9:40 AM -- On April 12 and 13, 2011, Light Reading will be hosting its annual Ethernet Europe event at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel. A record number of 17 service provider experts from 16 operators and exchange players will be speaking at the event. They will be joined in the conference hall by hundreds of other service and technology professionals from dozens of network operators, network solutions providers, the MEF and other industry organizations, enterprises, the press, and analyst firms.

Event attendee registrations are proceeding well and are up more than 25 percent compared to this time last year. We already have registrations from individuals based in 18 different countries. If you are employed by a service provider, enterprise, or government/regulatory professional, we want you to know that you qualify for free admission to all of the conference keynotes and sessions. Nowhere else in the European market will service provider experts find such a great Ethernet/packet-optical-networking opportunity at no cost.

Here is a preview of this year’s event:

Key topics and session formats
The keynotes and sessions at this year’s event will focus on (1) advanced business connectivity services options for enterprise users, (2) Ethernet wholesale service trends, (3) the emerging role of Ethernet services exchanges, and (4) next-generation carrier Ethernet, 100 GE, MPLS, MPLS-TP, and packet-optical technologies and service management solutions used to support business, wholesale, residential, and mobile backhaul services and applications. This year’s sessions will be educational and engaging for the audience, with much of the discussion dealing with real-world case studies and about half of the session time devoted to questions and answers. In addition to the event sessions, we will have a special MEF tutorial focused on the Building Blocks for Ethernet Interconnects.

Keynotes
Our Day 1 opening keynote will be given by Jeff Schwartz, who is responsible for Global Ethernet WAN Product Management at Verizon Enterprise Solutions . Jeff will share Verizon’s unique perspective as an innovative global player and an award-winning Ethernet services provider. Our Day 2 keynote will be given by Rob Thomas, director of product solutions, BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA). Rob has been deeply involved in BT’s deployment of 10,000 sites for next-generation 3G transport as well as the design and trial of next-gen Ethernet and IP solutions to support U.K. mobile operators deploying HSPA+ and LTE. He will be speaking on the mobile network topic right before the "Ethernet Backhaul Case Studies for Mobile Networks" session moderated by my Heavy Reading colleague Patrick Donegan.

Service provider participants and MEF
The 16 service provider and exchange players participating in this year’s event include Gold Sponsors CENX Inc. , Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), and Telx Group Inc. as well as BT, Colt Technology Services Group Ltd , Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) International Carrier Sales & Solutions, Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC), GTS Central Europe , Interoute Communications Ltd. , KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN) International, Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: LVLT), PacketExchange Ltd. , Tata Communications Ltd. , Tinet , Verizon Business, and Virgin Media Business Ltd. . Check the website for updates on additional service provider speakers.

Leading Carrier Ethernet network solutions providers
Current hardware and software sponsors include Platinum Sponsor Ceragon Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: CRNT) and as well as Actelis Networks Inc. , ADVA Optical Networking , Overture Networks Inc. , Metaswitch Networks , MRV Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MRVC), Omnitron Systems Technology Inc. , RAD Data Communications Ltd. , Transition Networks Inc. and Transmode Systems AB ,

Global Interconnect Test program
Light Reading has partnered again with EANTC, which is hosting the second year of the Carrier Ethernet Global Interconnect program. Network interconnection device sponsors MRV, Omnitron and RAD will work with Level 3, Teragate and Tinet to demonstrate how operators can, among other things: (1) interconnect multipoint-to-multipoint and point-to-point Ethernet services; (2) map classes of service between providers according to MEF 23 and MEF 26; (3) verify bandwidth profile attributes; and (4) streamline provisioning via Ethernet exchange points.

I look forward to seeing you in London.

— Stan "EtherMan" Hubbard, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading, and Chairman, Ethernet Europe 2011

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Interested in learning more on this topic? Then come to Ethernet Europe 2011, a two-day Light Reading and Heavy Reading conference and sponsor showcase. To be staged in London, April 12 and 13, admission is free for attendees meeting our prequalification criteria. For more information, or to register, click here.

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