Verizon Communications launched “class of service” offerings for its metro Ethernet customers in Washington D.C. and New York late last month, the company announced yesterday, with plans to extend the offering across its entire footprint by the end of the year.

Verizon is offering three basic classes of Ethernet service. The top tier, dubbed “RealTime,” includes tight restrictions on jitter and latency for high-priority traffic such as voice and video. The second is for mission-critical data such as supply chain integration and enterprise resource planning. The third is for standard data applications such as Internet access. In cases of network congestion, priority is given to higher classes of traffic.

Verizon plans to offer service level agreements for the new services in another month or two and expand those offerings to all its markets by the end of the year.

The need for classes of service is being driven by customers’ increased use of a variety of different applications--from voice and video to Internet access--on their Ethernet networks in conjunction with ever-increasing bandwidth needs, said Michael Tighe, director of Verizon’s Ethernet product portfolio. “In the past, customers used Ethernet because they needed cost-effective bandwidth. But more and more customers are looking at using a broadband Ethernet pipe as their primary access into the network, migrating all their data and voice applications onto the network. So having class of service is becoming a critical feature.”

So far, the classes are available only to Verizon’s private line Ethernet offerings but will be extended to IP/MPLS-based switched Ethernet service in the fourth quarter, Tighe said.

Verizon’s class-of-service offerings are based on IEEE standards 802.1p and 802.1q and were attained through upgrades to its network of Catalyst 6509 Ethernet switches from Cisco Systems.