September 13, 2005 Berlin, Germany -- Today at the 2005 Carrier Ethernet World Congress, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) held an awards ceremony in recognition of the first group of systems to comply with its global Carrier Ethernet service definitions.
The ceremony took place in the presence of Nan Chen, president and director of the MEF. Certificates were presented by Bob Mandeville, president and founder of Iometrix, the company responsible for the forum's conformance testing.
"Iometrix is pleased to announce the first group of vendors and systems that deliver MEF compliant Ethernet services," remarked Mandeville. "This service-oriented certification lays the foundation for future testing, as Carrier Ethernet evolves to take a dominant position in the global marketplace."
The MEF says its certification program is a key facilitator for the global provisioning of consistent Carrier Ethernet services. According to the forum, when the first phase of the program was launched in April, considerable progress had already been made in defining appropriate standards, with Iometrix as the first test lab to participate.
All certified products were tested by Iometrix in accordance with its MEF-approved "Test Plan for Ethernet Services at the UNI." For qualifying vendors, this certificate states whether their products deliver EPL (Ethernet Private Line), EVPL (Ethernet Virtual Private Line) and/or E-LAN (Ethernet multipoint-to-multipoint) services, compliant with the MEF 9 technical specification for such services.
The MEF says it expects the certification program to have a significant impact on the global uptake of rapidly emerging Carrier Ethernet services. The forum contends that, from a vendor perspective, a single certificate reduces the time and cost of conformance testing and can accelerate the deployment of new systems, while giving end users cause for greater confidence in Ethernet service consistency. The forum says that certification will also encourage service providers to evaluate multiple vendors' equipment, respond quickly to new orders or upgrades, and focus on delivering the full benefits of Carrier Ethernet services.
"The demand for Carrier Ethernet is exploding, and the MEF certification program will help the networking industry to meet it," comments Eric Puetz, executive director of broadband switching for SBC Laboratories. "Increasing interest in Carrier Ethernet deployment in backhaul networks for WiFi and triple-play services is extending demand far beyond just business applications. As this program continues to certify multiple aspects of Carrier Ethernet as defined by the MEF, it will become even easier to deliver the benefits of Carrier Ethernet, including rapid service creation, smooth scalability to 10 Gbit/sec, end-to-end protection, robust service level agreements, and flexible support for voice, Internet, and multicast traffic."
The first sixteen companies to obtain MEF certification for their respective Carrier Ethernet systems include: Actelis Networks, Alcatel, Atrica, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Fujitsu Network Communications, Hatteras Networks, Lucent Technologies, Metrobility Optical Systems, MRV, Nortel Networks, Riverstone, Siemens, Tellabs, T-pack and World Wide Packets.
For a complete listing of certified systems, click here.