Carrier Ethernet Technology Forum - Ethernet Academy
Generated: 16 August, 2011, 13:47
Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Henry Todesca - 2010/08/19 19:21 _____________________________________
Investigating transport technologies. I thought it would be useful to post carrier ethernet transport technologies here. The only ones I'm really familiar with are: Ethernet over SDH/SONET which is Point-to-point Ethernet links over SDH/SONET and... Ethernet over MPLS in which case a wide range of IP-related protocols are/can be used. Ethernet links are transported as pseudowires using MPLS label switched paths, or LSPs, inside an outer MPLS tunnel. Ethernet over MPLS can support point-to-point (Virtual Private Wire Service(VPWS)) and multipoint (Virtual Private LAN service(VPLS)) services. Then there's Ethernet over Carrier-Ethernet Transport, or CET. CET is a combination of multiple technologies including: Provider Backbone Bridges (PBB) which provides scalability and secure demarcation. Provider Backbone Bridging-Traffic Engineering (PBB-TE) provides traffic-engineering support and transport for protected Ethernet services. There maybe some debate over their application and capabilities. Henry.
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Re:Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Matthew Sinno - 2010/08/20 08:48 _____________________________________
Henry, Excellent idea. As many of us know, this industry LOVES acronyms and new names for things. Quick additions: Ethernet over SDH/SONET is a mechanism to transport Ethernet protocol over SDH or SONET. Since the Ethernet service layer and the SDH/SONET transport layer are infact separate, it can be used to support EPL, EVPL, EP-LAN, EVP-LAN, EP-TREE, and EVP-TREE services. It can also be used to support native "port-based" services as well as services based on CE-VLAN and SP-VLAN transport as well. The most common application is infact EPL service mapping - and is generally expected to be such when EoSDH is requested. The same is true with Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS). Most commonly, existing IP/MPLS networks are upgraded to support more extensive Ethernet applications such as VPLS and H-VPLS. The ability to support EVPL and EPL is native in most MPLS equipment, however most implementations cover only CE-VLANs over PWE (for EVPL) and PWE (for EPL). Newer generations of MPLS equipment have added more extensive hardware and software for support of 802.1ad SP-VLAN, E-OAM (both in software and in hardware), increased MAC tables, and E-TREE application support (most commonly used for Mobile backhaul and PON networks, but not always).
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Carrier Ethernet Technology Forum - Ethernet Academy
Generated: 16 August, 2011, 13:47
More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Henry Todesca - 2010/08/21 05:24 _____________________________________
Thanks for the reply. I received a few messages from the admin and others on this site that it would useful to continue this discussion, so while I'm not well versed in all these technologies maybe others on the site have had experience with these: Ethernet Over DWDM (EoDWDM) utilizes DWDM as its core transport. It delivers massive bandwidth for point-to-point, mesh, or ring implementations. EoDWDM is bit rate and protocol independant that allows it to work in a variety of network scenarious. EoDWDM is effective for high-bandwidth, high performance requirements. Ethernet over Fiber (EoF) is simple electrical to optical translation over dark fiber. EoF can work for point-to-point and mesh network topologies, is cost effective, offers up to 10 Gbps and can span distances to 70 kilometers. Ethernet over Resilient Packet Ring (EoRPR) is deployed in a ring topology and can take advantage of existing SONET infrastructure. Obne benefit appears to be that it solves an issue with SONET bandwith waste because in EoRPR bandwidth is utilized in both directions. It can also take advantage of link-layer protection, and provides less than 50 millisecond fail-over. An RPR ring can also span thousands of kilometers. Henry.
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Ayal Lior - 2010/08/21 09:35 _____________________________________
Hi, I suggest we divide the list into two main categories: 1. Ethernet over L1 technologies 2. Ethernet over L2 (and sometimes L3) technologies EoDWDM or EoFiber fall into the first category For these, the L1 technology is not really relevant for the services one provides. EoMPLS and EoSONET fall into category 2 EoRPR (do we really have this still alive and kicking?) is indeed a rind-based technology, note that one can implement ring protection based on ITU or other implementations as well. My 5 cents, Ayal
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Antonis Karvelas - 2010/08/26 05:27 _____________________________________
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Carrier Ethernet Technology Forum - Ethernet Academy
Generated: 16 August, 2011, 13:47
Hi, concerning Ethernet Ring protection, I would like to mention the ITU G.8032 Recommentation which defines the Automatic Protection Switching (APS) protocol and protection switching mechanisms for ETH layer Ethernet Ring topologies. Antonis
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Re:Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Michel Hostettler - 2010/08/30 06:05 _____________________________________
Henry, > Ethernet over SDH/SONET which is Point-to-point Ethernet links over > SDH/SONET and... To progress, you have to be more precise. What is your Ethernet ? What are your layer networks (...and not the network layers). For IEEE, Ethernet consists of 2 layer networks, globally ETH and ETY (in details it would be ETHn and ETYp, e.g. ETH3 for the PBB flavour, and ETY3 for 1 Gbit/s). When you write "Ethernet over SDH/SONET", you mean that you want to replace ETY by the layer networks from the SDH/SONET technologies (and you could also add PDH or OTN). For example : ETH2 > ETH3 > S4-4c > MS16 > RS16 > OS16 > DWDM Best regards, Michel
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Michel Hostettler - 2010/08/30 06:16 _____________________________________
Bonjoue Ayal, > I suggest we divide the list into two main categories: > 1. Ethernet over L1 technologies > 2. Ethernet over L2 (and sometimes L3) technologies Not a good idea because L1, L2 are not really clearly defined. Perhaps ;
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Carrier Ethernet Technology Forum - Ethernet Academy
Generated: 16 August, 2011, 13:47
ETH over CO-CS (as SDH) ETH over CO-PS (as MPLS-TP) ETH over CL-PS (as IP) (CO connection oriented, CL connectionless, CS circuit switching, PS packet switching) > EoMPLS and EoSONET fall into category 2 Not really Best regards, Michel
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Azriel Heuman - 2010/09/12 17:29 _____________________________________
This is fascinating - classifying SDH as a Layer 2 technology. I have been teaching this as such in my classes but I haven't been able to bring any references to back this up - except for logically explaining that any kind of framing of bits is layer 2 - by definition. Can you provide some refereneces?
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Ayal Lior - 2010/09/13 01:10 _____________________________________
Hi Azriel, I classified SONET as layer 2 based on the understanding that it performs some of the OSI layer 2 tasks (you gave framing as an excellent example). Quick search yielded that some vendors do not agree with my interpretation. I believe that the reason is mainly a marketing one. Usually you have to put another layer like PPP in order to carry packets over SONET/SDH, so you better call SONET layer 1 in order to minimize confusion. But, indeed SONET performs tasks that are above and beyond layer 1 My 2 cents, Ayal
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Re:Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Michael Howard - 2010/09/13 01:25
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Carrier Ethernet Technology Forum - Ethernet Academy
Generated: 16 August, 2011, 13:47
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The OSI model has layers 1-7, with 1 being physical. Whoever started calling SONET/SDH layer 1 also caused the creation of "layer 0", as the physical layer. I think you are right that it was marketing folks. BTW, the same thing has happened with the term "4G" appropriated by marketing folks as WiMAX and LTE, when the real standards for 4G have not been settled. WiMAX and LTE are actually pre-4G. Michael
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Re:More Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies & definitions
Posted by Azriel Heuman - 2010/09/14 06:01 _____________________________________
Ayal, Yes, the confusion factor is a consideration. Therefore, I try to point out that there are at least two families of Layer 2 protocols. One family - let's call L2-Transport performs framing; error detection etc. but is TDM oriented so that each frame carries traffic of many clients. These protocols work non-stop. Errors are noted, but frames are never discarded, nor retansmitted. An error in a frame that may affect a single client - should not cause all the other clients to also lose data - by dropping the frame. The worst that can happen if the line is constantly noisy is to take the line out of service and perform a protection switch. A second family - let's call L2-Data - carries one client's data in an individual frame. Here frames are discarded and retransmission to correct errors is OK. It is quite common to stack L2-D over L2-T. This leaves layer 1 the job of getting the bits from place to place.
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