Why Carrier Ethernet ?

Statistical Multiplexing in L2 Switching

There is no allocation of bandwidth till total client bandwidth is more than service bandwidth.
Every client can use the same bandwidth at the same time.

VCG1 With Statistical multiplexing, one can

Eth1
Eth2 oversubscribe under the assumption,not all
Eth3 the clients will be active with full bandwidth
Eth4
demand simultaneously. (Statistical
Multiplexing gain)
In case of congestion, proper scheduling and
early packet dropping for TCP flow control
ensures effective CoS queue management.

Statistical Gain is partially

exploited in L2 switching as L1
is still SDH (TDM)

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L1 Provisioning

For L2 switching to be deployed on SDH (which is a Layer 1 technique), lots

of L1 provisioning has to be done.

L1 provisioning will be greatly reduced in Carrier Ethernet.

GFP, VCAT, LCAS not required.
Effective bandwidth reduction because of GFP overheads and SDH
overheads does not happen.

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Loop Resolution

There are different techniques used for avoiding loop formation in a L2 switched network like STP,
RSTP, MSTP.
Following were the disadvantages when using these techniques in L2 switching
Scaling:
-- Network size cannot go beyond approximately 40 network elements.
Protection:
-- As the network size grows, the convergence time and hence switch over time in case of faults is
HUGE (order of seconds even in case RSTP)
ERPS (Ethernet Ring Protection Switching) in CE will solve these problems

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Traffic Engineering

Traffic engineering is the art of moving traffic around so that traffic from a congested link is
moved into the unused capacity on another link.
In other words, put the traffic where the bandwidth is available.
-- Course and cumbersome traffic engineering can be done using MSTP, which is on a per VLAN basis.
PBT (Provider Backbone Tunnel) in CE solves this problem

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Network Scaling
One issue of scaling is already seen under “loop resolution”
In case of Metro networks (where the number of nodes is much more),
another issue is:
• Learning the MAC addresses dynamically becomes difficult as more
number of addresses have to be learnt now. The Dynamic tables built by
dynamically learning the MAC addresses will be HUGE  MAC explosion
The problem is overcome by using MiM (Mac-in-Mac, UNI [customer] Mac
and NNI [backbone] Mac) in CE, wherein pure core bridges need not learn
UNI Macs
Also with further BVLAN tagging in Carrier Ethernet, overlapping customer
VLANs is not an issue – secure separation is possible between backbone
side and customer side.
Also with 24-bit ISID as service identifier, lot more services can be identified
and use of VIDs are limited only for forwarding

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Protection and OAM

One issue of protection is already seen under “loop resolution”

Another issue is of Linear protection, which is overcome by CFM
(Connectivity Fault Management)

In addition,
loop-back (similar to L3 ping) and link-trace (similar to L3 traceroute) messages,
SDH like ESM, running counters for services – all add to better OAM in CE.

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 So, What is Carrier Ethernet?

• Ethernet was primarily a LAN technology

used within enterprises (offices).
• Extending the use of Ethernet to WAN (inter-
office connections) is broadly termed as
Carrier Ethernet.
 Standardized Services
ELINE, private line, virtual private line, transparent ELAN,
ETREE services.
Standardized equipments
 Scalability
Bandwidth (1Gbps, 10Gbps, 40Gbps, 100Gbps)
Services and MAC addresses
 Reliability
Fault detection, verification, isolation, recovery, notification
50 msec protection
 Quality of Service
SLAs for voice, video, data for end-to-end performance
 Service Management
Carrier class OAM (Performance and Fault management)
Monitor, diagnose and centrally manage network without vendor
dependency

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CE Service Definitions as per MEF (1/2)

• Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC)

– Service container
– Connects two or more subscriber sites (UNIs)
– An association of two or more UNIs
– Prevents data transfer between sites that are not part of the same EVC
– Three types of EVCs
• Point-to-Point (LINE)
• Multipoint-to-Multipoint (LAN)
• Rooted Multipoint (TREE)
– Can be bundled or multiplexed on the same UNI
UNI CE
Root Leaf

Leaf
UNI
CE
UNI Leaf
CE

UNI
Rooted Multipoint EVC
CE 9
CE Service Definitions as per MEF (2/2)

• E-Line Services
– Ethernet Private Line
– Ethernet Virtual Private Line
• E-LAN Services
– Ethernet Private LAN (EP-LAN)
– Ethernet Virtual Private LAN (EVP-LAN)
• E-Tree Services
– Ethernet Private Tree (EP-Tree)
– Ethernet Virtual Private Tree (EVP-Tree)

1. Virtual = Multiplexed
2. Definitions are independent of Technology

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Carrier Ethernet Standards

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Thank You…