COVER STORY
customers that are mature in their use of Ethernet and have specific requirements for the support of applications requiring very high bandwidth. The rest of Asia has got pockets where it’s starting to grow – in India and China for example – and other countries where it is at an early stage.”
FAST-TRACKING CUSTOMERS To address this highly varied market, she says, Telstra works hard to lead wholesale customers on a fast track through the evolutionary cycle towards Ethernet, so that they are as prepared as possible ahead of demand from their own enterprise customers. “It probably helps when we go in and talk about Ethernet running alongside something they are more familiar with, like IP VPN,” she explains. “Ethernet’s not something they usually ask for voluntarily. We’ve had some big Ethernet wins recently though – a big education institute in New Zealand and a major US operator wanting high bandwidth connections to centres in Asia.” Japan may be comfortable with Ethernet, but Tilak says that for countries where it is less known the most effective stratagem is first to cherry-pick sectors where the technology offers the most immediate rewards – for example banking and finance. “Anywhere that favours high bandwidth and low latency, it’s going to make sense,” she says. “I’d also identify CDN operators, and systems integrators that are, for example, looking at cloud-based services and applications. There’s quite a bit of that in Asia, in places like Hong Kong. There’s a need for secure connectivity between commercial centres.”
GROWTH OF WHOLESALE So what then are the factors that are going to take carrier Ethernet from its current position to the next level? If global domination is the end game, then what’s happening over the next few years to bring that about? Phil Tilley, VP of marketing for the Metro Ethernet Forum believes that the outlook is good: “The increasingly global adoption of Ethernet is already making it easier for everyone to talk to each other,” he says. “I believe pricing will fall for circuits, with international capacity more and more readily available, and networks that interconnect different countries.” Tilley sees carrier Ethernet already becoming a stronger force in
regions where it has not got a major history: “In the Middle East, where fibre is being developed, you’ve got operators there now asking ’How can I build my services so they look attractive to international carriers?’ They want to be able to reach out to people like BT Global Services, Orange, Verizon so they can offer their services wholesale.” Scrutiny and interest is also flowing in the other direction, Tilley believes: “Big international carriers are looking at new regions and are asking themselves who has got the best, most Ethernet-rich network there. Their customers need the quality they are used to in their home market.”
Capacity’s Carrier Ethernet Business Briefing
“Exchanges mean that smaller service providers can access the footprint of a major player like Verizon easily”
Nan Chen, CEO, CENX
The consequence, says Tilley, is that wholesale represents one of the fastest growing elements of the global carrier Ethernet scene, and he expects the wholesaling of Ethernet services to grow still further in the wake of the recent ratification of the MEF’s eNNI interconnect standard: “Wholesale growth is putting demands on the area of interconnects,” he says. “Phase one of eNNI has been done, defining the interface for basic communications. Later this year or early next we’ll see phase two, which we’re calling tunnel access. This is traffic with a high QoS being delivered through an access network by a service provider. We’re already seeing use of and growth in eNNI, and an implementation guide to help service providers is on the way.”
ETHERNET EXCHANGES Carrier Ethernet is also enjoying a leg up as a global standard thanks to the appearance of a whole new dimension in the market – the
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