600 Mbps Ethernet vs OC12 SONET

Organizations requiring fractional Gbps bandwidth have traditionally turned to OC12 SONET fiber optic service. It’s still an excellent high speed option, but you should also take a look at 600 Mbps Ethernet service. You may be surprised how the two competing connections compare.

OC-12 (622 Mbps) is the next step up from OC-3 (155 Mbps) in the SONET optical carrier hierarchy. You’ll find this service readily available in Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and as a dedicated Internet access connection for mid-size Internet service providers. Large organizations also have OC12 bandwidth connections, especially those with thousands of employees on-site or a need to support high bandwidth applications like medical image transmission or video production and distribution.

Not too many years ago, OC12 was considered a good choice for a carrier fiber optic core network. Now, most regional and national carriers have moved up to OC-48 at 2.5 Gbps or OC-192 at 10 Gbps. Long haul and undersea fiber lines are running at OC-768 (40 Gbps) and moving quickly to support 100 Gbps.

OC12 is most often deployed on a protected SONET ring topology, with two counter-rotating fiber rings. If something in one ring fails, either equipment or a cable break, the other ring will pick up 100% of the traffic within 50 mSec.

Note that an OC12 service is probably not the only traffic on a particular fiber strand. At 622 Mbps, OC12 comes nowhere near using available bandwidth of the fiber. SONET is designed as a Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) system that can easily add or drop common OC service levels such as OC3 and OC12. In addition to the electrically multiplexed services on the fiber, each fiber may also be optically multiplexed into a dozen or more wavelengths using Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) equipment.

Carrier Ethernet over fiber is based on packet switching rather than time division multiplexing. Without the strict synchronized channels of TDM, Ethernet is far more scalable. You can order 600 Mbps Ethernet as a replacement for OC12 SONET. You can also order 500 Mbps if that is all you reasonably need. Even more importantly, you can start increasing bandwidth to 700 Mbps, 800 Mbps, 900 Mbps and 1 Gbps as business requirements dictate.

With SONET, the service provider will install a managed router as Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) that includes an interface module specifically designed for the particular OC service level you have installed. The modules for OC3, OC12, and OC48 will plug into the same port on the router, but they are not interchangeable. You need to match the particular interface to the OC service level. That becomes important when you want to implement a service change. The provider will need to roll a truck to either swap out interface modules or completely replace the CPE router.

With Carrier Ethernet, your service provider will install a managed router that can support a particular port speed. For Ethernet over Copper, this is likely 100 Mbps. For fiber, you are likely looking at 1 Gbps, although you can often get equipment rated to 10 Gbps if you expect to be upgrading to that speed level in the foreseeable future. With a 1 Gbps port, you can order whatever service level you need between, say, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps, in 100 Mbps or smaller increments. No equipment changes are needed as you change service levels within that range. You simply call your provider and tell them to increase bandwidth and you’ll see it happen within a few days, sometimes within a few hours.

Beyond scalability, Ethernet has a cost advantage over SONET in most situations. Sometimes the cost difference is dramatic, even half the cost, for Ethernet versus SONET of the same bandwidth. The one limitation that you’ll run into is that SONET has been around a lot longer and is more available than Ethernet over Fiber. Even so, competitive carriers have been aggressively building out their IP networks and may have fiber service closer than you think.

Do you require fractional Gigabit bandwidth services? If so, it is worth your while to compare 600 Mbps Ethernet to OC12 SONET for cost and availability. The same advice is true for other service levels from T1 copper bandwidth on up to 10 Gbps and higher.

Ethernet Networks Interconnect in Arizona

Ethernet is rapidly becoming the new metropolitan and wide area network protocol of choice. Indications are that IP networks transporting standard Ethernet services will eventually supplant the century old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). What’s holding that back is that many Ethernet service providers are a diverse mix of incumbent and competitive carriers with service footprints that only cover a given metro area or regional group of states. E-NNI is the technology that is linking them all together.

E-NNI is an Ethernet Network to Network Interface. Network interfacing is the cross-connection that allows different networks to exchange traffic. Each has to advertise the other’s routes so that users on either network can reach destinations on the other network as easily as they do on their own network. The result is an interconnected network with a service footprint the size of both networks combined.

An excellent example of an Ethernet to Ethernet network connection is taking place in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. Integra Telecom and Saddleback Communications are connecting their fiber networks using enterprise-class Carrier Ethernet technology so that they can easily exchange data at high transmission rates.

Saddleback Communications is an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) serving the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) in the Phoenix metropolitan area, bordered by Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe and Fountain Hills. Their core network infrastructure is comprised of multiple fiber optic rings and two Class 5 Soft Switch Central Offices. Unlike most commercial areas, 100% of the commercial developments on the Pima corridor of the SRPMIC are fed with both fiber optic and copper facility connections.

Saddleback’s business services include dedicated Ethernet Internet access, Ethernet transport services and private line services. Their BusinessLAN Ethernet Transport transparently connects business locations via native Ethernet at speeds from 5 Mbps to 1000 Mbps (GigE) with scalability in 5 Mbps or 100 Mbps over the same interface.

What Integra Telecom brings to the table is an extensive fiber optic network that serves 11 Western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Their 5,000 mile long haul network is one of the largest in the U.S., complemented by a 3,000 route mile (160,000 fiber miles) metropolitan area network that serves 200 business communities including 1,700 fiber-fed buildings. Integra is the 4th largest Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in the United States.

Integra offers Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) standardized Ethernet services that include Ethernet Private Line (EPL) and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), as well as a layer 2 configuration for high performance Wide Area Networks (WANs). Class of Service (CoS) technology makes voice/data/video converged networks possible so that sensitive real time packets aren’t overwhelmed by less critical but more numerous data packets.

Both Saddleback and Integra operate high performance fiber optic networks and both serve a wide range of customers, including corporate clients that need highly reliable high bandwidth Ethernet services. By interconnecting their networks for Ethernet to Ethernet transport, they can offer companies on both networks the opportunity to connect as if they are working under a common “digital roof.”

Does your business need reliable high bandwidth network connection service? Carrier Ethernet now spans the nation and the world with network to network interconnections. Get competitive pricing for fiber optic Ethernet network services now. You may be surprised by what is available.




Note: Map of Arizona courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Extending Ethernet over MPLS Networks

Ethernet started out as a local area network protocol, but is quickly becoming the metropolitan area network protocol of choice. It offers easy interfacing to existing wired and wireless business networks, rapid bandwidth scaling without equipment changes, and a lower cost structure than traditional telecom services. If Ethernet is so great for the LAN and MAN, how about Ethernet for the WAN?

Ethernet WAN is enjoying a rising popularity, especially among companies with multiple business sites located across the United States and across international borders. You can get dedicated point to point wired Ethernet connections between any two locations, but a competing methodology that is gaining steam is Ethernet over MPLS.

Why use an MPLS network to transport your Ethernet traffic? The first reason is that MPLS networks are already in place and going where you want to send your traffic. Sure, you can custom engineer a dedicated private line service, but why re-invent the wheel? Ethernet is easily transported over MPLS networks using Pseudowire encapsulation that emulates the wireline it competes with. Which do you think is going to be less expensive? Paying for a custom point to point wireline connection or being one stream of traffic on a large MPLS network?

The way it tends to work out is that short haul Ethernet links have the cost advantage when implemented as dedicated lines. This is especially true if you are nowhere near an MPLS carrier node. Once you start looking at coast to coast transport or a situation where you want multiple Ethernet LANs connected in a transparent mesh network, MPLS networks gain the advantage. MPLS also has the edge when you want to cross international borders to include foreign sites on your corporate network.

Carriers may be muddying the water even further by offering Ethernet line services that consist of copper or fiber Ethernet access connections to their MPLS network core, where the long haul Ethernet transport really takes place.

There are several types of Ethernet services that are really popular right now. One is E-Line or Ethernet Private Line service. This is a standardized service specified by the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). It gives you a Carrier Ethernet connection that bridges two LANs. A variation is EVPL or Ethernet Virtual Private LIne. What EVPL does is let you use a single physical Ethernet port to connect to multiple Ethernet private lines going to out to geographically diverse locations. This is something you could use to replace a star network built on independent wireline connections to those same remote locations.

Another popular service is E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service, also called VPLS or Virtual Private LAN Service when implemented on an IP/MPLS network. While Ethernet Line Service replaces dedicated point to point telecom lines, Ethernet LAN is a meshed network service that interconnects multiple locations on an any-to-any basis. With VPLS, you bridge your multiple LANs so that they act as one giant LAN network. That’s true even if you have a hundred or thousand sites in the U.S. and and equal number spread out over the globe.

What carrier can offer this level of MPLS networking? Actually, there are several to choose from. If one can’t serve all your sites, multiple carriers can share traffic through a E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface to reach all locations with VPLS or E-Line connections. If you need this type of connectivity, you may be surprised by how affordable it has become recently. Get Ethernet over MPLS service prices now and see how far your network can really reach.

Fiber Optic Wavelength Services for San Francisco and Silicon Valley

AboveNet is expanding its high capacity fiber optic network services with new low latency wavelength services serving the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, including key locations in Santa Clara and San Jose, California.

AboveNet’s Core Wave solutions are based on ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) technology. It offers dynamic wavelength add/drops of multiple protocols that include Ethernet, TDM, storage and video transport. This makes for an array of flexible service options, scalability and fast provisioning.

Compared to legacy network designs, Core Wave shows the path that all fiber optic networks will be taking in the future. Business needs are too dynamic to be straight-jacketed into a few single protocol service levels or difficult to modify equipment configurations. By basing their network on DWDM with ROADM and deploying services via wavelength, AboveNet can offer businesses whatever connectivity they need with the option to make changes and additions easily.

The beauty of wavelengths and ROADM is that you can manage traffic optically, without the need to do an optical to electrical to optical conversion process. This allows you to add a wavelength, drop off a wavelength or simply pass the wavelength (cut-through) without affecting it. The ROADM doesn’t have to know or care what protocol the traffic is on the wavelength because it doesn’t dissect the signal at that level. ROADMs give a whole new meaning to the idea of a “transparent” network.

What type of fiber optic services is AboveNet making available in the San Francisco Bay Area? You have dedicated bandwidth at 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps, with both protected and unprotected options. Multi-protocol support includes Carrier Ethernet at 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GigE), SONET/SDH at OC-12 (622 Mbps) STM-4, OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) STM-16, and OC-192 (10 Gbps) STM-64. You can also transport the Fibre Channel FC-100, FC-200 and FC-400 standards for SAN (Storage Area Networks). The platform is scalable to 40 Gbps for future connectivity needs.

Core Wave is a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) solution for point to point connectivity between business locations. AboveNet also offers long haul low latency 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps transparent bandwidth from their POP (Point of Presence) to enterprise locations in major metro locations. This fiber optic service bypasses the Local Exchange Carrier loops to keep everything on the AboveNet network and guarantee a full 10 Gbps connectivity. One application of this service, called eXpressWave Long Haul, is to securely connect a corporate data center and backup data center located in different markets. You can order express routing of point to point dedicated circuits with no local stops to your remote locations, as needed.

Are you doing business in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, and require high bandwidth, high reliability fiber optic connectivity? If so, get quotes for fiber optic wavelength services from AboveNet and other competitive carriers serving this area of California. Similar services are also available in other locations nationwide, including low latency connections to international destinations.



Note: Photo of downtown San Francisco courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

WAN Computer Network Connections

Computer networks are often categorized as LAN, MAN and WAN. The LAN is your local network. You design and maintain it to meet your specifications. Or, you hire a contractor to do this. When you need to connect your LAN to another LAN across town or around the world, you enter the realm of the MAN and WAN. Here’s a quick look at what’s available in the way of metro and long haul connections.

The difference between the MAN and the WAN is largely a matter of degree. The MAN is a Metropolitan Area Network. As the name suggests, MAN services are limited to a particular city or city and suburbs. It’s the right connectivity for companies that have multiple offices in the same city, a main facility and a remote data center across town, a factory or warehouse in an industrial park plus some satellite offices. Hospitals and their associated medical centers are good candidates for MAN service, especially higher bandwidths for medical image transmission.

A difference between the LAN and MAN is that you own your LAN and buy services from the MAN. A Metropolitan Area Network is typically privately owned and offers services to numerous clients. The network operator manages bandwidth and security to ensure that every customer feels like they have the network all to themselves.

Most MANs are organized as SONET rings that encircle the metropolitan area. A SONET ring is actually two fibers with the same traffic running in opposite directions. One is the primary service and the other is the backup. This is done to ensure reliability. If one fiber or its associated equipment experiences a failure, service is automatically switched to the other fiber in the ring within 50 milliseconds. SONET has designated service levels at OC-3 (155 Mbps), OC-12 (622 Mbps), OC-24 (1.24 Gbps), OC-48 (2.49 Gbps), OC-192 (9.95 Gbps) or OC-768 (39.8 Gbps). You may also be able to get DS3 service multiplexed onto an OC-3 service for transport across town.

Newer metro networks may offer Carrier Ethernet instead of SONET. Ethernet is highly scalable from as low as 1 Mbps on up through 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Popular MAN service levels are 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1,000 Mbps or GigE. An advantage of Ethernet is that changes in service level can be accomplished faster than with traditional SONET. You can also get layer 2 Ethernet connectivity, such as E-Line and E-LAN, to connect your LANs at other locations into one large bridged network. The MAN itself may have an IP core or be running as Ethernet over SONET to use existing facilities.

Think of the WAN as a very large MAN and you probably won’t be far off. WAN networks may also have SONET rings or IP core networks. They are certainly fiber optic based and often with so many strands that you can lease wavelengths or even dark fibers. Many WAN networks are structured as MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching networks for flexibility. A MPLS network has inherent security due to a propriety routing technology that is not IP. MPLS networks can transport any protocol by encapsulating the packets within the switching labels.

WAN networks may have a regional, national or international footprint. Some are designed with low latency paths that are especially important for financial trading. WAN networks may also peer with other networks of similar size to share traffic. The newest wrinkle is the Ethernet Exchange that exchanges Ethernet traffic without having to first convert it to SONET.

How do you connect to a WAN network? Often you can pick the connection that is both readily available and lowest in cost for your particular application. These range from T1 lines to Ethernet over Copper, Ethernet over Fiber, and SONET last mile connections. In some cases, fixed wireless access is also available. The mix of copper, fiber and wireless access should accommodate just about any need.

Do you have a need to connect your LAN to another facility across town, or to locations in other states or countries? Compare prices and availability of various MAN and WAN connectivity options to meet your requirements.

GigE Ethernet Private Lines

High bandwidth fiber optic connections have traditionally been handled by SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) services. GigE is now a strong competitor, offering high bandwidth, low latency and cost advantages.

GigE or Gigabit Ethernet MAN and WAN services match the bandwidth that many company LANs are running. This makes for a seamless connection to other business locations or the Internet. Cost considerations have previously dictated a speed bump for file transfers and access beyond the LAN. With cost reductions on GigE bandwidth services, it’s now practical to have WAN bandwidth equal to LAN bandwidth.

SONET is a telco technology available in a handful of bandwidth options. The closest levels to 1,000 Mbps are OC-12 at 622 Mbps, OC-24 at 1.244 Gbps and OC48 at 2.488 Gbps. OC-24 is not as common as the others, so that OC-48 must be used for Gigabit bandwidth service. That is one of the reasons for the often large discrepancy in prices for SONET vs Ethernet bandwidth.

Gigabit Ethernet private lines have become popular since new competitive carriers have entered the marketplace for fiber optic services. Not saddled with the need to support traditional switched circuit telco technologies, many of these operators have elected to build their fiber optic networks as IP-based from the ground up.

IP is becoming the long haul protocol of choice for a number of reasons. First, most of the traffic today comes from IP networks and is used by IP applications. At one time, telephone calls dominated worldwide telecom traffic. No more. The changing of the guard from voice to data has been going on for decades. Now the big bandwidth user is video. This can be video conferencing or downloaded video clips and programs.

Ethernet is the dominant protocol running on local networks today. It makes perfect sense to transport Ethernet without conversion in metropolitan and wide area networks. By operating all network connections as packet switched instead of converting back and forth to circuit switched protocols, the overall network is more efficient and capable of supporting Ethernet line service.

E-Line, short for Ethernet Line service, is a layer 2 connection service that can tie together LANs at two different locations as if they were one bridged LAN. This has the advantage of putting everyone in the company on an equal footing regardless of where they happen to be located. The PC in New York is right next door to the printer in Seattle and the server in Dallas as far as the network is concerned.

You can order Ethernet private line services in a wide range of bandwidths, although the standard network speeds of 10, 100, and 1,000 Mbps are popular. Even 1,000 Mbps 10GigE connections are now available in many major markets. Unlike SONET, your Ethernet bandwidth can be easily scaled to the maximum limit of the installed port. That offers the advantage of being able to order, say, 200 Mbps today and scale it up to 500 Mbps tomorrow and 1,000 Mbps next year. As long as you have a GigE port installed, these bandwidth changes can often be accomplished in a few hours or days with only a phone call to your carrier. No truck rolls are necessary because the same equipment is used.

What can you use GigE Ethernet private line bandwidth for? How about medical image transmission, scientific simulations, CAD/CAM files, and video production? If you are moving your data center to the cloud or anticipating such a move, you may well need a GigE connection to your service provider to avoid lags in using your high performance applications.

The price of bandwidth as high as a Gigabit per second have dropped dramatically over the last few years, especially with the availability of Gigabit Ethernet MAN and WAN connections. Get pricing and availability for GigE Ethernet private line services now and see how affordable it has become.

Fast Ethernet over Copper

Fast Ethernet has been a networking standard for many years. You may know it as 100 Mbps Ethernet speed. Nearly every computer, router and switch now has a Network Interface Card (NIC) rated at 10/100 Mbps or 10/100/1000 Mbps. Many smaller networks find 100 Mbps more than adequate. Larger networks use 1000 Mbps or Gigabit Ethernet (GigE). The largest corporate and other high performance networks have at least part of their infrastructure running at 10,000 Mbps or 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GigE). Its when you leave the LAN and connect to metro or long distance networks that things slow to a crawl.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the same network speed regardless of distance? That way it wouldn’t matter where you were transferring files to or from. The time to transfer would be independent of distance. This is especially important to companies with multiple business locations. The illusion of everyone being on the same network is shattered when it takes ten or a hundred times as long to get information from the remote site as it does within your own building.

What has stood in the way of upgrading network connections to a common speed is cost and availability. Fast Ethernet for MAN and WAN connections have been cost prohibitive for smaller companies. If your location isn’t on a fiber path, getting bandwidth above 10 Mbps or so has been out of the question. Well, not any more.

PAETEC, a major network services provider, is blazing new ground by deploying Fast Ethernet connections over copper as well as fiber. If your buildings are within the service footprint of this new technology you can avoid the budget breaking costs of fiber construction completely. PAETEC uses multiple bonded copper pairs within the same telco conduit to provide bandwidths as high as 200 Mbps.

Chances are that the multi-pair copper conduit is already installed in your building for multi-line telephone and lower speed services like T1. The beauty of T1 lines are that they use standard twisted pair copper telco wire. The major limitation is that the bandwidth is fixed at 1.5 Mbps. You can bond T1s together to get higher bandwidths, up to about 10 or 12 Mbps. Technically this works just fine, but it gets pricey because the cost is the price of a T1 line times the number of lines needed.

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is much more cost effective. First, the advanced modulation techniques support higher bandwidths per pair of wire used. Second, the cost does not multiply as fast at bonding T1 lines. Third, you can now get Fast Ethernet bandwidth using EoC.

The one limitation of Ethernet over Copper technology is distance. The higher bandwidths require you to be near the central office that connects to your copper bundle. That’s perfect for businesses with metropolitan locations, especially in major business districts. If you are located out in the boonies, you’ll have fewer options.

Do you need cost effective Fast Ethernet connections to support your business processes? Check Fast Ethernet over Copper availability and pricing now. Fiber and wireless may also be available at lower prices than you imagine. Sorry, no residential service available.

4G Wireless Broadband Options

Wireless broadband is on an upward path to take over many of the applications that have long been the domain of wireline technologies. Wireless has the convenience of portability and mobility. What’s held back deployment and more powerful applications is the limited availability and speed of wireless connections. The move to 4G wireless looks to be a potential solution.

4G or fourth generation wireless doesn’t have a strict definition, but it is roughly stated as the bandwidth typical of Cable broadband or Ethernet over Copper business connections. With this level of transmission speed and a city-wide reach, 4G wireless can take over service for desktop as well as mobile devices.

One might throw WiFi into the 4G category. The bandwidth for a, b, g, and n WiFi technologies fall into the right bandwidth category. However, WiFi is a short distance system. It works well within and nearby particular locations, such as homes, offices, restaurants, hotels, airports and even park benches. But you can’t get in your car and drive away with a WiFi connection. It will disappear as soon as you leave the parking lot. In a way, WiFi is more of a PAN or Personal Area Network like Bluetooth.

The higher power wireless technologies, including 2G & 3G are associated with cellular phone service. These are based on using networks of fixed transmitters and receivers arranged as cells with signals that fill-in the coverage between towers. The trick of turning this system into a metropolitan or wide area network is to coordinate the handoff of an existing wireless connection as the user moves from cell to cell.

The most popular wireless technology right now is 3G. It offers bandwidths similar to T1 lines and basic DSL of around 1.5 Mbps on average in metropolitan areas. You may get two or more times this speed if you happen to be near a tower with few users. This is more than adequate for many mobile uses, such as Web browsing, email and viewing video clips on smartphone screens.

Beyond limited speed, 3G also suffers from limited bandwidth availability. It shares channels with cellular telephone on the same towers. Those channels were originally sized to support expected voice traffic. They’ve been overwhelmed by the higher bandwidth requirements of Internet data traffic. That’s why carriers are so insistent on bandwidth caps.

There are a couple of different approaches to 4G wireless. The one taken by the cell phone companies is to view 4G as an upgrade to their 3G systems. There are two differing cellular system that co-exist. One is a US-centric system called CDMA that is used by Verizon, Sprint and others. The other is a more global standard called GSM that is used by AT&T and T-Mobile.

Right now, AT&T and T-Mobile have upgraded their 3G networks to a faster version of the same thing called HSPA+ that delivers up to 6 to 8 Mbps. Verizon has moved to a 4G technology called LTE that offers downloads of 5 to 12 Mbps. Sprint has gone with another 4G technology called WiMAX that delivers downloads in the 3 to 6 Mbps speed range.

As wireless continues to evolve, 4G is expected to move into two camps. LTE is the technology most discussed as a truly universal standard. WiMAX deployment actually predated LTE and has installations worldwide. Both LTE and WiMAX have technical upgrade paths that can boost download speeds to over 100 Mbps and even 1000 Mbps. This is competitive with many fiber services and ensures that 4G wireless will be with us for a long time.

One thing we’re also seeing with 4G wireless is the use of lower frequency bands that can more easily penetrate buildings. These bands came from the re-deployment of those channels from UHF TV as part of a federal auction. Clear offers 4G fixed and mobile wireless service with a telephone option over WiMAX in over 80 cities nationwide. Right now, this service offers unlimited broadband service.

Cheaper Connections To The Cloud

Companies often smack their lips as they compare the cost of cloud services to the capital investment and operating expenses of running their own data centers. Then they take another look and see a big gotcha. Oops! What is it going to cost for all this cloud connectivity?

What you pay for bandwidth now depends a lot on your mix of LAN, MAN and WAN traffic. Companies with data centers in the same building as most of their employees can expect that the lion’s share of their business applications traffic stays on the LAN. Certainly you need a dedicated broadband Internet connection to stay connected with the outside world. But if all you are doing is sending email and accessing Web sites for information, a modest line speed can support a lot of users.

E-commerce is another matter. If most of your traffic is from customers and other users via the Internet, you need a high bandwidth connection for your public facing servers. Your WAN traffic may even be larger than your LAN traffic.

Offsite, but in-town, data centers also require high bandwidth connections even if they are used primarily for disaster backup and recovery or data mirroring. In this case, the majority of your bandwidth may be over the MAN rather than the LAN or the WAN.

Now, here’s how things change when you move to the cloud. You public servers are now rented, not owned, and your bandwidth costs are part of the service fee. You may not need a MAN connection at all if you are buying storage in the cloud. What you will need is a much bigger pipe between your office building or buildings and your cloud service provider.

Companies that kept everything in-house can get some sticker shock when they find out that the cloud savings is offset by the increased cost of higher bandwidth private line services between their location and the cloud. Other companies that now have most of their bandwidth chewed up by Internet accesses may breath a big sigh of relief that the cloud provider is also supplying bandwidth to the Internet. It is well worth your while to build a quick chart that compares LAN, MAN and WAN bandwidth needs between your current setup and what you’ll have when you go to the cloud.

Regardless of how the mix works out, you’ll want to get the most bandwidth you can for your IT dollar. Fortunately, you have much more in the way of options now than even just a few years ago. One reason is heavy competition for higher bandwidth circuits. The other is new technology that adds to the option list.

The newest technology that you may not have investigated yet is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. EoC is a direct competitor for traditional T1 lines and higher bandwidth T1 lines. In some cases it can even be a substitute for fiber optic services.

Ethernet over Copper uses multiple twisted pair copper telco wiring, just like T1. It’s a more efficient modulation scheme, however, and offers higher bandwidths than are generally practical by bonding together T1 lines. Unlike T1, EoC is distance sensitive and requires you to be within 2 or 3 miles of the nearest telco office. For companies located in cities and their suburbs this generally works out fine. Out in the country, you won’t find much service.

Popular Ethernet over Copper bandwidth options include 2, 3, 5, 10 and 20 Mbps. Service equal to 45 Mbps DS3 is available in many metro locations. Some companies even offer 100 Mbps bandwidth using copper instead of fiber.

Even more exciting is the pricing for EoC services. You can often get 2 or 3 Mbps Ethernet service for the price of a T1 line. It’s not unheard of to pay half or less for the higher bandwidth Ethernet services than what you are used to paying for traditional telecom line services.

Are you contemplating a move to the cloud and need to know your bandwidth costs or just want to save money on the line services you have now? You may be pleasantly surprised by what you find when you check pricing and availability of EoC and other bandwidth services for your particular business locations.

MAN and MEN - Metropolitan Networking

When your local area network expands beyond the property that you own or lease, what you need is a MAN. That’s MAN as in Metropolitan Area Network. Let’s take a look at what the MAN is all about and how you use one or more to expand your company network.

The idea behind a metro network is that many offices, medical centers, manufacturers, governmental bodies and retailers have multiple locations within the same geographical area. Within a particular building or campus, you are free to install as much wiring as you want. But what happens when you need to get that connection across town?

The legacy answer is to lease point to point dedicated circuits from a telco provider. These can be T1 lines, DS3 for higher bandwidth or very expensive OC3 and above optical connections. Essentially, you create your own metropolitan networks from leased lines and routers that you install and manage.

It turns out that many, many businesses and organizations need this same service. This opens the opportunity for a metro network operator to install the necessary fiber optic cabling, add-drop multiplexers and other equipment to create a publicly available resource that meets the needs of most businesses in the area. By connecting to the MAN instead of building your own network, you can save considerable cost. You’ll also likely have additional resources at your disposal just in case your bandwidth needs suddenly increase.

Metro networks have more inherent security than the Internet in that there is no general public access. The residential users downloading movies and browsing the Internet or looking for mischief have no real need for the MAN and aren’t willing to pony up the price of a connection. Certainly, you have the ability to encrypt any packets you send through the MAN to improve security even further.

Many Metropolitan Area Networks are built from SONET rings, which are fiber optic networks organized as rings with many access points. Usually there are at least two fiber rings sending traffic in opposite directions. The idea is that if one strand fails, the other redundant strand will maintain the network. A ring arrangement is a good fit with most metro needs. The ring circles the business district and includes important industrial parks, hospital campuses, office complexes and the like.

The newest development is MEN as a specific type of MAN. MEN stands for Metropolitan Ethernet Network. This network is based on the Ethernet protocol, although it may be running on a SONET core network or a native IP network. As a user, you are able to get Ethernet service in the metro area.

What makes Ethernet so desirable? Metro Ethernet is based on standards established by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) so that you know what to expect when you order a particular Ethernet service. There are two services of particular interest to most business users. The first is E-Line which is a private dedicated point to point connection between two locations. You use E-line the same way you’d use a T1 line, except that you have many more bandwidth options and the price per Mbps is often much lower than traditional telecom services.

The other service of note is E-LAN, a private LAN service. But you already have a LAN, right? Not like this one. E-LAN is a metro network version of the LAN. It connects the individual LANs at each of your metro locations to make one large bridged LAN connecting all of them in a layer 2 meshed network. It’s as if all those different buildings were really just different departments in the same building.

How do you connect to the MAN? Typical methods include T1 lines, DS3 and OC3 or OC12 fiber last mile connections. However, if you want to take advantage of Ethernet services like E-LAN, you’ll need EFM or Ethernet in the First Mile. You can use Ethernet over Copper for bandwidths from 1 to 100 Mbps. Higher speeds require Gigabit Ethernet or 10 GigE fiber optic service.

In some downtown areas, there is such as thing as a fixed wireless MAN. This is different from 3G and 4G cellular wireless intended for smartphones. Fixed wireless operates on private licensed frequencies with directional transmission from the service provider to all-weather terminal equipment mounted to the roof of each customer. High speeds, excellent security and fast installation characterize fixed wireless MAN.

What type of metro networking will work best for your business or organization? The best way to evaluate your choices is to get a list of available services and pricing for Metropolitan Area Networks serving your location.

Gigabit Ethernet vs SONET

With the expansion of video content and moves to cloud services, business bandwidth now easily pushes the Gigabit per second level. This certainly means a move from copper to fiber optic services. But did you know that there are two types of fiber optic bandwidth to choose from? They are SONET and Gigabit Ethernet.

SONET is the original fiber protocol developed by the telephone companies to transport large numbers of simultaneous telephone calls between switching centers and internationally. SONET stands for Synchronous Optical NETwork. There is an international version of this protocol called SDH for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy. Together they are often referred to a SONET/SDH.

SONET’s origins go back to the initial development of digitized telephone conversations and the transmission of these a groups using trunks known as T1 lines. The larger T3 lines can carry the equivalent of 28 T1 lines or a data bandwidth of 45 Mbps. There are no faster copper telco standards. The next step up is OC-3 at 155 Mbps. That’s enough to transport 3 DS3 circuits and, indeed, the protocol is designed to easily multiplex and demultiplex lower level services. When you order a DS3 today, it will be transported most if not all of the way multiplexed into a OC service. A device called an ADM or Add-Drop Multiplexer gets the service on and off the optical network.

You’ve probably guessed that OC stands for Optical Carrier. There are a number of optical carrier levels that include OC-3 at 155 Mbps, OC-12 at 622 Mbps, OC-24 at 1.24 Gbps, OC-48 at 2.49 Gbps, OC-192 at 9.95 Gbps and OC-768 at 39.8 Gbps. When you hear about 10 Gbps SONET, it is an OC-192 service. The 40 Gbps that many carriers use for long haul transmission is OC-768.

What about intermediate rates? Not all levels between 1 and 768 are defined. Others, such as OC-9, OC-18, OC-36 and OC-96 are standardized but not generally offered in service.

SONET/SDH is set up in ring arrangements with two separate fiber strands for each ring. They are redundant circuits, so if one fails the other can pick up the load within 50 mSec.

Ethernet is a completely different protocol developed by the computer industry rather than the telephone companies. It is based on packets rather than telephone channels. Most LAN connected devices have a NIC or Network Interface Card that supports 10/100/1000 Ethernet. That means the device can run at 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps). Corporate LANs may now run at 1 Gbps with some parts of the network using 10 Gbps or 10 GigE.

The equivalent of Ethernet in the LAN for local networks is Ethernet WAN or Wide Area Network. Switched Ethernet used for WAN applications is also called Carrier Ethernet. If the service is local to a particular city or metro area, it is often called Metro Ethernet or Metropolitan Ethernet and the network is referred to as a MAN or Metro Area Network.

Like telco services, Ethernet may be delivered over copper or fiber. Twisted pair copper telephone line can be used up to 100 Mbps. That speed is also available over coaxial copper cable through Cable systems. Beyond that, fiber optic connections can deliver 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps for business applications.

Ethernet is designed to be far more scalable than SONET. Instead of ordering a particular service level, such as OC-24, you order an Ethernet port capable of handling a maximum speed, say 1 Gbps. With the port in place, you can pay for Gigabit Ethernet if you need that much, or you can order 250 Mbps or 500 Mbps Ethernet and upgrade quickly and easily when the need arises.

Which fiber optic service should you order? In general, Ethernet is less expensive per Mbps than SONET. Sometimes the price savings can be dramatic. The one sticking point is that you need to have the service installed in your building. You may have one or the other services now or nothing at all. The cost of construction to bring in the right fiber from the right carrier can outweigh the monthly lease costs. You should know, though, that Ethernet can often be carried on SONET and that competitive carriers are hungry to get new buildings on their networks. These factors can affect the availability and pricing of fiber optic services to your building.

Fiber optic build-outs are progressing rapidly and the demand for high speed bandwidth increases. Even if you went out for bids a year ago, the situation may have changed for the better since then. The best thing to do is get new prices and availability for fiber optic bandwidth services for your particular business location.



Note: Photo of data center servers courtesy of WikimediaCommons

100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper Rivals Fiber

Ethernet over Copper is rapidly taking over from T1 lines as the bandwidth service of choice for low to medium speed applications. Multiple copper pair can support bandwidths of 20 Mbps up to 50 Mbps in some locations. Beyond that, it’s assumed that fiber optic service has to be brought in. Not any more. Now there’s 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper available from Paetec.

Twisted pair copper has a legacy of connecting central offices to telephone sets for over a century. The enormous installed base of copper connections makes this an extremely valuable resource even in the era of digital communications and fiber optic cabling. The problem is that unshielded small gauge copper wire loops were engineered to carry low frequency audio signals up to several miles. It’s a tribute to clever engineering that these same pairs can be repurposed to carry high frequency digital signals.

Paetec is applying Ethernet over bonded Copper Products from Overture Networks as the technology behind this amazing bandwidth fete. Overture acquired the technology when it purchased Hatteras Networks earlier this year. Their HN product series can deliver up to 15 Mbps per copper pair depending on distance. By bonding up to 32 pairs, bandwidths approaching 500 Mbps can be achieved. Typically, the equipment is used to support user bandwidths from 10 to 100 Mbps.

Speeds in the hundreds of Mbps, even up to 1 Gbps, over copper have been announced in experimental setups. Now, you can order 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper as a standard bandwidth service. This is particularly significant in that 100 Mbps “Fast” Ethernet is a standard LAN speed. By extending this into the MAN and WAN, the bandwidth speed bump experienced when exiting the office is eliminated. Two locations can share files as if they were side by side in the same building.

Ethernet over Copper technology has been gaining in popularity as the need for higher speed network connections increases. Business automation, medical file transfers, video transport and the move to cloud based services is rendering low bandwidth connections obsolete. T1 line used to be considered a broadband service at 1.5 Mbps. Now many companies need at least 10 Mbps to get their jobs done. So, too, wireless backhaul was fine using T1 lines as long as the traffic was voice and low speed data. Since 3G and 4G have become so popular, slow backhaul is no longer acceptable.

Why not just switch to fiber optic service with it’s unlimited bandwidth? Someday that will be the case. Right now, ready fiber access is available in core business districts and colocation centers. Many metropolitan buildings remain unlit for fiber. Small and medium size towns are relatively fiber-poor. Yes, there is a lot of fiber construction underway. But why pay a king’s ransom and wait six months to a year when there are multi-pair copper cables already run into your building? By employing Ethernet over Copper technology to take full advantage of that existing wiring, you can have higher bandwidths now without enormous construction costs.

Can high speed copper-based bandwidth be the solution that works best for your company? Find out by getting availability and pricing for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet over Copper service for your business locations.

Broadband Ethernet Internet Services

Ethernet point to point line service and LAN service have become popular with businesses, especially as replacements for T1 lines and now-obsolete Frame Relay networks. But did you also know that Ethernet makes an excellent access connection to MPLS VPN networks and the Internet?

Carrier Ethernet got its start for business as a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) service called Metro Ethernet. Many companies have a need to interconnect multiple facilities located in the same general geographical area. The E-Line point to point services EPL and EVPL give you the same or better connectivity that you’ll get with T1 lines and even multiple T1 lines. E-LAN service links multiple LANs in a mesh network to interconnect your entire organization.

In many cases, what you want is a broadband connection to the Internet rather than a direct link to another private facility. These are traditionally provided using T1 lines and higher bandwidth services, such as DS3, OC3, OC12 and OC48. Now, EFM or Ethernet in the First Mile can provide that same connectivity and likely save you money in the process. Let’s see why.

The reason that T1 lines are so popular is that they are provisioned on ordinary twisted pair telco wiring. That wiring is already in place in most businesses, being used for multi-line telephone service. T1 has been around for more than 50 years and is well established and available most everywhere. The one fly in the ointment is that T1 is bandwidth limited to 1.5 Mbps. Until Ethernet over Copper became available, the workaround to this bandwidth limitation was to bond multiple T1 lines together to make one large data pipe. This proven practice works well, but gets expensive since you have to pay the full price of each T1 line no matter how many you order.

The competition to T1 now is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. As the name implies, this service also uses ordinary twisted pair copper telco wiring that is currently in place. Like bonded T1, EoC uses multiple copper pair to increase bandwidth. What’s different, though, is the cost structure. A popular Ethernet over Copper service is 3x3 Mbps EoC. That’s 3 Mbps upload and 3 Mbps download, a symmetrical bandwidth, delivered over copper wiring. The cost of 3 Mbps Ethernet is pretty much equal to the cost for a 1.5 Mbps T1 line in areas where both are available.

That’s a nice cost savings for any company, but it doesn’t stop there. Ethernet over Copper can be installed at speeds from 1 to 20 Mbps. Bonding T1 lines gets you maybe half that maximum bandwidth and gets real expensive as you add more lines. Ethernet is designed to be far more scalable. You have the provider install an Ethernet port for the highest speed you expect to need. Then order the bandwidth you require today. In the future, you can simply call your service provider and tell them to crank it up to the next level. They can give you a bandwidth increase in as little as an hour because the bandwidth capacity is already installed. No additional construction effort is needed.

What happens if you need more than 20 Mbps Internet service? At that point you need to move up to fiber optic service. The good news is that Ethernet over Fiber is more available than ever before and competitive service providers are willing to make deals on the installation cost, especially if your needs are substantial. Once you have fiber to the premises, you’ll be able to go form 50 or 100 Mbps on up to GigE Gigabit Ethernet and even 10 Gbps Ethernet broadband service if you need it.

Does your business location suffer from inadequate dedicated Internet service or are you just curious if you can save money over your present solution? If so, get prices and availability of Broadband Ethernet Internet Service over copper or fiber as appropriate. Sorry, this service is not available for home offices or other residential use.

Ethernet Services over Copper

Ethernet seems like the logical way to connect networks, but it is only recently that we’ve had the ability to do that beyond the building or campus. Now Ethernet over Copper connection services are proliferating and the costs are often lower than alternative solutions. Just what is Ethernet over Copper and what can you do with it?

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is a technology that delivers standard Ethernet services over twisted pair copper telco wiring. This is somewhat different than simply wiring your facilities with Cat 5E or Cat 6 wiring. Yes, those are also twisted pair copper circuits. What’s different about EoC is that it is designed to run on copper infrastructure that was never designed to support the Ethernet protocol.

Ethernet over Copper in the MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) needs to use the same copper that’s been in place for decades. That’s the beauty of copper to the premises. The costs of construction have already been paid. In fact, at least some of the many copper pair are probably already in use for multi-line telephone service and T1 broadband connections.

How is this compatibility accomplished? Each twisted pair of small gauge copper wire is simply an electrical connection from your building to the nearest telephone company office. Before they are put into service, these are known as dry copper pair. Dry because they have no electrical signals imposed on them. A dry pair can be used as an analog telephone line, one leg of a T1 line, or for a security alarm circuit. It depends on what you wire it to. Take several dry pair and connect them to EoC terminal equipment and you have a high speed Ethernet over Copper link from your location to the telco office. From there it can be connected, usually by fiber optic line, to just about anywhere in the country.

Ethernet services have been standardized like other telecom services. The two most popular are E-Line and E-LAN. E-Line is Ethernet Line service, a point to point connection that ties two LANs together across town or even on other sides of the world. E-LAN is Ethernet LAN service. As the name implies, this is a multipoint service that connects three or more locations in a meshed network. E-LAN can join multiple branch offices with headquarters as if they were all on the same LAN.

Ethernet over Copper bandwidth varies from 1 Mbps on the low side on up to at least 20 Mbps. Some carriers claim 50 Mbps or higher capability over copper. What you need to know, however, is that EoC is a distance limited technology. At the lower speeds you can be up to 12,000 feet away from the carrier’s nearest point of presence. Higher speeds will limit you to less than a mile. This is why Ethernet over Copper is known as a metropolitan service and isn’t generally found in rural areas.

Ethernet is designed to be much more scalable than T-Carrier or SONET services. You can have a 20 Mbps Ethernet port installed but only order 5 Mbps x 5 Mbps service. When your needs exceed 5 Mbps, you’ll be able to call your service provider and request a step up on bandwidth. This may be accomplished in as little as an hour. Compare that to waiting weeks for a truck roll on other services.

Ethernet over Copper is highly cost effective and is starting to displace traditional T1 lines. For about the same money, you often get twice the bandwidth when you choose EoC. That’s 3 Mbps versus 1.5 Mbps. Plus, higher speeds are generally available at reasonable costs over copper Ethernet connections.

Now that you know what it is, could you benefit from an increase in bandwidth or a better bandwidth price? If so, check prices and availability of Ethernet Service over Copper or Fiber.

Cloud Computing and WAN Bandwidth

Cloud computing has become a major trend in IT services. It sometimes seems like there is a wild stampede to anything and everything in the cloud. What may get lost in the details is just how you actually get to the cloud. That mechanism is WAN bandwidth.

The WAN, or Wide Area Network, is often used to describe any connection beyond the boundary of the business office or corporate campus. Locations in town may be served by a MAN, or Metropolitan Area Network, that is limited to a small geographical area. Beyond that, you need WAN bandwidth to reach other locations or networks.

So, why is WAN bandwidth so important? It all has to do with traffic levels and where that traffic goes on the network. When data centers were all local, network traffic primarily stayed on the LAN. Once remote data centers were implemented for backup and disaster recovery, MAN or WAN bandwidth increased to accommodate the extra resource needs. Now that the server racks and disks have been replaced by cloud services, the lion’s share of network traffic goes to and from the cloud.

Where is the cloud? One of the most popular depictions of the cloud is the Internet. You don’t need to be formally involved with cloud computing to be using the Internet. Most everyone does. The reason that the cloud symbol is used for the Internet is that, as users, we don’t have to be concerned with the details of what all is on the Internet nor how it all interconnects. All we need to know is that we connect using a broadband Internet access service and use certain resources available through the Internet.

Now the term “cloud” is used to describe other services that may or may not have anything to do with the Internet. In may cases, it’s only the network that changes. The idea of having servers running applications and using storage owned by a service provider at some distant location isn’t unique to the Internet. What’s different about today’s cloud is that your connection is likely a private point to point data line that is used only to connect your business to the cloud services you require. With the Internet, many, many services and many, many users all share the same network.

This is where WAN bandwidth comes in. If you happen to be using cloud services on the Internet, you’ll be wanting a dedicated broadband Internet connection with enough bandwidth to ensure that your link is never congested. For non-Intenet services, you’ll want private line services with similarly adequate bandwidth. In some cases, latency and class of service are also critically important to your needs. That’s especially true for high performance applications such as financial trading or real time services such as enterprise VoIP, content delivery or telepresence.

Some clouds are private clouds in that they are owned by a particular organization for its own needs. The idea of having your own cloud is a way to share computing, applications, and storage among multiple company locations. The need for adequate WAN bandwidth still applies. You need to ensure that the traffic displaced from the LAN to the WAN still has a large enough pipe to flow through unobstructed.

Are you involved with private or public cloud computing as a user or supplier? You may have more bandwidth options that you realize. Find out by checking prices and availability of WAN bandwidth services for your business locations.



Note: Cloud networking diagram courtesy of Guivaloz on Wikimedia Commons.

Metropolitan Area Networks

We’re all familiar with LANs. Those are the local area networks used in nearly every business to interconnect computers, centralized storage, printers, wireless access points, WiFi hotspots, scanners and, increasingly, telephones and video equipment. When we want to connect to the outside world, we might think of a long haul or WAN connection to the Internet or distant business location. But there is another important type of network in-between the LAN and the WAN. That’s the MAN or Metropolitan Area Network.

The Metropolitan Area Network is an important service in its own right. For many companies, the only long-haul connections they may need are a dedicated broadband Internet and long distance telephone services. Most all of their traffic stays local. Not local as on the LAN, but geographically local. That means within the bounds of a city, suburbs and nearby locations.

This is where the term Metropolitan Area Network got its name. It’s a network that spans a given metropolitan area and not much further. You don’t find MAN services out in the countryside. Not that there aren’t important customers beyond the city limits, mind you. It’s just that MAN networks tend to be build upon fiber optic networks and very little fiber exits out in the boonies right now.

As you might suspect, the greatest concentration of MAN services will be found in business districts of major cities. That’s simply because the greatest population density and number of businesses are also found downtown and in the business districts of adjoining suburbs. Fiber optic cable construction and equipment are expensive. Service providers need lots of traffic from lots of customers to justify the expense of building out a MAN.

It’s possible to construct your own private MAN by ordering point to point lines between each of the locations you want to connect, or by establishing a star network with corporate headquarters at the center. Many companies buy MAN services instead because the costs are lower for a given bandwidth level. That makes sense, since the network infrastructure cost can be amortized over a large user base. A properly run MAN will give you the performance and security you require at a savings over creating your own private network.

How do service providers build a MAN? A classic approach is to construct a fiber optic SONET ring around the city, linking all the important office buildings, industrial parks, data centers and carrier hotels. SONET is the Synchronous Optical NETwork standard for legacy switched circuit telecom services. It features two lit fiber strands sending traffic in opposite directions for redundancy. If one fiber fails, the other picks up the load within 50 mSec.

Newer MAN services are build upon Carrier Ethernet or Metro Ethernet. The core network may still be running SONET or it may be an IP core network. Either way, the customer only sees an Ethernet interface. It may be an E-Line point to point connection or an E-LAN multipoint to multipoint connection. MPLS networks implemented as a MAN have the advantage of being able to handle nearly any type of traffic.

Downtown, you may also have the option of using a wireless MAN. These are based on fixed wireless transmissions between a carrier’s tower and radio equipment at each location served. These are short range services and require line of sight between buildings. If it happens to work out for you, wireless has the advantage of fast installation and low construction cost compared to bringing in fiber to locations not already lit.

Does your business need to communicate between two or more locations in town? If so, Metropolitan Area Networks are what you are looking for. Get prices and availability for now.



Note: Photo of New York City courtesy of I, Laslovarga on Wikimedia Commons.

Switch to Switched Ethernet Service

Are you still living in the world of telecom past? Those are the days when you had one network protocol inside and something completely different outside. Switch to switched Ethernet service and your network has more options and easier interfacing.

What constitutes telecom past? It’s the legacy transport services developed as telephone technologies and later pressed into service to connect data networks through the public switched telephone network. That includes such favorites as Frame Relay, T1, DS3 and SONET/SDH.

What’s so bad about these venerable telecom services? Nothing at all. They are time-tested solutions to business connectivity. All of these services are readily available, perhaps with the exception of Frame Relay which is being rapidly replaced by MPLS networks. They offer high reliability and dedicated bandwidth suitable for business operations. The only real question is whether these are the BEST options available for your connectivity needs.

There’s a newer networking technology being deployed nationwide, indeed worldwide, right now. What it does is simplify the LAN to MAN to WAN connection. Everything is standardized on the Ethernet protocol. Connectivity is seamless, since outside network connections simply plug into your network edge Ethernet switch and become an extension of your LAN.

Contrast this approach to having to install a CSU/DSU interface card into a router to make the networks compatible. Inside your company, everything is packet based. Outside, those packets have to be shuttled into and out of TDM channels that transport them between locations or to and from the Internet.

With an all-Ethernet system, you also gain some service options you didn’t have before. Ethernet line service gives you a point to point connection between two LANs at different locations. Ethernet LAN service creates a multi-point to multipoint network that links 3 or more locations. All of these locations will appear to be on one large bridged network with switched Ethernet service. The engineer at the desk across town is effectively right next door to the marketing manager a couple of states away and the warehouse on the other side of the globe.

Just to add icing to the cake, Ethernet services also tend to be lower in cost per Mbps than equivalent legacy telecom services. It’s not uncommon to get 3 Mbps Ethernet at the same price as 1.5 Mbps T1 service. The distinction gets even larger as you go up in speed and include multiple locations.

Are you missing out by still depending on yesterday’s telecom technology to support today’s business needs? Check pricing and availability of switched Ethernet service to see if you can get better service for less money? There’s a good chance you can.