Ethernet services are a fast-growing segment of the enterprise market — a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the large cable multiple service operators. Cable players — including Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Optimum Lightpath, a subsidiary of Cablevision — are embracing carrier Ethernet standards, according to the Metro Ethernet Forum.

MEF last week announced cable vendor Arris as its 100th member and used the occasion to highlight cable participation in the forum. Cox and Time Warner Cable are recent additions, as is vendor Narad Networks, and all are part of an MEF growth spurt that has seen membership grow 50% in the last six months, said Nan Chen, the group's president.

The cable industry's movement into carrier Ethernet represents a new challenge to the core of telephone companies' service territory — the business customer. Although cable players have been saying they want to address more commercial business, only Cox has done serious work in that area to date.

One significant aspect of the cable industry's push into carrier Ethernet is that it provides the service providers with a readily accepted alternative to traditional T-1 service — something they haven't had in the past, Chen said.

“Cable companies are using carrier Ethernet as a tool to be able to offer standardized services,” he said. “They were lagging behind incumbent telcos because they had no equivalent to T-1.”

Because they operate regional organizations, cable companies have not typically provided national services, but they are in a position to do so, Chen said, using standardized carrier Ethernet services and working in unison.

“We provide a standardized way for them to interoperate among themselves using each other's networks or those of other network operators,” he said.

Optimum Lightpath, a subsidiary of Cablevision that operates in the New York metropolitan area, has built its recent success around Ethernet services, taking fiber optics to 2000 buildings largely on the popularity of that service. The company offers metro Ethernet products, including an E-Line point-to-point service at speeds from 10 Mb/s up to 1 Gb/s, an E-LAN multipoint service at speeds in the same range and a Gig-E storage area networking (SAN) offer, used to provide optical transport for companies using traditional IBM protocols for SANs. In addition, Lightpath in September began offering a Virtual Line product that enables customers to carve up an E-Line into different virtual lines to support different services.

Carrier Ethernet “represents a huge market opportunity,” Chen said. Infonetics Research recently predicted growth of carrier Ethernet from a $5.9 billion market in 2005 to a $22.5 billion market in 2009.

MEF is growing right along with the market. The forum provides certification of both Ethernet equipment and Ethernet services to member companies. Carrier Ethernet standards added five key attributes of carrier services to the existing Ethernet standard and used agreed-upon definitions of those attributes as part of the certification process. The five attributes are standardized services, scalability, service management, reliability and quality of service.

“Our certification program, for the first time, certified vendors, which was unheard of,” Chen said. “The reason that happened was that service providers are pushing overall convergence, and the ability to offer a standardized Ethernet product was viewed as a leading competitive advantage.”

To date, there are 31 certified equipment manufacturers and 14 certified carriers. MEF is offering certification of two types — MEF 9 certifies the user network interface for basic carrier Ethernet, and MEF 14 certifies performance of service as well as equipment.

RAD Data Communications, a MEF-certified equipment vendor, has seen the benefits of carrier Ethernet's growth, said Yacov Cazes, director of product management for Ethernet solutions.

“Carrier Ethernet is booming,” he said. “Overall the numbers are still low, but the growth rate is booming.” Time Warner Cable is deploying RAD gear in order to provide cellular backhaul services over its fiber backbone, he said.

The next phase of operation for MEF will involve increasing awareness of carrier Ethernet specifications and certification among enterprise customers so that they know what to look for when buying Ethernet services, Chen said. Prior to ITU Telecom World, he spoke at a meeting of the top 80 customers of PCCW, the incumbent carrier of Hong Kong. PCCW is a MEF-certified service provider.

BY THE NUMBERS: ITU TELECOM WORLD 2006

A glimpse behind the scenes at the world's biggest telecom show.

1

Number of exhibitors with a working elevator in their booth (Huawei)

350K

Amount of kilowatts of electricity to be used by exhibitors during the show, roughly what it takes to power the state of Wyoming

56

Number of exhibitors with double-decker booths

35K

Show organizers anticipate at least this many visitors to the show this week in Hong Kong

11

Number of exhibit halls, housing about 650 exhibitors