Evolution of Carrier Ethernet - Technology Choices and Drivers

The shift from native Ethernet in LANs to switched Ethernet in WANs has propelled efforts of making Ethernet as an ideal candidate technology for transport. Carrier Ethernet has the advantage of being able to be offered as a service to customers. Two questions that the authors desire to answer in this paper are (1) how Carrier Ethernet can scale as a service in the metropolitan and access premises and (2) what are the key applications that will most benefit from such technology development. They attempt to answer the first question by first reviewing the multiple strategies adapted by vendors in deploying Carrier Ethernet.