provision circuits in 1.5-Mbps or 50-Mbps increments, respectively, and customize Ethernet connections to match customers' bandwidth needs.
• Link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS)-LCAS allows service providers to dynamically adjust the bandwidth of a circuit with no impact on existing service. Using LCAS, service providers can fulfill customer requests for bandwidth upgrades in minutes, instead of requiring days or weeks as with previous point-to-point Ethernet services.
• Generic framing procedure-GFP provides a universally operable means of mapping Ethernet over SONET or SDH, helping ensure that data traffic can be supported by any GFP standards-based platform across the network.
Figure 1 illustrates a service network incorporating platforms from multiple vendors. In this scenario, the service provider uses VCAT, LCAS, and GFP to deliver efficient mapped Ethernet services across a multivendor network environment.
Figure 1
Cisco Carrier Ethernet with VCAT, LCAS, and GFP for a Multivendor Network
Cisco CE-Series interface cards support all of these protocols, providing a standards-based, interoperable solution for efficiently delivering Ethernet over TDM networks. With Cisco Carrier Ethernet, service providers can utilize network bandwidth much more efficiently and provide tailored offerings that better match customers' needs. This enhanced flexibility also allows service providers to create much more granular service-level agreements (SLAs) to support a wider range of revenue-generating services.
Advantages of Cisco Carrier Ethernet
Built on common industry standards and Cisco IP expertise, Cisco CE-Series interface cards offer a number of advantages. These include:
• Customized circuit provisioning-Using low-order VCAT and high-order VCAT with Cisco Carrier Ethernet, service providers can deploy Ethernet connections that better fit customers' bandwidth requirements, and provision network bandwidth much more efficiently than with traditional mapped Ethernet solutions.
• Support across the network-Cisco CE-Series interface cards span the entire service provider network, from Cisco ONS 15300 Series solutions in the access layer, Cisco ONS 15454 SONET/SDH platforms in the metro network, and Cisco ONS 15600 Series platforms in the core network. Cisco offers mapped, point-to-point solutions for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet, over both SONET and SDH architectures.
• Regulatory compliance-Cisco CE-Series interface cards are Operations Systems Modification of Intelligent Network Elements (OSMINE)-tested for provisioning by incumbent carriers in the United States.
• Multivendor interoperability-Cisco Carrier Ethernet adheres to industry standards to help ensure interoperability with any GFP-compliant provisioning platform, anywhere in the network.
• Reliability and resiliency-Cisco Carrier Ethernet services offer the extremely high reliability of traditional TDM circuits, including sub 50-millisecond (ms) failover, because they continue to use standard SONET/SDH protection schemes.
• Extra intelligence for greater flexibility-Cisco CE-Series interface cards can provide packet prioritization using the IP type of service (ToS) byte or using the 802.1P standard, helping enable service allocation. No other point-to-point Ethernet provisioning solution provides this level of intelligence to help ensure that jitter-sensitive traffic, such as VoIP, is prioritized.
• Easy integration-Service providers using Cisco ONS 15000 Series MSPPs already use the Cisco Transport Manager interface to provision TDM services. With Cisco Carrier Ethernet, service providers can use the same familiar GUI to immediately begin provisioning Ethernet. Cisco Transport Manager also supports transaction language 1 (TL-1)-based provisioning to easily integrate with many third-party management systems.
Using Cisco Carrier Ethernet
Some carriers have long-established provisioning practices in place, and a large employee base accustomed to provisioning basic, physical point-to-point Ethernet connections following the TDM model. In these instances, Cisco Carrier Ethernet provides an economic, effective solution. It is ideal for the following:
• Customers that require only basic point-to-point connectivity-For a customer that needs a single high-bandwidth connection between a small number of sites (such as in a disaster-recovery implementation), Cisco Carrier Ethernet provides an effective, easy way to deliver point-to-point Ethernet services.
• Networks that incorporate platforms from multiple vendors-A service provider may need to connect a customer-located Cisco ONS platform to other parts of the network that use third-party SONET/SDH platforms incapable of supporting multilayer services. In that situation, Cisco Carrier Ethernet can deliver Ethernet over a traditional vendor's GFP-compliant Ethernet offering.
However, service providers should consider that, while Cisco Carrier Ethernet does facilitate more efficient point-to-point Ethernet provisioning, the traditional point-to-point approach itself has disadvantages. A network that follows the traditional TDM model cannot efficiently provide end-to-end QoS or scale to the bandwidth required to support the advanced data applications, such as VoIP and videoconferencing, which many customers now demand. While Cisco CE-Series interface cards offer more built-in intelligence than other point-to-point Ethernet solutions, they are still limited to Layer 1 services and basic, point-to-point network topologies.
In many cases, a multipoint Cisco Multilayer Ethernet solution offers a much more flexible, long-term foundation for delivering data services and applications over SONET/SDH networks. Service providers should consider using the Cisco multilayer strategy instead of Cisco Carrier Ethernet when they need to serve:
• Customers that require multipoint data applications-As customers continue adopting advanced data applications such as VoIP, videoconferencing, and video on demand (VoD), service providers will face increasing pressure to support end-to-end QoS. A multilayer, multipoint network is much better positioned to accommodate these applications than a network built on a mesh of point-to-point circuits.
• Customers with a large number of sites-For these customers, a mesh of point-to-point connections can rapidly become extremely complicated, inefficient, and costly to maintain and expand.
• Customers that require several different services at once-For customers that need voice, IP transport, storage, and other services, a point-to-point Ethernet strategy is more difficult to integrate and scale into a single, converged service architecture. As a result, service providers are more likely to require overlay networks to support new services, resulting in substantial additional costs to deploy and maintain multiple networks.
CISCO MULTILAYER ETHERNET
Cisco ML-Series Ethernet cards bring Layer 2 switching intelligence to SONET/SDH networks, facilitating support for a wide range of advanced data applications and revenue-generating services, and much more efficient Ethernet service provisioning. With Cisco multilayer capabilities available across the Cisco optical portfolio, service providers can support advanced data applications from the core network to the network edge.
With multilayer intelligence, service providers can partition bandwidth into different service classes and support tiered service offerings, as well as data applications that require end-to-end QoS. (See Figure 2.) Multilayer, multipoint networks can support:
• VoIP
• IP-based business continuance
• Videoconferencing
• Video on demand
• Television broadcasting
• Corporate VPN services with premium tiered access (instead of "best-effort" over the Internet)
All of these services are currently experiencing rapid growth in the marketplace as enterprise customers around the world move to adopt them. And all of them are multipoint services that demand a more intelligent, multilayer approach to Ethernet provisioning.
Figure 2 shows a converged multipoint network supporting IP, TDM, and ATM services. Multiservice metro and access platforms aggregate traffic from multiple customers and provide QoS to support advanced voice, video, and data applications.
Figure 2
Metro Data Services Deployment Using Cisco Multilayer Ethernet
Multilayer Intelligence to Support Advanced Applications
Cisco multilayer technology for Cisco ONS platforms represents the highest-performance Ethernet and IP switching modules ever integrated into a SONET/SDH optical transport platform. Using Cisco Multilayer Ethernet, service providers can further extend the multiservice capabilities of Cisco ONS platforms and deliver highly reliable voice and data services over a converged, intelligent multipoint network.
Instead of provisioning separate point-to-point connections for each circuit, service providers can use Cisco Multilayer Ethernet to more efficiently deliver multiple services over a resilient packet ring-based network. (See Figure 3 and Figure 4.) Traffic from many customers can be logically separated over secure virtual circuits, instead of requiring deployment of physical circuits for every network connection. As a result, service providers can enable a multipoint transport architecture that more closely matches the service requirements of advanced applications, and makes much more efficient use of network bandwidth.
In addition to the switching intelligence within the MSPP, Cisco ML-Series interface cards offer an advanced set of QoS features, allowing service providers to optimize the network and support a wide variety of SLAs. These features include:
• Flexible packet classification-Service providers can classify packets based upon input port, VLAN, class of service (CoS), IP Precedence, or IP differentiated services code points (DSCP), and tailor packet management based upon the user's traffic.
• Policing-Highly granular per-flow and input-port policing helps service providers to enforce SLA bandwidth requirements, reducing the possibility of a user flooding the network.
• Priority marking-Service providers can reclassify a packet and direct downstream nodes to treat the packet differently, providing a high degree of flexibility in prioritizing traffic.
• Per-class queuing-Service providers can intelligently provision fair access to excess network resources, allocate bandwidth to support SLAs, and ensure that delay-sensitive traffic, such as VoIP, always takes priority.
• Weighted Deficit Round Robin (WDRR) scheduling-Service providers can use additional weighting mechanisms to help ensure fair access to excess bandwidth and guarantee throughput to each class of service.
• Admission control-During service provisioning, Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards verify that QoS resources have not been accidentally overcommitted.
Ultimately, these features support a much more dynamic, flexible foundation for supporting advanced multipoint applications and delivering revenue-generating data services that are highly tailored to customers' unique needs.
Safeguarding Networks with Resilient Packet Ring
In the past, service providers have been concerned about being able to guarantee uptime of data circuits without using a physical protection scheme, such as SONET/SDH. However, Layer 2 protection schemes such as Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) can provide the same "carrier-class" reliability, while dramatically improving bandwidth utilization.
In a traditional point-to-point Ethernet network, protection schemes operate entirely at the physical layer: Each "working" circuit is backed up by a "protect" circuit on the other side of the ring. RPR eliminates the need to reserve two times the circuit bandwidth by using physical-layer alarm information and Layer 2 communications to detect failures in the service ring and restore network service-with the same sub-50-ms resiliency as SONET/SDH protection.
The most substantial benefit of RPR is a dramatic improvement in bandwidth utilization throughout the network. With traditional point-to-point Ethernet provisioning, the Layer 1 protection schemes render the network inherently inefficient, even when using VCAT and LCAS, because every "working" circuit is backed up by a second "protect" circuit with the same bandwidth. Unless there is a failure, this reserve bandwidth is typically not used. Alternatively, in a multipoint network using RPR, circuits are still fully protected, but service providers can utilize the full amount of bandwidth across the ring-effectively doubling the available bandwidth in the network.
Ultimately, a multilayer, multipoint network using RPR provides the same reliability, ease of deployment, and interoperability as traditional point-to-point provisioning, but helps enable a great deal more.
Figure 3 illustrates a SONET/SDH service ring enabled by RPR, supporting VoIP services. RPR provides phone-to-phone delay of less than 150-200 ms and less than 30 ms jitter. Across the optical domain, delays are kept below 120 ms and jitter below 20 ms.
Figure 3
Advanced VoIP Services Enabled by RPR
Video applications require high resiliency, aggregation of many high-bandwidth channels, minimal delay, and efficient drop-and-continue streams. In Figure 4, the RPR-enabled service network provides 80 to 130 channels of MPEG streaming video (5 Mbps per channel) over Gigabit Ethernet, with packet sizes of 1500 to 4000 bytes.
Figure 4
Advanced Digital (MPEG) Video Distribution Enabled by RPR
Advantages of Cisco Multilayer Ethernet
Service providers using Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards gain a number of distinct advantages over traditional Ethernet provisioning strategies. The advantages include:
• Distributed switching-Every Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface card on every Cisco ONS platform can perform Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing functions, facilitating end-to-end QoS to support advanced data applications, as well as more efficient flow of traffic throughout the network.
• More efficient transport architecture-A multipoint transport network is inherently optimized to support advanced data services, unlike traditional point-to-point circuits. For a deployment connecting three or more locations, a series of point-to-point connections requires exponentially more bandwidth than a multipoint architecture. A multipoint network is more than just a shared environment. It is an architecture that inherently optimizes service delivery to those sites that require the most bandwidth. The more locations connected to the multipoint network, the more the bandwidth savings grows.
• RPR support-Traditional ring-based data networks require data to traverse the entire ring, even if the destination node is one hop away. Networks equipped with intelligent Cisco Multilayer Ethernet services provide spatial reuse and send traffic directly to the destination, freeing up bandwidth around the ring.
• Maximized bandwidth utilization-Using Cisco Multilayer Ethernet and RPR, service providers can use all the available bandwidth in the service ring to support revenue-generating services, instead of reserving huge amounts of unused bandwidth with a traditional SONET/SDH protection scheme.
• Interoperability across the network, to the customer premises-Traditional point-to-point Ethernet services begin and end within the optical domain, requiring service providers to deploy special equipment at the customer premises to provide QoS and security. With a Cisco access platform equipped with Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards, the service provider network can interoperate directly with the routers and switches in the customer's LAN, helping enable the QoS and security required for advanced data applications, while eliminating the substantial costs of customer-located optical platforms.
• More efficient transport-A network with shared bandwidth and multilayer intelligence allows service providers to statistically multiplex and aggregate traffic at the network edge, providing much more efficient, cost-effective transport across the network.
• Simplified provisioning-Service provider employees do not have to know the details of multilayer data provisioning to support advanced data applications. They can use the same familiar Cisco Transport Manager interface they use to provision TDM or Cisco Carrier Ethernet services to provision multipoint Ethernet.
• Enhanced SLA management-Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards provide comprehensive performance-management statistics that allow service providers to proactively track SLAs and identify potential network problems.
Oversubscription
Service providers using Cisco ONS platforms with Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards can use statistical multiplexing to oversubscribe bandwidth in the network. Through oversubscription, service providers can serve more customers with existing bandwidth, while offering more attractive, cost-effective options to customers.
Using multipoint topologies such as RPR, service providers can establish committed information rate (CIR) and peak information rate (PIR) thresholds on a per-customer and per-application basis. Customized SLAs can help ensure that customers have the baseline bandwidth they need, while allowing them to utilize even more (up to the agreed peak rates) when bandwidth is available (Figure 5). Service providers gain maximum utilization of their bandwidth toward revenue-generating services, while customers are charged only for the actual bandwidth they use.
Using Cisco Transport Manager and a straightforward graphical interface, service providers can easily provision CIR, PIR, and other circuit parameters quickly.
Figure 5
Provisioning Circuit Parameters with Cisco Transport Manager
End-to-End Security
Cisco ONS platforms and Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards use strong security strategies to safeguard network components and prevent unauthorized access to customers' services. Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards use TACACS+ and RADIUS protocols to support authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services. These services verify the identity of remote users, control access to network systems, and track the actions of users.
Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards also support:
• Console port for direct access to Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards with password protection
• Layer 3 access control lists (ACLs) for filtering traffic based on IP addresses
• Configuration logging, providing an audit trail to track all logins to the system
• Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol support for authenticated access
By keeping the network secure, service providers can help ensure that customer configurations are only altered by authorized personnel, and are never accidentally changed or disrupted. Services can also be rolled out faster, because service providers can more tightly control configurations.
Using Cisco Multilayer Ethernet
A multipoint, multilayer approach to Ethernet provisioning provides an extremely flexible, long-lasting foundation for supporting advanced data applications and meeting customers' current and future needs. Service providers should consider using Cisco ML-Series Ethernet cards when:
• Customers are adopting advanced data applications that require QoS, such as VoIP or videoconferencing
• Customers are requiring large networks that link many sites
• Customers are demanding more competitive, flexible, and individually tailored service offerings
• The service network is reaching its limitations, and service providers need to generate more value from existing bandwidth
• Service providers want to position the network to more quickly and cost-effectively support current and future data applications
DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS
Following are two sample deployment scenarios that demonstrate the differences and advantages of provisioning Ethernet with a Cisco Carrier Ethernet or Cisco Multilayer Ethernet approach.
Scenario 1: Initial Ethernet Deployment
In this scenario, the service provider has a TDM network based on Cisco ONS 15454 MSPPs. The service provider is seeing growing customer demand for Private Line Ethernet services, and is looking for a solution that can be deployed right away and can scale with demand.
Cisco Carrier Ethernet Approach
The service provider can deploy basic point-to-point Ethernet services extremely quickly, at the lowest possible cost. Because service providers are already familiar with the Cisco Transport Manager interface for provisioning TDM circuits, they can begin provisioning point-to-point Ethernet circuits immediately. As demand for Private Line Ethernet services grows, the service provider must expand the Cisco Carrier Ethernet deployment. However, if customers begin to adopt more advanced, high-bandwidth data applications such as VoIP or videoconferencing, the network's point-to-point mesh topology will not be able to support them. The service provider may need to implement a multipoint, multilayer solution to deliver the necessary bandwidth and end-to-end QoS.
Cisco Multilayer Ethernet Approach
The service provider can choose to invest now in a more flexible, scalable, long-lasting foundation for delivering Ethernet and other IP services. Initially, the Cisco multipoint, multilayer approach can be used to deliver the same voice and basic Ethernet services as with Cisco Carrier Ethernet. The service provider can provision multipoint Ethernet circuits using the same familiar Cisco Transport Manager interface previously used to provision TDM circuits. However, the service provider can immediately begin to offer customers much more flexible, tailored service offerings that more closely match their needs and price points. And, as more and more customers adopt advanced data applications, the service provider can bring new offerings to market extremely quickly, because the network already provides the bandwidth and end-to-end QoS necessary to support them.
Scenario 2: Upgrade of Data Services Network
In this scenario, the service provider has been deploying Private Line Ethernet services on a SONET/SDH network for one year, using a Cisco ONS Family platform with Cisco Carrier Ethernet. As competitors have brought their own Private Line Ethernet services to market, the service provider is searching for a way to expand service variety for customers, reduce cost per bit, and increase the scalability of the network.
Cisco Multilayer Approach
The service provider can transition to a full multipoint, multilayer network. The migration will free up a substantial amount of bandwidth on the existing network, increasing service capacity and transport efficiency. The multipoint intelligence and more efficient bandwidth utilization can also enable the service provider to begin offering state-of-the-art Ethernet services to support advanced applications. In addition, the upgraded network will provide a more flexible, long-term foundation for continually supporting new multipoint data applications and meeting changing customer needs.
Cisco Multilayer Ethernet with Cisco Carrier Ethernet Approach
Cisco ONS Family platforms can support both Cisco CE-Series and Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards simultaneously. So the service provider can begin deploying a Cisco Multilayer Ethernet solution, while continuing to provide Private Line Ethernet services with Cisco Carrier Ethernet. The service provider can ramp up multipoint services as customer needs dictate, while still offering Cisco Carrier Ethernet service to meet customers' basic Private Line Ethernet needs.
CONCLUSION
As network technologies evolve and the worldwide market for data services expands, service providers can be certain of one thing: customer demand for high-bandwidth data services will continue to grow. For many service providers, the question is not whether customers will demand support for advanced data applications, but when.
With Cisco CE-Series and Cisco ML-Series Ethernet interface cards for Cisco ONS Family platforms, Cisco Systems provides a portfolio of scalable, interoperable Ethernet provisioning solutions to match any service provider's growth strategy. As the worldwide leader in multiservice provisioning platforms and IP networking, Cisco can help service providers build a flexible, long-lasting foundation for supporting revenue-generating services and applications, today and in the future.
