Gigabit Ethernet Port Scales WAN Bandwidth

When you are ready to make the move from copper to fiber bandwidth levels or upgrading an OC-3 SONET service, you are faced with a choice. What level of bandwidth do you install?

Why not give yourself flexibility for the future and the opportunity to pay only for what you need right now? This is what a Ethernet port strategy can do for you.

Scalability is a new idea in business telecom services. When you install a T1 line, it requires a very specific T1 interface that include a CSU/DSU circuit unique to the T1 line specifications. Upgrade to a T3 line (DS3 bandwidth) and you’ll find that you can’t just plug that T3 into your T1 router. The interface is completely different. Even the connecting cable is different. With DS3 you are looking at a pair of coaxial BNC connectors that don’t support any other service. Now, make yet another move on up to OC-3 service. Your router interfaces for T1 and T3 are no good. You need a fiber input to your router.

It doesn’t get any better when you start moving up the fiber optic hierarchy. You can’t just plug OC-12 or OC-48 into an OC-3 port and have everything spring to life. They are different services requiring modifications. You’ll likely need a new interface card and programming changes to your router. If you have a managed router, that probably means a truck roll to your premises to swap out the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment).

In the back of your mind, you must suspect it doesn’t have to be this way. Those new PCs have NICs (Network Interface Cards) labeled 10/100/1000 Mbps. That means that you can plug them into any LAN running at up to 1 Gbps and they’ll work just find. Even the connector takes the same RJ-45 patch cord. Wouldn’t that approach be far superior for WAN connections too?

This is the beauty of Carrier Ethernet, which includes Metro Ethernet, MPLS network access and long haul point to point connections. Ethernet beyond the LAN has been designed to be as flexible as Ethernet on the LAN.

One of Ethernet’s best features as a bandwidth service is ease of scaling. If you are running 50 Mbps service and find your needs have increased so that you now need 100 Mbps, you can just call up your service provider and request an upgrade. In a matter of hours or a day or two at the most, your WAN network speed will double. In that time, no one has knocked on the door with a new router under their arm. In fact, you haven’t seen anyone from the service provider. It was all done over the phone.

There is a trick to making this work. The magic is all in the installed Ethernet port. When you order Ethernet service, make sure that you have a port installed that will support the highest bandwidth you reasonably expect to be ordering down the road. Most ports are the standard Ethernet speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1,000 Mbps. It’s also possible to get a 10,000 Mbps or 10 GigE port with a suitably fast managed router if your needs are that high.

With Ethernet over Copper, you are probably looking at a 100 Mbps Ethernet port at most. Be sure you know just what your maximum speed will be, because EoC is distance limited and requires more copper pairs as speed increases. Ask what bandwidth your installation will support compared to what you are ordering initially.

With Ethernet over Fiber, it likely makes sense to install a Gigabit Ethernet port. The fiber itself has more capacity that you are ever likely to employ. The speed of the port will be the limiting factor, along with the capability of the carrier’s equipment that feeds that port. Once again, it is smart to plan for the future but buy for today. Get the bandwidth you need now, but be sure that the system is engineered to allow for fast and easy upgrades as you need them. That will be especially handy if you get hit with a sudden increase in traffic or a need to support massive amounts of video or enormous file transfers that you didn’t anticipate.

Are you ready for a bandwidth upgrade, but unsure of what commitment to make? Give yourself some breathing room with a Gigabit Ethernet port and the ability to scale up your bandwidth as needed. Get prices and availability of Ethernet ports and line speeds now.

Ethernet Now Faster and Cheaper Than T1

For years, even a couple of decades, T1 lines have been the go-to professional bandwidth service for small and medium businesses. They are the most popular digital connection for good reasons. T1 lines are available, reliable, secure, dedicated, flexible and relatively inexpensive. What’s not to like?

Agreed. There’s a lot to like about T1 services. But how would you like to get even more for your money? If so, then you need to take a close look at Ethernet, especially Ethernet over Copper.

Not everyone is familiar with the newer Carrier Ethernet services. They’ve only been available for a few years and the big rush has been just recently. Ethernet over Copper, EoC, is primarily a service you find in large metropolitan areas and not in smaller towns or out in the country. It has a distance limitation. You need to be within a few miles of the service provider’s office to qualify for service. Even so, there are millions of business locations that could be served by Ethernet instead of T1. So why aren’t they?

Good question. I suspect that it is more a matter of awareness than anything else. Companies that use T1 line services know the pricing and availability. They also know that prices have been coming down so they can get great renewal pricing, especially on 3 year contracts. What they don’t know is that they can get even more bandwidth for the same pricing with Ethernet over Copper.

It’s incredible, but true. Both T1 and Ethernet cost less than $300 a month in many areas. The difference is that T1 bandwidth is fixed at 1.5 Mbps. Ethernet will give you 2 Mbps, known as 2x2 Ethernet, or 3 Mbps, known as 3x3 Ethernet, depending on the service provider for your particular location.

Yes, you can also get T1 service at 3 Mbps to match the 3x3 Ethernet bandwidth. One T1 line will get you 1.5 Mbps only, so the way this is done is to combine or “bind” two T1 lines to get 3 Mbps. The only problem is that you now have to pay twice as much because each T1 line has a cost and there is no economy of scale.

Ethernet is not only lower cost than T1, but it offers more bandwidth that is also more scalable. You can order Ethernet over Copper starting at 1 Mbps. Common speed increments include 2 Mbps, 3 Mbps, 5 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps. It’s possible to get other intermediate speeds, too. Binding T1 lines tops out at around 12 Mbps because of both the technology involved and the sheer cost of all those individual lines.

Ethernet keeps on going. You can easily get 10 or 20 Mbps Ethernet service, with 40 Mbps and even 100 Mbps available in some metro areas. Those connections are made over the same type of twisted pair copper wiring that is used to deliver T1. The higher speeds even rival entry level fiber optic services that may be expensive to install.

Are you considering a bandwidth increase or simply want to know if you can get a better bandwidth deal? Get pricing and availability of both Ethernet and T1 line service and see what makes the most sense for your business.

Cable, T1 and EoC

Today, there are three excellent broadband options for the small to medium size business. They cost roughly the same, but offer different options. Which do you choose? Let’s take a closer look at business-class Cable, T1 lines and Ethernet over Copper.

We’ll start with T1 lines because they are the mainstay of SMB connectivity. T1 lines come in several flavors depending on what you want to do with them. They’re all based on the same technology developed by the telephone industry half a century ago.

T1 is a T-carrier technology based on transmitting digital signals over ordinary twisted pair copper wiring. It takes two copper pair to make one T1 line. One pair is used for upload, the other for download. When used for telephony, one pair is talk and the other is listen. The speed of the digital signal on the line is 1.5 Mbps. This doesn’t vary. The equipment at each end of the line is synchronized to maintain a steady bit rate regardless of whether anything is being transmitted or not.

Originally, the purpose of this arrangement was to transmit telephone calls in channels called DS0s. There are 24 channels on a T1 line. You can use them separately or combine all the channels to make one large broadband pipe. The most common T1 telephone line now is called a T1 PRI or ISDN PRI. It has 23 separate phone lines plus one channel for signaling and Caller ID.

A broadband T1 line delivers a fully symmetrical bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps. The upload and download speeds are the same. This line can connect directly between two business locations as a private line or it can be used to connect to the Internet or another network, such as a MPLS cloud network. When used as an Internet connection, the arrangement is called a dedicated T1 Internet connection. Dedicated means that the full bandwidth is always available for your use only.

The most direct competitor to T1 is now Ethernet over Copper or EoC. Ethernet over Copper uses the same twisted pair telephone wiring that T1 lines use. The main difference is that the equipment on each end uses a more advanced technology to transport higher bandwidth through each copper pair. Often multiple pair in the same binder cable are used to bring in a higher bandwidth EoC service.

Ethernet over Copper is available is bandwidths from 1 Mbps on up to typically 20 Mbps. In some areas, it is now possible to get speeds as high as 90 or 100 Mbps delivered over copper pair. Those are bandwidth levels that have demanded fiber optic connections until recently. EoC is also designed to be highly scalable. You order and EoC port at the speed you ultimately expect to need but only sign up for the speed you need now. In the future, you can have that speed raised by simply calling your service provider and the change will be made in days or even hours.

A comparable service priced the same as a T1 line is 2x2 Mbps Ethernet or 3x3 Mbps Ethernet. Those designations mean that you get the same speed for upload and download, just like with a T1 line. Note that the bandwidth is as much as twice as high, however.

The third option is business class Cable broadband. This service is offered by Cable TV companies, such as Comcast, that also provide consumer broadband. The coaxial cables used for Cable TV have tremendous bandwidth capacity and can easily transport broadband as well as television signals. You connect via a Cable modem. The latest Cable modem standard is DOCSIS 3.0 that can deliver 50 or 100 Mbps to business users.

It may seem amazing that you can get 50 or 100 Mbps for the same price as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line, but there are some differences in the services. Cable bandwidth is shared, not dedicated. You’ll find that your bandwidth varies during the day depending on how heavily other users are uploading and downloading. Also, Cable bandwidth is not symmetrical. You may be getting 100 Mbps in the download direction, but your upload path will be only 10 or 15 Mbps. That may not matter if you are primarily accessing Web pages or watching video clips. It could be a problem if you expect to be transmitting video service or uploading very large files frequently.

Cable does have one extra advantage in that you can get what’s called a “triple play” service. That’s broadband, telephone and television all on the same cable for one bundled price. This is especially attractive to businesses that have waiting rooms for the public, like doctor’s offices or auto service facilities. There are special bundle prices for public businesses like bars and restaurants.

Which bandwidth solution is best for your business? Why not get prices and availability for Cable broadband, T1 lines and Ethernet over Copper for your business location? Then pick the solution that makes the most sense for your applications.



Note: Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Boost Ethernet over Copper Speed in 60 Minutes

The new Carrier Ethernet services are known to have a scalability advantage over legacy T-Carrier and SONET telecom services. Soon, it will be possible to crank up your bandwidth in as little as an hour with nothing more than a phone call or Web portal login.

The name of the game in business today is agility. There’s so much uncertainty and day to day volatility in the commercial environment that traditional planning cycles can’t keep up. One indicator of these changing business needs has been the meteoric rise of cloud computing services. The cloud is more than just a way to reduce staffing and avoid large capital investments. Cloud services are offered on an “as needed” basis. If you need more servers or bandwidth, you can get them quickly and easily.

What works in the cloud can also benefit bricks and mortar operations. All companies have a need for WAN bandwidth, either to the Internet or point to point to other facilities. Many companies have a larger need for mesh networks to interconnect multiple branch offices, stores, regional warehouses and the like. Even small concerns with a single office location need voice and data connections to the outside world. Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy the bandwidth you need right now, but respond in a flash if your needs suddenly increased?

That is possible to some extent and will soon be expanded with Ethernet over Copper. EoC, as it is also called, gives you transparent Ethernet connectivity from your LAN to the Internet, a MPLS-VPN network or point to point to another location. Technically, EoC uses dry copper pair (ordinary telco wiring) to transport Ethernet packets from a nearby central office to your location. Two or more pair are employed. The higher the maximum desired bandwidth, the more pair are connected.

There are two characteristics that are making Ethernet over Copper a highly popular connection service for business. First, the implementation uses the same type of copper wiring as you have for T1 lines and multi-line telephone service. Chances are that you already have the required multi-pair binder cable installed and in use. Second, pricing of Ethernet over Copper services is decidedly lower than equivalent T-1 or bonded T-1 line pricing.

MegaPath, a major competitive carrier and leader in Ethernet over Copper deployment, has been offering EoC services from 1,900 central offices where it has co-located the required equipment. They offer speeds up to 3 Mbps, making EoC highly attractive as a T1 replacement service. Over the next year, they will upgrade their terminal equipment at these and additional offices to offer EoC from 2 to 20 Mbps. In special cases, they will have the ability to go all the way up to 90 Mbps with a circuit card change.

The ultimate in flexibility is also on the way. MegaPath is planning to offer an on-demand upgrade from 3 Mbps to as high as 20 Mbps in a little as 60 minutes with no more than a phone call. The next step will be a customer self-service portal so that you can make the change yourself online. No longer will you have to keep extra bandwidth capacity on hand “just in case.” Order what you need for your current operations and then request a rapid upgrade when the need arises.

Could your office, retail store, restaurant or other business benefit from better bandwidth pricing and more flexibility? If so, check Ethernet over Copper pricing and availability. It could be a valuable competitive edge in these uncertain times.

Metro Ethernet MPLS Combo

Two of the hottest networking technologies now are Metro Ethernet and MPLS networks. We normally think of using one or the other. But what advantages are gained when you combine the two?

Metro Ethernet is the familiar Ethernet protocol that we’ve come to know and love on our LAN networks. It’s not exactly the same, because it needs to be adapted to work over longer distances than typical building and campus runs.

This, and other service enhancements, have been standardized by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry group comprised of over 170 companies and more than 75 service providers. The MEF has defined five attributes that distinguish what they call Carrier Ethernet from the familiar LAN based Ethernet. These are standardized services, scalability, reliability, service management and quality of service.

What carriers get is a set of certified network elements that work to connect users on a local or worldwide basis. They also have services that can be transported over whatever physical networks they have available, including legacy TDM networks originally designed for telephony.

Metro Ethernet is Carrier Ethernet implemented within a city or metropolitan area. Two of the popular standardized services are Ethernet Line Service, a point to point connection, and Ethernet LAN Service, a multipoint connection. Companies use Metro Ethernet to link branch office buildings, factories, warehouses, data centers and other locations in the area.

Ethernet can also be used as a last mile access connection to larger private networks or the public Internet. These links have traditionally been T1 lines, DS3 connections, or SONET/SDH fiber optic services. Ethernet is growing in popularity as a network access service because it is lower in cost and more scalable than legacy telecom services.

At the same time that Carrier Ethernet has soared in popularity, MPLS networks have seen a similar growth in demand. Most networks have a defined protocol that they run. This can be TDM, IP, Frame Relay, or something else. The beauty of MPLS networks is that they are designed to support all protocols. Hence, the name Multi-Protocol Label Switching. The label switching part has to do with a tagging system that is used to encapsulate and route packets while they are on the network. Since the MPLS network doesn’t need to use the internal packet structure for routing, it doesn’t matter what those labels are attached to.

Most new large scale networks are based on MPLS. It doesn’t matter what’s running as the core network. It might be IP. It might be SONET. What the user sees is a privately run network that can securely transport voice, data, video or converged network traffic within a city, between cities or around the world. MPLS networks have all but completely replaced the older Frame Relay networks that were once used to link computers over wide areas.

What you probably have guessed is that Ethernet and MPLS are very compatible. Many carriers have nationwide or international MPLS network service footprints. You can combine Ethernet access with a large MPLS network and create a very cost effective way to link your geographically diverse business locations.

Large scale Carrier Ethernet networks are also on the ascendency. A new interconnection standard called ENNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface connects Carrier Ethernet service providers so they can share traffic and effectively increase their service footprints. The underlying transport networks may or may not be MPLS networks themselves.

What’s combination of Ethernet and MPLS offers the highest performance at the lowest cost for your applications? There are network consultants available right now to provide you with Metro Ethernet and MPLS service options and pricing at no charge for serious business and organizational users.

Ethernet Private Line Service With Granular Bandwidth

Our experience with private line service has always been with point to point dedicated telecom services, such as T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth, and OC3 fiber optic connections. Now there’s a new service available that gives you all the advantages of traditional private line services with some improvements and better pricing.

This new network service is called Ethernet Private Line Service, or E-Line. That’s not just a clever marketing term. It’s the official name of the service as defined by the MEF or Metro Ethernet Forum. In other words, E-Line is a standardized Carrier Ethernet service with enterprise level performance in metropolitan and long haul networks.

Let’s take a look a what we expect from a private line service and see how Ethernet Private Line Service measures up. A typical private line is a permanent point to point connection. For that reason, it is sometimes referred to as a “nailed up” connection to differentiate it from a temporary switched service connection such as a telephone call. The private line is truly private. The company that leases the private line expects to have full time exclusive use of the circuit. If they are not sending traffic at the moment, the line idles while it waits for the next burst of traffic.

A very typical implementation of private line service is the T1 point to point connection. A T1 line offers 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth in both directions. It behaves as an empty pipe connecting two locations for voice, data, video or whatever digital service is needed. T1 point to point lines are used to connect branch offices to headquarters, transmit medical images from a clinic to a hospital, or even carry program audio from a radio station studio to the transmitter site. A special arrangement called a “tie line” allows you to connect to PBX telephone systems together.

Higher bandwidth uses of point to point telecom lines include video transport for production and television broadcast, connecting business information systems, engineering simulation and overnight file backups to remote data centers. You can usually get as much bandwidth as you need for your application. It’s just a matter of price.

What makes private line services expensive is that they must be specifically engineered to meet a particular need. If the link is only across town, it may stay within the footprint of one carrier. But if you want to connect two locations in different states or on opposite coasts, your packets may traverse many different networks to get from point A to point B. That runs up the lease cost and may take a considerable time to install. If you want to change the amount of bandwidth once your connection is in place, the process has to start all over.

Qwest, a major player in the business bandwidth marketplace, is offering a private line service based on the latest technology. They already have in place a core MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) network based on fiber optics using DWDM or Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing. That gives them the ability to offer 100% committed bandwidth and traffic engineering while being fully MEF certified.

The advantages of implementing E-LIne over a pre-provisioned MPLS 10 GigE backbone network are that implementation to connect your locations can be much faster and you can select from a huge range of bandwidth options between 5 Mbps and 1,000 Mbps. This is called granular bandwidth, something difficult or impossible to obtain with traditional telecom services. Those bandwidth options are scalable in the sense that you can generally change your bandwidth level quickly and easily with a call to your service provider.

Qwest calls their new low-latency Ethernet Private Line solution “Qwest iQ E-Line.” It allows for point to point or hub and spoke connections within or between any of their 16 markets that include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mo, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sunnyvale, Tampa and Washington DC.

Are you in the market for high performance point to point network services or would you just like to see if you can get more bandwidth for less money? Check pricing and availability for Ethernet Private Line Service now.



Note: Photo of network switches courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Ethernet Providers in Hot Competition

Bandwidth demand is up, but budgets aren’t. One new technology that addresses that situation is Ethernet WAN connections. They’ve become a fierce competitor to legacy T1 lines and, in many locations, it’s Ethernet provider vs Ethernet provider fighting “tooth and nail” to make the best offer.

Why all the hoopla about a protocol that’s been running on LANs for decades? It’s the standardization of Ethernet as a carrier technology by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) that’s catapulted Ethernet services from LAN to MAN to WAN. In literally a matter of a few years, Ethernet has gone from a niche product to the transport service of choice.

Why? Ethernet has some big advantages over legacy technologies. First, it provides seamless connectivity between nearly all company networks and the outside world. No special interface circuitry or protocol conversion is required. Just plug into a standard Ethernet connector and you are good to go.

Second, Ethernet services are readily scalable. The same standard speeds found on Local Area Networks are supported. These are 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet and 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet. More and more, 10 GigE service is also becoming available. Most Ethernet providers also provide incremental bandwidths from 2 Mbps on up. There’s a huge gap between T1 at 1.5 Mbps and T3 at 45 Mbps. Ethernet services offer many intermediate speeds to choose from.

In fact, scalability is a big selling point for Ethernet. It’s common for companies to order an Ethernet port that can support their anticipated bandwidth needs, but then only buy the bandwidth they need right now. When business picks up, it’s fast and easy to have the service provider increase bandwidth right up to the capacity of the installed port.

Ethernet delivery comes in two primary forms. One is Ethernet over Copper, also called EoC. Multiple copper telephone pair are used to deliver this service within a few miles of the nearest carrier point of presence. Popular bandwidths are 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps, although you might get as much as 50 Mbps if you are near a carrier POP. EoC makes installation fast and easy. Nearly every business has a telco bundle with multiple copper pair available.

EoF or Ethernet over Fiber is used to provide the higher bandwidths of 50 Mbps and above. That includes the popular 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps levels. Larger corporations and organizations may opt for 10 GigE or even 40 Gbps and beyond.

What’s got service providers in hot competition is more than these benefits, however. The most attractive feature of Ethernet service is that it tends to be much less costly than traditional telecom services. Getting twice the bandwidth for the same price is common. At higher speeds and in areas of greater competition, the difference between Ethernet and other options can be jaw dropping.

Everyone’s inquiring about Ethernet for new service or as a replacement for their existing connectivity. Shouldn’t you at least take a look? Get multiple quotes for Ethernet service delivered to your business location or locations now.

Ethernet Ports In a Data Storm

You may have noticed that your WAN network requirements are getting hard to predict. In times of economic instability, it’s hard to know whether you have the right amount of bandwidth for your business activities next year or even next quarter. What makes this especially unnerving is the historically long provisioning times for telecom service upgrades. What you need is a way to pay for just the bandwidth you need today while ensuring that you can rapidly increase network speed if the need suddenly arises.

That capability is yours with an Ethernet service port. You have such a port installed by a service provider at your location. Often, this is in the form of an RJ45 jack or a fiber optic connector on the back of a managed router. You simply plug your LAN network into this WAN port and you have connectivity to the outside world. Because it’s a managed connection, you can have nearly any bandwidth level up to the capacity of that installed port.

Let’s contrast that with what’s standard practice for other telecommunication services. The popular T1 line is generally provisioned on what’s known as a “smart jack” This is a RJ48 socket mounted on a small electronics box. You connect from the smart jack to the T1 card in your router that contains special CSU/DSU circuitry to decode the T1 signals. What’s important to note about this setup is that it has a fixed bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps. It’s possible to get what’s known as fractional T1 at less than 1.5 Mbps, but this is rarely cost effective anymore.

What happens when you have a T1 line and run out of bandwidth? You call up your service provider and order another T1 line. These lines can be bonded to produce a 3 Mbps data line. The entire process involves ordering and installing another telecom service, however long that takes in your area.

Now, let’s see what happens when you have 10 Mbps Ethernet delivered on a 50 Mbps port. Like the situation with a congested T1 line, you run out of bandwidth on your 10 Mbps service. Unlike the previous scenario, however, you call up your service provider and tell them you want to increase your bandwidth to 20 Mbps. They say “fine” and simply turn up your service to 20 Mbps. You can often do this with nothing more than a phone call. Nobody needs to come and drill holes or string more wires. It’s all done with software commands to your Ethernet CPE or Customer Premises Equipment.

The thing to remember about Ethernet ports is that the speed of the port is the maximum speed that it can handle. If you top out at the max port speed, you will likely need an equipment change to get more bandwidth. For that reason, be sure you order a port that has some growth potential even though you don’t need it right now. Some bandwidth headroom gives you an agility to ramp up WAN network speed incrementally as business increases.

Are you ready for a bandwidth increase, but feeling stifled by the limitations or cost of the telecom options you have now? Check prices and availability of Ethernet ports and bandwidth for your business location. Save money now and be ready for when you need a service upgrade quickly.

Why You Want A GigE Port

Are your bandwidth needs uncertain? By that, I mean that you know what level of traffic you have right now. It’s what you’ll need tomorrow, next week or during the holiday shopping season that’s in question. So, what do you do about it?

The problem with being wrong about your bandwidth needs is that you either pay way too much, or run the risk of losing a lot of business if you run out of capacity. Neither situation is acceptable. Let’s see how you can make better arrangements.

Traditional telecom services take a long time to install and upgrade. They’re not very scalable. A scalable service makes it easy to adjust bandwidth. Generally all you have to do is call your service provider and say, “crank it up.” They’ll do just that, usually without sending anyone to your business locations, and simply adjust your bill accordingly. The beauty of scalable services is that you can hedge your bets. Order the bandwidth you need today with a little margin for bursts of traffic. Then scale up your service as business operations require. This way the added business activity pays for the additional bandwidth and you don’t take a hit to your profits.

What kind of bandwidth is scalable? Ethernet services meet that definition. They are available in the industry standard speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1,0000 Mbps and 10 Gbps. But you can generally order levels in-between. Service typically starts at 3 Mbps, which is twice the speed of a T1 line at about the same cost. The exact increment between service levels varies among providers, but 5 or 10 Mbps steps are common.

Compare that to scaling up from T1 at 1.5 Mbps to DS3 at 45 Mbps or OC3 at 155 Mbps. Each jump requires different termination equipment and considerable time and effort to install. With Ethernet, you can select any incremental speed up to the limit of the installed port.

This is why you want a Gigabit Ethernet port if that option is available. The speed of the port is the maximum speed of the service that can be provisioned without changing out equipment and perhaps having to bring in new lines. With a GigE port, you can commit to 100 Mbps service while knowing that you can easily upgrade that to 200 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 750 Mbps or even a full 1,000 Mbps. That “future proofs” your service without having to commit to massive levels of bandwidth that you can’t possibly use right now.

Of course, the proper port size is related to the nature of your business. Not every business will need Gigabit Ethernet service in the foreseeable future. Smaller business may be quite comfortable with Ethernet over Copper at a maximum of 50 Mbps. Others only need one to two hundred bits per second. What is right for your company? Why not get a set of price quotes for Ethernet services available at your location and then decide. You’ll likely be surprised by how much you can get for your bandwidth dollar.

Fiber Ethernet WAN Bandwidth Advantages

Large businesses and other larger organizations generally require more bandwidth than is available through T1 lines or other broadband services that can be provisioned over copper twisted pair. Fiber optic connections can provide nearly unlimited bandwidth, but what is the most cost effective service?

If you are a current user of fiber optic bandwidth, you are probably leasing a SONET/SDH service such as OC3, OC12, or OC48 for your wide area networking needs. These are traditional telecom services that were originally developed for the telephone companies to carry large numbers of telephone calls. They are circuit switched channelized networks that have been adapted to transport today’s demand for high data bandwidth connections.

A newer service that is offering serious competition to the legacy telco services is Ethernet over Fiber or EoF. It’s a packet-switched network that transports Ethernet at the layer 2 switching or layer 3 routing level. Within metropolitan areas, this service is known as Metro Ethernet. Over long distances, it is called Carrier Ethernet or Long Haul Ethernet. Just about all bandwidths are available, but generally you’ll find fiber Ethernet being used to carry 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1 Gbps Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gbps 10 GigE. Even high bandwidths, including 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps, are used for carrier backbone networks.

One advantage of fiber Ethernet is that it is scalable. You may start out with 100 Mbps service but quickly find out that you need more bandwidth. With traditional SONET services, there can be long delays in upgrading your service to the next level. There may also be a big jump in bandwidth and cost to get to that next level. OC3 gives you 155 Mbps. But OC12, the next readily available increment, runs at 622 Mbps.

Fiber optic Ethernet can easily scale up to the limit of the installed port. For instance, if you have a port that is capable of 1,000 Mbps, you don’t necessarily have to buy that much bandwidth. It’s common to order a fraction of the port’s capability, say 100 Mbps and then upgrade to 200 Mbps when demand justifies such a move. Often this can be done with only a phone call to your Ethernet service provider. Only when your demand exceed the 1,000 Mbps capacity of the port will new equipment need to be installed.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of fiber Ethernet services is cost savings. In additional to the traditional telephone companies, there are numerous competitive carriers that have their own regional or nationwide fiber optic networks and points of presence. These carriers can build-out a fiber connection to your building. It may not be that expensive if you can guarantee a high enough bandwidth level to justify the construction. You’ll find the monthly lease rate attractive, too. They are often only a fraction of what you’d pay for equivalent OCx services.

How can you determine if fiber Ethernet services are the best option for your business or organizational needs? You can get a quick answer with multiple vendor quotes and recommendations now using the Fiber Ethernet Services Inquiry form that you’ll find at Ether Rabbit. It’s fast service on fast Ethernet services.