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DRIVERS FOR ETHERNET - A fine vintage
At twenty-six, Ethernet is something of a ‘Grand Old Man' of networking technologies. But as 
Mark Bennett points out, Ethernet is still one of the most agile and reliable networking standards available, despite its relatively advanced years. Like a good wine, it just gets better with age
In the early 1980's, technology was offering the world new ways to live and work. If you chose to, you could drive to the office in the ‘revolutionary' Sinclair C5, unwind with a Beta-max recording of ET or even play a few games on the latest Amstrad. Fortunately, while these high-profile ‘flash-in-the-pans' were hogging the limelight, our predecessors in telecoms engineering were putting in place some more enduring technologies. The first Ethernet products hit the market in 1981, and over the past 26 years the standard has established itself as the de facto choice for LAN and MAN connectivity. Such longevity is rare in the technology space and bares witness to the versatility of the standards.
Ethernet has been such a huge success because it meets the criteria essential for the mass adoption of any product: It is inexpensive, it is flexible, it is simple and delivers an elegant solution to a potentially very complex problem, so it should be no surprise that it is now ubiquitous. Any technology though, can only last if it can change to meet the demands of users. It is this Darwinian ability to continually evolve that marks out the true survivors of the technology space. Ethernet has proved that it can do this and is now moving beyond its traditional spheres of LAN and MAN, to provide a much more comprehensive approach to networking. It is becoming increasingly clear that, aged 26, Ethernet is going from strength to strength and emerging as the standard of choice for long-haul access technology.
The reasons for this can be traced to the changing needs of businesses, especially in specific sectors. Many of these organisations are demanding ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth in their networks, and Ethernet is emerging as the best means for providing this. This market includes a wide range of organisations in sectors as diverse as utilities, finance, public sector and smaller business. The key markets here are companies which can be termed ‘DIY': businesses which have their own in-house IT managers and want to retain management of their own IP-based networks. Such organisations are typical of utilities, media and finance companies. The public sector also fits the DIY mould, and we are seeing high levels of demand from local and central government, as well as all areas of schools and higher education. Demand from the indirect markets of mobile, national and international carriers, as well as from IT services companies, is also growing fast.
So what, exactly, are these larger businesses and public sector bodies using Ethernet for? Ethernet has a number of properties that appeal to these organisations. It's speed and comparatively low cost makes the technology ideal for inter-site connectivity, and we are seeing a great deal of demand for this. As LAN speeds increase - with 100Mbps being standard and Gigabit (1,000Mbps) more common as well - it makes sense to ensure that the wider network is not a bottleneck so 100Mbps and 1Gbps inter-site networks are in regular deployment. Such organisations are also increasingly looking to leverage the benefits of data, voice and applications convergence so Ethernet is establishing itself as the ideal method to provide access to converged next-generation networks (such as MPLS-based core networks). Convergence brings with it the need to handle ever-increasing amounts of data traffic as more and more applications are placed on a single network - everything from rich content e-business applications to services and IT centralisation applications. Ethernet has the capacity to handle vast amounts of data without putting any strain on the network. So it seems that service convergence is breathing new life into Ethernet networking.
It's not just large enterprises that are driving demand for Ethernet connections. Although Ethernet has typically been associated with larger enterprises, demand from small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) is also growing. SMBs are looking for increased bandwidth to deploy next-generation services and Ethernet is an appealing option for them because of its simplicity and familiarity from its use in the LAN. Ethernet is enabling SMBs to roll out the advanced applications that help them compete with bigger companies, such as VoIP, distributed WANs IP-based video conferencing and real-time collaboration.
We are seeing demand from SMBs, which have traditionally used low bandwidth leased lines, grow particularly fast. These businesses will often have more than one site and be too large for DSL, especially due to the limitations of upstream bandwidth that ADSL gives when used for a VPN. They require permanent, dedicated, always-on bandwidth, to support applications critical to their business. This sector is increasingly turning to Ethernet for security, reliability and quality of service on a private network, which is not currently available on DSL services, as a solution to their increasing bandwidth needs. Ethernet is attractive as it offers more bandwidth at a lower price per megabyte, a critical consideration for SMBs. Solutions that can be scaled to deliver multiple services are particularly attractive as these can deliver additional business benefits such as applications like VoIP.
The indirect market for Ethernet is also seeing considerable growth. This market is made up of service providers investing in the technology in order to deliver advanced services to their customers or to extend their networks. Both national and international carriers as well as mobile operators business ISPs and IT services companies, are all using Ethernet to enhance the services they deliver, both for high speed Internet access and to provide hosting and connectivity to their customers.
Mobile operators in particular are trying to leverage Ethernet to reduce operating costs of their access networks as well as to provide the higher levels of bandwidth, required as Mobile Data begins to be adopted more widely. Mobile operators are trying to increase ARPU to recoup their investment in 3G by offering data-heavy applications such as mobile Internet and TV. The high-speed 3G and WiMax networks supporting these services are rapidly increasing backhaul bandwidth requirements. As traditional backhaul technologies and architectures struggle to support growing demands, operators are turning to packet transport technologies, such as Ethernet, as a cost effective solution. Ethernet is therefore increasingly supporting new, revenue-generating services for mobile operators without allowing backhaul costs to spiral, helping to maintain mobile operators' profitability.
International carriers, on the other hand, are moving to Ethernet to support the increasing demand for bandwidth being made by their large multi-national customers. Traditionally leased lines would have been used to cater for such demand, but Ethernet has proven it can offer a much more scalable alternative at a lower price per megabit. International carriers can use Ethernet tails to provide their customers with a range of applications and services, including MPLS IP VPN, Ethernet connectivity, Internet and VoIP. Because Ethernet is a layer two protocol, it allows international carriers to retain full control of layer three IP routing and their own IP classes of service SLAs.
National operators are driving demand for Ethernet along similar lines. In the UK, Ethernet backhaul provided by altnets is proving particularly popular as a cost saving option, as their wholesale offering can be much less expensive than the incumbent's.
A number of organisations want to centralise the hosting and management of servers, data and storage systems, and other IT assets in one location. To do this they need dedicated, very high bandwidth, high quality connectivity to that centralised facility. This centralisation of IT assets is designed to reduce their operating and capital costs, as well as enable delivery of advanced new services.
Historically, however, the business case for centralising IT assets may not have been viable due to the high cost of bandwidth required to connect remote sites to central data centres. Ethernet offers more bandwidth at a lower price per megabit than the technologies traditionally deployed, helping to drive the business case for centralisation. Ethernet together with MPLS IPVPNs, is ideal for connecting remote sites to central locations with Gigabit Ethernet services providing the ideal, very high bandwidth connections between data centres. In addition, the cost savings can then be diverted into other applications that fit with Ethernet, enabling these organisations to layer multiple services and applications on to the same network.
With Ethernet, bandwidth can be increased or decreased at very short notice. This means that companies need only pay for the bandwidth they actually use, increasing capacity easily and quickly as and when required, either to handle a short-term spike in demand or a longer term increase in traffic. This flexibility is very attractive to organisations of all kinds, and the scalable nature of Ethernet is one of its key selling points.
Ethernet, therefore, has proved itself in the face of a fast changing telecoms market. Change usually forces technology to sink or swim, and the recent move towards convergence, and bandwidth-hungry applications has shown how resilient Ethernet is. Indeed, the future for Ethernet is looking good. Carrier Ethernet is emerging to offer operators a flavour of Ethernet with the same characteristics of leased lines, while the IEEE has launched a new set of OAM standards for Ethernet in order to better manage and maintain the technology.
At 26, therefore, the Ethernet story is far from over. Ethernet looks set to be the dominant access standard for the foreseeable future, driven by the demands of business and ideally placed to meet these demands. The versatility and simplicity of the standard that led to its dominance in LAN and MAN, is extending to the WAN, delivering access to the next-generation of applications and services. It goes to show that in the world of telecoms you really can teach an old dog, new tricks - tricks that are increasingly appealing to business.
Mark Bennett is Head of Data Portfolio at THUS plc
www.thus.net
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