The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) announced that the next phase of its Carrier Ethernet strategy and certification program will address the broad spectrum of access technologies-from copper pairs, coax cable to optical fiber and wireless. The MEF believes Ethernet is a universal communications technology and their first objective was to enable Carrier Ethernet as the preferred carrier technology and service.
Mark Whalley, co-chair of the MEF marketing committee, said, "Carrier Ethernet services are proving highly popular, both with end users and service providers. We now want to ensure one hundred percent reach-ability via any existing access medium. We are determined to deliver the full benefits of Ethernet services by opening access to anyone, anywhere, anytime. By 2010 there should be no excuse for not delivering Carrier Ethernet services to every office, every home and to mobile users too."
The initial phase of this strategy and certification program, beginning in the second quarter of 2006, is to address the conformance of IEEE 802.3ah OAM standard for Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) in delivering Ethernet services via copper, fiber and EPON access. The initial phase also includes wireless Ethernet mesh access certification testing, based on forthcoming IEEE 802.11t.
Bob Metcalfe, creator of Ethernet and advisory director to the MEF, stated, "People too often associate Ethernet just with cables. They forget that Ethernet was derived in 1973 from Alohanet packet radio. We decided back then not to call it something like Coaxnet. We imagined that Ethernet media, ethers, would proliferate and evolve, and indeed they have over 33 years. Ethernet has evolved from thick baseband coax, to thin coax, to telephone pairs, to television broadband cable, to powerline, to lambdas on optical fibers, and all the way back home to Alohanet wireless. Modern wireless Ethernet is now called WiFi. In parallel, Ethernet has evolved from a local-area network (LAN) to a wide-area network (WAN) and most recently, thanks to the MEF, to Carrier Ethernet--access services using many media."
MEF
