Verizon Preps for 100G Ethernet NID Era

Verizon announced results this week of its field trial of 100G Ethernet network interface devices (NIDs) deployed in support of its regional switched Ethernet service. The carrier sees a burgeoning opportunity to deploy the demarcation units in a variety of applications.

Even though Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) isn't ready to announce commercial deployment of 100G NIDs yet, Vin Alesi, its director of regional Ethernet product technology, says the trial, completed in May in the Dallas area, proved it was able to maintain high-level performance over a 4.6-mile span of fiber between two 100G NIDs supplied by Canoga Perkins . (See Verizon Tests 100G Ethernet NIDs.)

"There were no issues with distance or latency," he says. "We have had some customer inquiries about 100G NIDs, but we don't have a firm timetable right now" for a commercial offering.

Still, Alesi does see a bright future for 100G NIDs supporting data center connectivity, large enterprise, wholesale, mobile backhaul, and government and education applications. Currently, on a regional basis, the carrier offers 10 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, 1G, and 10G Ethernet connections.

Verizon went with Canoga Perkins for the trial because it's the carrier's current supplier and the only vendor Verizon knew of that had a 100G NID. "There are some out there that have had a small router with a 100G interface for this use, but not a NID. I don't know if that is still the case now."

In what now looks like at least a two-year jump on the real market opportunity, Canoga Perkins announced its 100G NID in late 2012 at Light Reading's Ethernet Expo. It had said it was working on such a device at the same event a year earlier. (See Canoga Perkins Brings 100G to Demarc and Canoga Perkins Intros Cloudbuster.)

Canoga Perkins is being modest, perhaps to a fault, about its role in the Verizon trial. The vendor's involvement in the trail became known to Light Reading only via Verizon's PR efforts, and the company has yet to respond to our requests for more information. Still, if Verizon's right, Canoga Perkins may have the 100G NID market all to itself -- at least for now.

— Dan O'Shea, Managing Editor, Light Reading