With quality requirements increasing and the need to qualify Carrier Ethernet customer connections precisely before handing them over to the customer becoming imperative, 18 vendors showcased the results of the latest EANTC interoperability event live at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress (CEWC) 2011 in October 2011.
The European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) offers vendor-neutral consultancy and test facilities for network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprise customers and conducts extensive tests at EANTC's lab in Berlin, Germany.
More than 50 engineers from major companies participated in the two-week test event, which focused on interoperability, conformance, and performance testing of the latest innovations in Carrier Ethernet, IP/MPLS, Mobile Networks and Triple Play (News - Alert) technologies and applications. More than 60 devices were tested.
The results showed that there was an increasing tendency by vendors to invest in product innovation and quality assurance and also indicated that Ethernet technology has successfully been extended to Long-Term Evolution backhaul as well as the wireless media. Service protection technologies were also tested for interoperability and integration with networks.
“With the growing scale and diversity of multi-vendor Carrier Ethernet service deployments worldwide, quality requirements are increasing, and mobile backhaul applications remain a major driver for innovation,” said Carsten Rossenhovel, managing director of EANTC AG, in a statement.
Microwave vendors showcased new packet microwave as well as testing solutions. In addition they also demonstrated their mature switching capabilities and quality of service prioritization. Twenty-five multi-vendor pairs were tested for OAM performance monitoring. And for the first time Carrier Ethernet Service Activation tests were also conducted
Rossenhovel commented on the showcasing of new products and said, “We see technologies such as packet microwave, ERPS and clock synchronization further evolving, as new implementations enter a rapidly growing market.”
In other news, Ixia (News
- Alert), a global provider of converged IP and wireless network test solutions, and EANTC, a vendor-neutral consultancy and test facility, announced a cooperative effort to deliver testing criteria, methodology, and administration of multiple vendors’ 100 Gigabit Ethernet switches.
Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell