EANTC, ancotel, and Light Reading announce world’s most advanced Carrier Ethernet interconnect test and demonstration program

December 10, 2009

4 Min Read

BERLIN -- EANTC AG (European Advanced Networking Test Center), the leading independent test lab – along with ancotel, Europe’s largest carrier interconnect company, and Light Reading, the leading media company in the worldwide communications industry today – announced the launch of a new extensive test program for service providers to validate and showcase end-to-end Carrier Ethernet services across multiple carriers.

The testing effort consists of a pilot testing program using External Network-Network Interfaces (ENNI) as specified by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), a report on the program to be published on Light Reading, and a year-long demonstration program involving Global Carrier Interconnect demonstrations at Ethernet Expo London and Ethernet Expo New York.

The pilot testing program is scheduled to be organized in January. Service providers looking to evaluate their Carrier Ethernet services interconnections in a public, independent, multi-party effort can register with EANTC for the pilot test campaign.

The key to unlocking the explosive growth expected for Carrier Ethernet services in the next 18 months will be for enterprises to be able to obtain secure, robust, and manageable services quickly from multiple carriers around the world. Service providers need to demonstrate to their customers and prospects that they can provide these interconnected services, and Ethernet access and core equipment vendors need to show carriers they can support this requirement. Using the MEF standards that are designed to provide a common interconnect standard as a benchmark, EANTC and ancotel will focus on validating advanced Carrier Ethernet interconnects by examining functionality, resilience, and service-level management.

The campaign will kick off with a pilot evaluation in January. EANTC, along with ancotel and participating service providers, will develop a comprehensive plan for the tests and demonstrations based upon experience from more than ten Carrier Ethernet interoperability events and active participation in the MEF standardization of ENNI Abstract Test Suites since 2006.

Results of the pilot test campaign will be publicly demonstrated live at MPLS and Ethernet World Congress / Ethernet Wholesale Conference 2010 in Paris, February 9-12, 2010. Detailed information on the test campaign will be made available in an independent test report published by Light Reading. As with previous white papers that have come to be considered pioneering documents in the telecommunications industry, these publications will provide much-needed assessments of the state of service provider interconnects today.

“As a next-generation operator, we are very proud to participate in the Advanced Global Interconnection Test Program,” said Frédéric Dhieux, CTO of BSO Network Solutions. “Thanks to realistic end-to-end network scenarios, the Global Interconnect Test Program will help provide an even higher level of interoperability in an advanced and complex technology area, increase the level of innovation, and essentially move the technology ahead.”

“P&TLuxembourg is proud to take part in this program because it is a real opportunity to validate, in an international Ethernet network test, that the Ethernet services can be transported through the ancotel interconnection facility to different service providers without any traffic performance degradation and to provide the right service level agreement to the customers,” said Marc Panneel, International Connectivity Manager of P&TLuxembourg.

“This project will give providers more flexibility in global operation of Ethernet services and as a result we expand on service quality improvements for the customers,” said Anna Dudko, СЕО of Ucomline CJSC – member of Vega Telecom Group.

With the findings of the pilot test, EANTC plans to create a Global Interconnect Demonstration at Ethernet Expo London, April 12 and 13 in London, and Ethernet Expo NY, Nov. 2 and 3 in New York City. Service providers should contact EANTC to participate.

Carsten Rossenhövel, Managing Director at EANTC, comments: “Our primary goal is to support the industry in driving the establishment of new standards that are vital to providing real technical value to the industry. We expect that by the end of 2010, vendors and providers will have solid and dependable answers to major technical questions involving Carrier Ethernet global coverage and service quality.”

"Supporting the service provider community is the aim of our business," said Michael Boehlert, Director of Technology & Consulting for ancotel. "With the ongoing ENNI specification work in the Metro Ethernet Forum this program is a perfect test bed to demonstrate the current state of Carrier Ethernet Interconnections and to show how far the progress in those specifications have already been put into practice."

“Light Reading and Ethernet Expo are proud to partner with EANTC and ancotel in order to help drive the Carrier Ethernet industry forward,” said Joe Braue, SVP and Group Director.

Further information describing the testing procedures and the results in detail will be available on EANTC’s Website at www.eantc.com.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like