Often, forward-looking entities??”whether
Service Providers or equipment manufacturers??”are ahead of the standards bodies
in terms of recognizing and addressing the practical issues that usually emerge when
offering new services. A look at these issues and their respective solutions in the
marketplace serves, therefore, to provide a better understanding of the actual status
quo in the field.
45
46 Chapter 2
Defining Carrier Ethernet
Although numerous efforts, both informal and formal (standards-based), have been
undertaken to make Ethernet more viable as a technology and service beyond the
LAN, the MEF has been instrumental in initiating a substantial formal effort to define
Carrier Ethernet services (delivered by Service Providers). This definition was a
prerequisite to developing a common understanding and a common objective in the
delivery of such services.
Among the first steps undertaken was to define more precisely what such Ethernet
services would entail, since, as noted in the previous chapter and repeated in Table 2.1,
there are fundamental differences in providing Ethernet in the Service Provider network
(broadly referred to as Carrier Ethernet) as opposed to providing Ethernet in the LAN.
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