Today’s ethernet isn’t the in-building connectivity technology of the past. It has evolved to become the means by which applications, content and communications are delivered across the globe. Here, John Hoffman describes how ethernet has developed to become the technology of choice for global service providers. Co-sponsored feature: Tata Communications 
                             
                   

                                 
John Hoffman: The service can only be perceived to be as
good as the end-to-end service delivered 
                              
                              
Ethernet has moved from being regarded as a cheap means of enabling the internet by providing long distance data connectivity at a radically reduced price. It is now universally recognised as a high-quality transport technology. That shift in perception hasn’t happened overnight – after all, ethernet is recognised as the technology used to link IT networks in the workplace and home – but a series of factors have come together in the last 24 months that have truly changed customer and service provider understanding of the advantages the technology has to offer.
Lower cost in general and lower total cost of ownership in particular has been the original attraction of ethernet. That remains the case but ethernet’s success isn’t driven so much by service providers looking to deploy cheaper, more flexible infrastructure as it is by their customers coming under intense pressure to reduce their operational costs as their appetite for bandwidth increases. Organisations simply need to do more for less and Ethernet is an enabler of that, especially as markets recover from the recession. 
                              
                              
Why ethernet now? 
                              
The lower cost of ethernet is driven by three key factors. First, ethernet ports are less expensive than any other port on the market. In addition to being less expensive, they are more flexible, allowing a single port to handle a wide variety of bandwidths. For example, a fast-ethernet port will handle bandwidths from 1 to 100 megabytes. Second, the flexible bandwidths available present the largest area for saving. Most enterprise customers who purchase a DS3 admit to only using 20 to 25 megabytes. A customer who purchases a 20 megabyte circuit instead of a DC3 sees immediate savings and service providers can see savings in their own backbones. Using the flexibility of a 10 gigabyte ethernet port, providers can start at 1,000 megabytes and then grow their backbone in 500 megabyte increments. This slow growth feature, enabling service providers to match outgoing cash to incoming cash, creates a much stronger, more predictable cash flow profile for the service provider. Finally, bringing together the flexibility of the ethernet ports and the bandwidth flexibility, non-service impacting upgrades allow ethernet users to slowly and confidently upgrade their network without bringing down their service. This is an important feature used by service providers to gradually expand their network without network down time and without large jumps in opex.
While the cost advantages have been understood for some time, the perception that ethernet offered inferior performance and customer experience remained in both the service provider and the end user market until recently. However, ethernet has now entered a new phase in which understanding of its capabilities and strengths are now more widely understood. Much of that change in perception is due to efforts made by the Metro Ethernet Forum and the success of its initiatives to standardise and certify ethernet services across the globe. That has given users comfort and led to the development of many ethernet services backed by performance metrics, as opposed to basic services with little or no associated performance metrics.
Where service providers once didn’t take ethernet seriously as a technology, partly due to their legacy investments in traditional telecoms network technologies, they now recognise its potential to radically alter the cost base of their operations. They are seeing growing demand for ethernet services from their customers. That demand comes from organisations of all types including those that previously might not have perceived ethernet as a suitable technology for their business. For example, one Tata Communications customer in the financial services sector has moved its backbone to ethernet because it recognised ethernet alone had the capability to address the cost cutting pressures it faced. It’s worth emphasising that for an organisation of that type, ethernet services must offer sufficient resilience, performance and redundancy – cost saving potential alone won’t be enough to shift such organisation away from traditional Layer 1 options. 
                              
                              
Ethernet’s superior customer experience 
                              
Service providers are now able to deliver the necessary improved ethernet service quality to organisations of this type. In addition, data service level agreements (SLAs) have become increasingly granular. They now include SLAs that encompass packet loss, latency and jitter in addition to standard metrics such as uptime. Importantly, these are geared towards the data layer and, since that’s where the bulk of traffic is and where future traffic growth is expected, they are therefore more relevant to current users’ demands.
Service providers are noticing that, although customers face cost constraints that exert downward pressure on bandwidth pricing, their appetite for bandwidth itself is far from decreasing. For example, a customer that had a 45 megabits per second DS3 link three years ago isn’t looking to take 45 megabits over ethernet and cut their costs by half. Instead, they want to increase their capacity to 75 or 100 megabits without a commensurate increase in cost. As pricing declines so capacity requirements increase and more and more companies are demanding 10 gigabit ethernet links. Tata Communications’ experience certainly bears that out with many customers demanding 10 gigabit ethernet capacity. The company expects that, as pricing declines, there will be more and more demand for large capacity. As a consequence of which, Tata Communications has made the move to ethernet enhanced with technology such as PBB. Had it not taken this approach, it would be faced with no option other than to roll out more and more equipment to support more and more volume in common with other service providers.
Resiliency and redundancy
The market has now developed far greater awareness that, from a network resiliency and protection point of view, ethernet is at least as safe as other technologies and in some cases has greater attributes. The recent spate of horrendous natural disasters has highlighted these issues. While the Japanese Tsunami has seen electrical power to cable landing stations knocked out, in some cases for weeks, the route diversity offered by Tata Communication’s new Next Generation Ethernet network would have mitigated the severe difficulties if Tata Communication’s cable stations had been impacted. Stations have been designed to fail over onto diesel-powered generators in emergencies, but those generators may only have fuel for one week. If the disaster knocks out electricity plus makes it impossible to deliver additional fuel, the problems faced are significant. Tata Communication’s next generation network offers the opportunity to easily and flexibly re-route through alternative cable stations without impacting the service significantly, because of the nodal diversity that ethernet networks can provide if designed and deployed effectively.
That flexibility enables ethernet’s evolution to a platform where superior customer experiences can be delivered. A great example of that is ethernet’s capability to provide reduced latency for mission critical applications and continuously monitor the latency. Five years ago, latency would not have been an important issue. However, as far more bandwidth intensive applications, such as placing of electronic trades, are used service providers must be able to assure latency levels.
The networks created by enterprise customers are carrying some of those companies’ most sensitive data, whether it is confidential emails, customer data or critical financial details. Data security is among an organisation’s greatest fears and recent examples, such as the repeated hacks of Sony Playstation’s system demonstrate the damage that security breaches can do to an organisation’s reputation and ultimately value. Security threats now encompass not only hacking into servers but also into information carried across service provider lines. Organisations want to be assured of the security of their data in transit, especially when that is customer data. Tata Communications has traditionally provided superior data security. Its investment into the next generation ethernet network continues Tata Communications’ emphasis on security. A European bank customer of Tata Communications specified its network, which the service provider then rolled out. Before using the network, the bank and Tata Communications went through a complete security review of the technologies used. Being able to support such customers is a critical aspect of ethernet service provision and having a global capability is vital for such clients. 
                              
                              
Expanding ethernet’s footprint 
                              
While it is impractical for individual service providers to continue to try to cover the globe themselves, it is important to find a global partner for ethernet services. Tata Communications offers that with a network footprint that reaches more countries than almost any other provider. By the year-end of fiscal 2012, Tata Communications will reach 67 countries and currently, the service provider has one of the largest global Ethernet networks in the world. It is not just the number of countries that needs to be taken into account but also the types of markets addressed. Tata Communications is an emerging market leader. Its home market in India is a well-recognised key emerging market and the company has dense coverage with more than 120 PoPs and 31 metropolitan networks across the country. In Africa, Tata Communications is the major shareholder of South African service provider, Neotel. Also in Africa, it has equipment in PoPs in Kenya and is setting up the same in Nigeria. Other key emerging markets include Thailand and the Philippines plus significant coverage in the Middle East.
However, footprint is not the only aspect that needs to be considered. The services provided need to be as close in quality as those provided on a service provider’s own network. Also, the service can only be perceived to be as good as the end-to-end service delivered. Quality of the network is there for a key differentiator. Tata Communications Next Generation Ethernet network (NGE) has been designed to raise the bar for global quality and provides core layer availability of 99.995%, and services will be backed by a PoP-to-PoP latency SLA from this summer. In addition, the nodal diversity on Tata Communications’ core layer provides customers with protected circuits against catastrophic nodal failure. GTB

John Hoffman is head of ethernet product management at Tata Communications