The Case for

Carrier Ethernet 2.0

Table of Contents
1  Value of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 .................................................................... 2 
1.1 
Certification.................................................................................................. 2 
2  Summary of CE 2.0 Benefits by Stakeholder ........................................... 2 
3  Value to Enterprise End Users ................................................................. 3 
3.1  Benefits to End users .................................................................................. 4 
3.2  Guidance for Enterprises ............................................................................. 5 
4  Value to Small and Medium Business Users ............................................ 6 
5  Value to Mobile Backhaul Operators and Access Providers ..................... 7 
6  Value to Service Providers ....................................................................... 8 
7  Value to Equipment Manufacturers .......................................................... 9 
8  Summary .................................................................................................. 9 

Background, Purpose, Audience

This document is a companion to the MEF Carrier Ethernet Generations Overview
presentation and examines the benefits and values to end users, service providers
and equipment manufacturers

Value of CE 2.0
 Enterprises: Predictable performance, optimized bandwidth use, better QoS
 Small – Medium Businesses: better service availability, and where Internet
delivery does not meet business requirements
 Mobile Operators: reduced OpEx, Access Providers lower CapEx
 Service Providers: easier, lower interconnect cost, business-friendly wholesale
model
 Equipment Manufacturers: additional revenue from expanded market, new
certification program
February 2012

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 1 of 9
1 Value of Carrier Ethernet 2.0

The Compelling Case for Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0)

The approval of key MEF specifications in 2012 marks the point at which a second generation of services and
networks can be confidently implemented and deployed as a new industry standard. The new standard is based
on new specifications that effectively enable the principle features, attributes and characteristics of CE 2.0
(“Multi-CoS”, Managed, Interconnected) that are described fully in other documents. CE 2.0 builds on work
developed and approved over several years. CE 2.0 encompasses more than twice the number of
specifications than were in CE 1.0.

The paper looks at looks at the benefits and value for each “stakeholder” and relates each back to the
characteristic of CE 2.0. CE 2.0 not only brings new value but it also brings in new parties to the Carrier
Ethernet community.

1.1 Certification
The MEF certification has had a profound effect on the adoption of Carrier Ethernet with more than 1000
products and services bearing the MEF Certified Compliant logo. While work on specifications has progressed,
the validation of products and services is locked in to tests that are several years old. Therefore, in addition to
the benefits of CE 2.0, a new certification program will properly validate and acknowledge compliance of
products and services to the current set of specifications defined in Carrier Ethernet 2.0. The certification
program for CE 2.0 will be announced 2Q 2012

2 Summary of CE 2.0 Benefits by Stakeholder

Stakeholder Summary Benefits

• Efficient utilization of purchased bandwidth: lower cost/bit

• Standardized, predictable, per Class of Service performance v. objectives
Enterprise
• Enables comparisons of how providers meet application and Geographical QoS
requirements
• Hosted and high performance apps integrated with Internet over a single
SMB
connections
• Enables 4 G migration and enables efficient MBH networks with significant cost
MBH savings
• Ability to reach vast numbers of locations locally, regionally and globally with
standardized wholesale E-Access and with predictable QoS delivered via multiple
providers but engineered as a single network
Service
• E-Access standardization simplifies buying & selling of wholesale services,
Providers
enabling new providers to easily join the CE community at lower cost
• Enable end-to-end fault manageability within and across networks, lowering
support cost
• Expand addressable market via E-Access
Equipment
• Capitalize on investment made in Carrier Ethernet products
Manufacturers
• Certification will streamline testing with service providers = faster time to revenue

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 2 of 9
 3 Value to Enterprise End Users
Multi-
Enabled Value Managed Interconnect
CoS

More efficient utilization of purchased

Lower cost per assured bit   
bandwidth than big pipe approach
Expanded availability and faster time to
service means uniformity across the global Reduce application
development and 
enterprise and faster application turn up:
future proofs network management cost

Enterprises can more easily evaluate

match between their requirements and
provider offerings based on MEF standard Accelerates purchase
performance objectives/tiers decisions, reduces 
procurement costs
SLAs can reflect Enterprise application
requirements
Application orientated services : 20-25
Performance Objectives
Avoids duplicate network costs
A “must have” for FD, FDV sensitive to serve certain apps 
applications
Meets corp. governance
A “must have” for secure, private cloud
applications

Lower support costs, customer

Better QoS, network visibility and control
satisfaction 

Certification: New standard for services in

Lower risk = lower cost
the industry (certification) (applies to each
(testing etc)
new generation)

Many Enterprises have thus far enjoyed the benefits of migration to Carrier Ethernet. Now, CE 2.0 brings the
benefits of service efficiency and application differentiation. Efficient service delivery translates directly to
cost savings and quality delivery of high performance applications. For example, Secure SLA-enforced delivery
of cloud services alongside corporate applications are all furthered by Carrier Ethernet 2.0. So now you know
what performance you can expect for each class supported.
For enterprise users, newly defined Class of Service extensions now, for the first time, standardize performance
objectives
 Across four geographic “Performance Tiers”
 Over three classes of service and
 Recommend objectives for a wide variety of application types many of which would be used
concurrently by an Enterprise
This means that for the first time, Enterprises can validate that the services being offered closely match the
performance and QoS requirements of each application and collectively meets the Enterprise’s needs. This is of
great value to the Enterprise as they plan networks and understand how new applications will function. Further,
it creates a sound basis for long term application planning.

Efficient operation results from optimizing the use of purchased bandwidth, especially when utilizing the MEF’s
VLAN-based services (EVPL, EVP-LAN, EVP-Tree) which allows each virtual connection, each of which

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 3 of 9
supports multiple classes of service. So now you know what performance you can expect for each class of
service and each virtual connection.

All these features result purchasing circuits at the lowest necessary cost, with lower risk and with better QoS.

Although CE 2.0 Interconnect is a tool for service providers, it greatly benefits Enterprises and small business
alike.

Carrier Ethernet 1.0 focused on service delivery within a single provider’s domain and interconnection between
providers was not yet standardized. It effects consistent service delivery to all regional and branch offices via
local or regional service providers implementing standardized Carrier Ethernet network connections using
standard MEF interconnects and the newly approved E-Access wholesale service. The result is a global
ubiquitous service that simplifies Enterprise application delivery, reduces development cost, and greatly speeds
availability to new locations. Carrier Ethernet is currently available in more than 100 countries. For the
Enterprise and business user CE 2.0 interconnect makes it look like a single service-engineered network
avoiding costly, complex delivery and support problems.

Cloud applications delivery and data center interconnect are well supported by CE 2.0 However, very active
work on dynamic elastic services, management functions to enable automated dynamic provisioning have
already started their journey through the technical committee. There are already many Carrier Ethernet cloud-
based applications in the market using statically provisioned Carrier Ethernet services.

3.1 Benefits to End users

The following summarizes the most common Carrier Ethernet applications, all of which are enhanced by
implementing Carrier Ethernet 2.0

Site-to-site access, server consolidation, business continuity/disaster recovery, Enterprise-class cloud-

based applications, Internet access, distributed imaging, distributed storage area networks, VoIP,
streamed/interactive video, L2-VPNs, virtualization

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 4 of 9
3.2 Guidance for Enterprises

CE 2.0 provides additional guidance in terms of class of service performance objectives in MEF 23.1 that
is of value to both service providers and end-users in the following areas
Application Consumer Business Mobile
VoIP Data   
Interactive Video (Video Conferencing)   
VoIP and Video Signaling   
Web Browsing   
IPTV Data Plane   ?
IPTV Control Plane   ?
Streaming Media   
Interactive Gaming  
Best Effort   
Circuit Emulation  
Grid Computing 
Telepresence 
Remote Surgery (Video) 
Remote Surgery (Control) 
Telehealth (Hi-res image file transfer) 
Email   
Broadcast Engineering (Pro Video over IP) 
CCTV   
Financial/Trading 
Database 
Real Time Fax over IP  
Store and Forward Fax over IP  
SANs (Synchronous Replication) 
SANs (Asynchronous Replication) 
Wide Area File Services 
Network Attached Storage  
Text Terminals (telnet, ssh) 
Graphics Terminals (Thin Clients) 
Point of Sale Transactions 
E-Commerce (Secure transactions)   
Mobile Backhaul System Requirements 

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 5 of 9
 4 Value to Small and Medium Business Users

Many of the benefits for Enterprises apply to small and medium businesses. The following are of further interest
to small and mediums business.

Multi-
Enabled Value Managed Interconnect
CoS

Availability.
The new e-access services simplifies
Small and medium business
new local and regional providers to
can take advantages of 
join the Carrier Ethernet community
Carrier Ethernet – as if they
and make Carrier Ethernet services
were a large Enterprise
available to a much wider market of
small and medium business
Small widely dispersed business can

make use Carrier Ethernet
Sectors requiring guaranteed
performance with security better than Better connections reduced
broadband Internet application development time
(example media or medical apps and costs 
reaching out to remote collaborating More competitive operations
companies)

For small and medium businesses, Carrier Ethernet 2.0’s Standardized Multi-Class of Service further enables
Internet and hosted services to be accessed via a single Carrier Ethernet connection, yet with improved SLA’ for
those hosted services.

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 6 of 9
5 Value to Mobile Backhaul Operators and Access Providers

The new MF initiative is enabled by the functionality of CE 2.0 to provide significant value to the mobile
backhaul industry and specifically to create significant costs savings. In this instance Mobile Operators and
Access Providers are effectively “end users” because the Carrier Ethernet service starts and finishes within the
network.

Multi-
Enabled Value Managed Interconnect
CoS

CoS Performance Objectives,

Mobile Multiple Classes of services Savings for Mobile

Operators Migration to Carrier Ethernet Operators (lower OpEx)
support
Increased revenue, lower
Access Access provider: Better QoS
CapEx from the same 
Providers than single CoS
infrastructure
Enable end-to-end fault and
performance manageability within Lower support costs
Both 
a network per Class of service and improved QoS
virtual connection

CE 2.0 standards are not limited to business services users. It also will positively impact mobile operators. The
migration of the mobile backhaul to Carrier Ethernet and 4G build out are well documented and of massive
scale.
CE 2.0 standards lay the foundation for additional efficiencies and cost-savings for mobile operators through
implementation of Mobile-Backhaul-specific performance objectives, packet and network-based synchronization,
resiliency performance, and service OAM fault management.

Together with the launch of Carrier Ethernet 2.0, the MEF is providing a suite of deliverables that leverage and
extend the underlying specifications

CE 2.0 for mobile backhaul is anticipated to have significant, positive impact for the 4G/LTE build-out:
 Savings of 25% or more for Mobile Operators 
 Growth to 2‐3 times the revenue for Access Providers from currently deployed infrastructure 
 Achievement of these results while delivering the same or better mobile user Quality of Experience  

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 7 of 9
 6 Value to Service Providers

The following summarizes the many benefits for Providers as they act in various capacities

Multi-
Enabled Value Managed Interconnect
CoS

Increase revenue and network

efficiency while improving customer
experience. Cost savings 
Multi-Cos creates a much enhanced
model for efficient service delivery
New market for tier 2, 3 providers with
introduction of E-Access Reduces barrier to
Improves business case based on market entry and 
All Types appeal to SMBs new revenue
reduced barrier to market entry
Efficient delivery of new value-added
applications such as privates cloud, Revenue and

concurrently with secure reliable apps, customer retention
Internet
Certification provides its own incentive/momentum (applies to any new generation)
Early Certification and later becomes provides
table stakes for all differentiation
Enable end-to-end fault and
Self
performance manageability within a Lower support
contained  
network and where a service provider costs
solutions
acts as a buyer

Extends retail services by buying

Additional revenue  
wholesale services

Expand reach with E-Access, faster faster time to


time to revenue revenue
Service
Provider as E-Access enables easier purchase from Lower interconnect
buyer other providers with standardized (and 
cost
certified) interface
Enable end-to-end fault and
better customer
performance manageability within a
satisfaction, higher  
network and across networks (also
availability (SLA)
applies to self contained)..

Provider as Leverage investment in existing

Revenue, profit 
Seller footprint

New management functions standardize fault management at level not previously possible for services
delivered across multiple providers. This enables sectionalization of faults down to individual virtual connections

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 8 of 9
 7 Value to Equipment Manufacturers

This is of course all good news for manufacturers. Carrier Ethernet equipment sales continue to rise; CE 2.0
opens up additional new markets and possibilities to continue that growth trend. Demand for new functionality
enables upgrades of existing systems.

Multi-
Enabled Value Managed Interconnect
CoS

Expand addressable market via E-Access (esp. Increased

  
access vendors) Revenue
Capitalize on investment made in Carrier Ethernet
Increased demand
products
& revenue at low  
(many already have 2.0 functionality
development cost
implemented)

Certification: (applies to all new generations)

Competitive
Certification creates trust advantage or table
stakes
Streamline testing with service providers
Faster time to
(Note: if Service providers really execute on this
revenue.
then it would be big plus to Ems)

8 Summary
Collectively, the vast number (more that 1000) of technical contributions that have been enhanced Carrier
Ethernet over the last several year have resulted new functionality to all of the five attributes that make up
Carrier Ethernet. (Standardized services, scalability, QoS, reliability and service management) They have been
driven by the work of the Carrier Ethernet community as a result of actual implementation. You are invited to
review other companion documents and MEF specifications to examine the best implementation plan for your
company.

Carrier Ethernet Business Case 2012/02/23

Page 9 of 9