Metro Ethernets

Rangu Salgame, President, Cisco India & SAARC talks about how a company can benefit by moving from a leased line to a Metro Ethernet network.

What are the benefits of Metro Ethernet technology?

Metro Ethernet will be the most important broadband access solution for enterprises. It helps Service Providers (SPs) support existing legacy infrastructure and add new revenue sources, by enabling new service offerings. An enterprise LAN built on Ethernet can be simply extended to a Metro Ethernet.

Since it is based on Ethernet technology, the SPs can offer Gigabit Ethernet speeds. This makes the network highly scalable, and enables customers to run its data, voice, and video business applications without quality concerns.

What services are offered with this technology?

Metro Ethernet allows a company to offer services like Ethernet Wire Service (EWS), which can replace all leased line type of services; Ethernet Relay Services (ERS), which can replace Frame Relay/ATM services; Ethernet Multipoint Service (EMS), allows LANs to be connected over a WAN.

What kind of companies can benefit?

Metro Ethernet will be beneficial for companies like service providers, manufacturing organizations, governments, and PSUs. A government can perform e-governance by using Metro Ethernet as the access technology. Manufacturing companies can use it for process control, and connectivity to its factory and support locations. Financial institutions can use it to connect their branch offices to their headquarters, DR sites, and data centers.

Does it make business sense for companies to procure and deploy this technology?

Many corporate networks now use Fast and Gb Ethernet networks. These networks can now be extended across a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) for optimal business connectivity. Metro Ethernet will deal with the woes of slow MAN and WAN access.

—Rahul Neel Mani