CE-Introduction-history-Draft

Introduction..........................................................................................................................2Why This Book ?......................................................................................................... 2Ethernet in the Market..................................................................................................3Ethernet Everywhere....................................................................................................8A Case in Point - Mobile Ethernet Back Hauling...................................................... 14Evolution of Ethernet................................................................................................. 19

ALOHA Network...............................................................................................19Xerox PARC Years............................................................................................21After Xerox........................................................................................................ 22

Introduction

Why This Book ?The topic of this book is Carrier Ethernet. What is Carrier Ethernet ? Carrier

Ethernet is the Ethernet technology deployed on the scale of MEN and WAN with

characteristics for the traditional carrier networks such as SONET/SDH1.

Why this topic is the subject of the book? Beginning from its humble origins in 70th

of XX century in the labs of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) low bandwidth,

low quality or no quality, local networking technology designed to connect few

workstations over a piece of coaxial cable, in the last decade of XX century developed

into the most ubiquitous networking technology beating such sure winners like ATM, FR,

FDDI, and even SONET/SDH, not talking about TDM technologies (DS1/T1/T3s) - the

workhorse of early telecommunication networks and many others2. Most of these

networking technologies are already the name of the past, like FOTRAN or CPM OS

became for computing technology, and some are completely forgotten. What is and will

be around is Ethernet3 in LAN and Carrier Ethernet in MAN and WAN.

Thus, Ethernet as a networking technology, already is and will be for years to come

(we do not know yet what will be the next technology ) The Technology of the networks.

1 We assume that the reader has some level of knowledge of the networking technology and in the Introduction we donot explain the meaning of abbreviations. All of these terms will be explained in details in subsequent parts of the book.2 Dell’Oro Ethernet Switch Forecast 2014-2018 indicates that the shipment of the Token Ring and LAN ATM portsdies out around 2003-2004. http://www.ethernetalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/OFC_roadmap.pdf.Retrieved 12.15.2014.3 The statements to this fact are plenty. For example, this statements comes from 2005 from the book on Cisco LANSwitching” Unlike Token Ring and FDDI, which for the most part are defunct, Ethernet technology is alive and verywell” Barnes David, Basir Sankadar. Cisco LAN switching Fundamentals. CiscoPress, Indianapolis, 2005. Already in1998, in 25th Anniversary of Ethernet invention Ethernet was becoming the force in the networking- “Today Ethernet ismore than just another type of LAN; it is de facto standard for local area networking hardware, with 200 million nodesinstalled worldwide.”Breyer Robert and Sean Ripley. Switching, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet. 3rd ed. MacmillanTechnical Publishing. USA. 1999.

Ethernet in the MarketA look at market data brings out the Ethernet success story even more clearly.

Vertical Systems in the article published in Carrier Ethernet News4 in 2013 predicts that

Carrier Ethernet services by 2017 will reach $49.4 billions in revenue. This is 5-fold

growth from nearly $10 billions in 2007.

Recent data from the Ethernet switch market indicate the substantial growth of 11%

in 2Q 2014 to $5.4 billions5 ( see Figure 1.1). In 2013 the same period showed 20%

growth.

Figure 1.1 Ethernet Port shipment in 2013-214.

In the same period the shipment of 100G ports grew over 50%. The number of

shipped ports in 1G and 10 G in copper and fiber tells the similar story6. These trends are

documented by numbers in Tables 1.1 and 1.2 and Figures 1.2 and 1.3.

4 Global Ethernet Services Market Headed For Nearly $50 Billion By 2017. Vertical Systems, May , 2013. Accessedon 12.12.2014 athttp://www.carrierethernetnews.com/articles/634000/global-Ethernet-services-market-headed-for-nearly-/5 http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/09/infonetics-ethernet-switching-bounceback.html. Retrieved12.12.2014.6 Based on the Dell’Oro Ethernet Switch Forecast 2014-2018;http://www.ethernetalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/OFC_roadmap.pdf. Retrieved 12.15.2014.

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018Copper 208,271 240,577 266,943 279,474 286,858 292,207 293,873Fiber 14,322 13,495 13,014 11,877 10,407 8,765 7,040Total 222,593 254,072 279,958 291,351 297,265 299,973 300,913% Copper 94% 95% 95% 96% 97% 97% 98%

Table 1.1 The Number of Shipped 1GE Ports (in 000s) from 2012 to 2018 (predicted).

Figure 1.2 The Number of Shipped 1GE Ports from 2012 to 2018 (predicted).

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018Copper 6,846 13,018 21,109 31,210 41,486 50,019 58,758Fiber 8,923 9,341 9,113 11,558 13,271 15,120 14,716Total 15,796 22,359 30,223 42,768 54,757 65,138 73,475% Copper 43% 58% 70% 73% 76% 77% 80%

Table 1.2 The Number of Shipped 10GE Ports (in 000s) from 2012 to 2018 (predicted).

Figure 1.3 The Number of Shipped 10 GE Ports from 2012 to 2018 (predicted).

While it is expected that the shipment of 1GE ports will stabilize towards 2018 (Figure

1.2, Table 1.1) , the shipment of 10 GE ports will continually grow.

In January 2014 Cable Installation & Maintenance (Figure 1.4) announced7:

“ 10 Gigabit Ethernet is finally on the verge of becoming the most popular data

center switch port connection, after a long and sometimes rocky adoption

curve,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, when announcing

the findings of the firm’s latest report. He followed up that comment with a rosy

outlook for 40GbE: “As 40GbE starts to ramp, we are still forecasting its

adoption curve to look much better than that of 10GbE. This is already

evidenced by the fact that recent data center switch introductions are really

pushing the envelope on 40GbE port densities and economics.”

7 Researcher: 10G will account for more than half of Ethernet data center switch ports shipped this year.http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/01/crehan-10g-2014.html. Retrieved 12.14.2014

Table 1.4 Trends in 10 GE, FC and FDR shipments for Data Centers8.

Thus, the future for the Ethernet industry looks bright. Looking into the 100GE

market it seems even brighter. That is what the Infonetics analysts predicts9:

“Overall network port shipments and revenue are on a steady upward path

as buyers shift to higher bandwidth, but the real action is in high-speed (10G+)

port shipments, which we expect to increase almost ten-fold by 2017,” notes

Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at

Infonetics Research. Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics,

adds: “For optical ports, 10G will remain the highest-volume speed, but 100G

represents the area of the most dramatic growth. Service providers have

indicated to us that by 2016, the majority of spending in long-haul networks

will be on 100G.”

Figure 1.5 shows the global trends in Carrier Ethernet published in 2012 by Ovum

and provided by Metro Ethernet Forum10. Even in the ‘pessimistic’ scenarios the Ethernet

8 FDR is a technology used in InfiniBand (IB) (intra, inter computer high band, low latency channel) connections; anevolution step in SDR DDR, QDR,FDR, EDR, HDR development path.9 http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2013/1H13-Networking-Ports-Market-Highlights.asp. Retrieved 12.14.2014.10 An Overview of the Work of MEF. http://metroethernetforum.org/carrier-ethernet/presentations. Retrieved

market will record the substantial growth. In fact as we see the market in 2014 the small

dip in the demand seen on the pessimistic line, was recorded. But the market bounced

back.

Figure 1.5 Global Carrier Ethernet Trends as published by Ovum in 2012.

In 2014 MEF published Vertical Systems Group statistics showing that the total

worldwide bandwidth purchased for the Ethernet services exceeded the legacy; the

cross-over point was somewhere in 2012, as seen on Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.6 Legacy and Ethernet Data Traffic.

Of course, whatever the past and present times are telling us, it is only the future will

show whether the Ethernet expansion will continue for several years to come. However,

there is no obvious contender for this technology on the horizon.

12.15.2014.

Ethernet EverywhereTo really comprehend the evolution that Ethernet technology made from its invention

in Palo Alto Xerox Labs to Carrier networks one must look at the scale of the networks

the Ethernet technology is being deployed as seen on Figure 1.7. In its inception it was to

operate as LAN technology on the scale of an office, office

Figure 1.7 Types of Networks.

building or a campus. As Ethernet benefits were realized, or shortcoming of other

technologies became apparent, Ethernet moved into Access and MAN networks11. And

eventually into the WAN transport networks extending on the scale of continents and

beyond. Each move from LAN to MAN to WAN required news features to be supported

by the technology and posed obviously new technical challenges. It is not only the jump

in the bandwidth from 2.96 Mbps to 100 G and 400 on the horizon, but also the change in

transport media from coaxial cable to fiber optics, the change in the control and

management planes. One may say that the change of scope of services required

reinvention of technology. Usually, technologies were designed for the specific

application/area/service. The Ethernet turned out to be so flexible that was able to evolve

into new areas and services as needs demanded.

11 The detailed review of LAN/MAN and WAN networking technologies will be provided in the next chapter.

The requirements for each of the network types shown in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 LAN, MAN and WAN Characteristics

The LAN networks are deployed on the scale of the campus, office or and office

complex. They usually are under a single management and provide a limited range of

services. It connects the end user equipment with services, devices such as printers,

servers, storage and provides the access to the Internet. The resiliency is not of the utmost

priority ( with exception of the core equipment) with 3 9s being a usual availability target.

SLAs are not deployed. However, the internal performance targets ( SLT- Service Level

Targets) may be defined. The expected bandwidth ranges from 100Mbps to 1000 Mbps or

more.

The Access is usually referred to as the first or last mile and extends from the

customer premises to the first provider access point ( edge switch or router)- usually not

LAN MAN WANGeographic Coverage Office or office complex City or city and suburbs State, county, country,

continentsScale Tens to thousands end

points ( PCs, Servers,Printers), switches, NIDs

Multiple access nodes,multiple aggregationswitches, redundant paths

Multiple access nodes,highly redundantarchitecture,

Technology Usually SingleTechnology

Must support multipleaccess technologies

Few interconnectiontechnologies

Interfaces UNI to MAN UNI to MAN, ENNI toWAN

ENNI

Services Usually few servicesdesigned for the specificenterprise

Several standardizedservices with severalfeatures supporting manypotential customer types,high granularity of services

Fewer services, smallgranularity, highbandwidth

Management A single company May have MultipleProviders

Few Providers

Interface Bandwidth 100 to 1000 Mbps 10 to 100 Gbps 10 to 100 GbpsTraffic CarryingCapacity

several Gbps Few Tbps Few Tbps

Resiliency, availability Not critical, 3 ninesavailability or more

Critical, required 4 or 5nines availability

Critical required > 4nines availability

QoS Not often implemented Up to 4 ( or more) QoSclasses

Usually low (2) numberof QoS classes

SLA Usually not Specified ormonitored, may haveSLSs

Strict SLAs tied to the typeof service

Strict SLAs tied to thetype of service

more than few miles. It is part of the MAN or METRO network with the sole purpose to

connect LAN locations across the city or the country and provide the access to services

and facilities not available locally. Access networking technologies are describes in more

details in the subsequent chapters.

MAN networks link business locations, government service centers, schools, and

provide the support for retail services across the city. The radius of METRO/MAN

networks may extend to 100 - 120 miles and is limited by the requirements of service or

technology itself. For example, limiting factor may be the maximum one-way latency in

the overall transport budget for the service or the number of hops. MAN networks may be

composed of sub-networks under different management. They have to offer a wide range

of services to suit the variety of customers. Thus, MAN networks have strict SLAs

imposed, with very strict target metrics of delay, jitter and packet loss. The resiliency

required by MAN networks are at the minimum 4 9s. The networks are composed mostly

from 10 Gig trunks with the total capacity going even to few Tbps for very large

metropolitan areas.

The connectivity between cities and continents is implemented with WAN networks

that extend over 1000s of miles. They provide national and continental networking

infrastructure. They usually have 10 Gbps links, very high availability ( 4 or 5 9s), lower

than MAN number of QoS classes and strict performance targets for three basic metrics:

delay, jitter (delay variation), packet loss.

One may ask what is so special in the Ethernet technology that it eliminated most of

the other networking solutions in the LAN, MAN, and WAN networks? Factors for

success of Ethernet are several12. They may be grouped in four major areas:

Convergence technology support

Cost per port and bit

Bandwidth and bandwidth efficiency

12 25 years after the invention of Ethernet the domination of the LAN market by Ethernet was obvious and at thattime the reasons for this were states as “.. Ethernet was continuously reinvented itself to keep up with rapidly changingmarkets requirements, and ... New Ethernet technology have evolved the price/performance curve without makingobsolete past iterations”. Breyer Robert and Sean Ripley. Switching, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet. 3rd ed. MacmillanTechnical Publishing. USA. 1999.

Provisioning and Operations factors.

Convergence technology -This feature of the Ethernet technology has the biggest

impact in MAN networks. Ethernet provides a common networking solution for many

networking technologies in so called first mile segments or an access. Segment of the

network. The First mile or last mile is a network part that connects the customer location

with the MAN transport network. Figure 1.8 illustrates the technical challenge facing the

first mile engineering. The first mile may be engineered using the copper line,

SONET/SDH loop, TDM T1/T3 line, HFC access, GPON, direct fiber, WDM fiber,

ADSL, or WiMAX (Table 1.4)

With multiple access technologies Ethernet allows the platform in the MAN support

the traffic from any access to any access. Thus, one type of network can support any of

the existing access methods. With the convergence of technology came the convergence

of services; Ethernet support, which was only wished for in the last decade of the past

Century13, of the converged data/voice/ video traffic over packet networks became

realized and spurred the explosive growth of Ethernet technology in the second half of the

first decade of XXI century.

13 In 1999 the following statement was made “ ... The biggest challenge for Ethernet still lies ahead, with theconvergence of data, voice, and video communication. The consolidation of the traditional data, voice, and videotelecommunication services will result in the growth of the packet-switch-based-networks and Ethernet is very wellpositioned to carry the IP traffic of the integrated data/voice/video networks of the future”. Breyer Robert and SeanRipley. Switching, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet. 3rd ed. Macmillan Technical Publishing. USA. 1999. Few predictionswere as true as this one.

Figure 1.8 Multiple Access Technologies in MAN14

Type of Access Technology in the 1stMile

Direct Fiber

WDM Fiber

Cable COAX

E/G/PON

Bonded T1/E1 TDM

DS1/DS3

SONET/SDH

Packet Wireless

WiMax

xDSL

Table 1.4 Types of Access Technology

Cost per bit/port - Ethernet technology offers lower cost per bit and port than other

LAN technologies. Simply with the Ethernet the cost of the service is not growing

linearly. At one point efficiency of scale ( the number of shipped ports lower the price per

port) helped Ethernet to beat networks such as Token Ring, offering the simply cheaper

solutions. The Case in Point section describes the story of the explosion of Ethernet

services for the LTE. The story that in fact mimic the success of Ethernet in the market.

The ascend of Ethernet in the wireless back hauling was exactly based on two factors

- low cost per bit and non-linear ( slower) growth of cost per bit in the function of

capacity. Simply, the older technology (TDM) could need keep up with the demand ( of

course the other factors such as maturity of Ethernet, ubiquitous presence and Carrier

features support were also the critical factor in the LTE Ethernet evolution). This is a

14 Extending Ethernet into the First Mile. MEF Reference Presentation, 2011.

statement from RCR Wireless from 201315:

“For a variety of reasons, Layer 2 Ethernet has emerged as the overwhelming

choice for data-centric LTE backhaul connectivity. Whether delivered over

fiber or packet (microwave/millimeter) radio, backhaul providers rely on

Ethernet to scale the network quickly and achieve the lowest cost-per-bit while

increasing bandwidth to meet growing user demand. Equally important, the

inherent flexibility of Ethernet helps backhaul providers avoid costly

over-provisioning of the network, even as mobile network operators demand

multiple classes of service across it. Based on these advantages, Infonetics

predicts that Ethernet will account for more than 80% of all backhaul services

revenue by 2015.”

As with all predictions they are outdated sooner than their due date arrives. In few

years this piece of futuristic thinking will be history, but in its years such views had

driven the technology.

Bandwidth and Bandwidth Efficiency - Ethernet technology offers bandwidth (port

capacity) from 10Mbps to 100 Mbps, 1G, 10 G and now 100G (400G on the horizon)

over the same network. And within each port Ethernet services may be crafted to offer a

finely granulated services of different QoS specifications including CIR, EIR, CBS and

EBS parameters. The Ethernet frame is more efficient than the network technologies such

as SONET or ATM using the fixed frame size. The Ethernet frame size may vary from 64

Bytes to 1518 B ( with 46 to 1500 bytes of a payload). In some technologies Ethernet

jumbo frames of 9600 Bytes are also supported.

Collision detection build into the Ethernet protocol allows on shared LAN networks

better efficiency than token-based technologies such as Token Bus or Token Ring. With

full duplex connections the speed of connection effectively doubles ( counting incoming

and outgoing traffic)

15 2013 Predictions: Mobile backhaul evolution in 2013 and beyond. Inhttp://www.rcrwireless.com/20130122/network-infrastructure/2013-predictions-mobile-backhaul-evolution-2013-beyond. Retrieved 12.15.2014.

Provisioning and Operations- Ethernet is connectionless technology. It simplifies

greatly the provisioning process, in comparison to network technologies such as ATM,

TDM, or SONET requiring establishing the connection between the end points of the

service. One may also overprovision the service ( which is impossible with connection

oriented technologies (TDM, SONET). Over-provisioning leads to the more efficient use

of the physical resources and decreases the cost per bit of the service. New developments

in the Ethernet standards introduced robust protection architectures (G.8031, G.8032

Architectures16) that match the Carrier protection levels of SONET/SDH networks ( in

particular sub-50ms convergence in linear and ring topologies).

With well defined services characteristics and interface specifications by MEF

standards, interconnections of different networks, connection of customers to the

METRO networks and specification of custom services are greatly simplified. New

SOAM standards (Y.1731 and IEEE 802.1ag17) implement in the Ethernet the OAM

features comparable to SONET or MPLS networks, making the Ethernet services viable

option for the Carrier Networks.

A Case in Point - Mobile Ethernet Back HaulingThe impact of Ethernet technologies on the services, demise of the ‘old’ networks

and the explosive growth of the Ethernet services is probably best witnessed on the

specific example. This example for us will be back-hauling of the wireless traffic, the

evolution that fueled unprecedented growth of Ethernet networks in METRO in late 2010

and beyond18.

The MEBH service is a service based on Ethernet technology standards designed

to carry or transport traffic between cell sites and Mobile Transport Switching Office

(MTSO) locations19. In the architecture of wireless networks, MEBH denotes the first

segment of the network connecting the cell site facilities with the MTSO equipment.

16 ITU-T G.8031/Y.1342 Ethernet Linear Protection Switching. 2011. ITU-T G.8032 : Ethernet ring protectionswitching.201217 ITU-T Y.1731 : OAM functions and mechanisms for Ethernet based networks. 2013. IEEE 802.1ag - ConnectivityFault Management. 2007.18 The section written based on Krzanowski R. Metro Ethernet Services for LTE Backhaul. ArtechHouse, Boston,2013.19 “Mobile or wireless backhaul is the portion of a wireless network that connects information traveling from a wirelesstower to a mobile switching center.” . Byme, D. What Is Mobile Backhaul. Accessed on the Web on March 23, 2012, athttp://www.ehow.com/facts_7406132_mobile-backhaul_.html.

Figure 1.9 presents a high-level view of wireless networks and the location of the MEBH

network segment in the Metro Ethernet Network. In most cases, MEBH is restricted to

the metro area, usually understood as an area covered within a radius of 120 miles or less.

The network providing the Ethernet service in the metro area is usually referred to as the

Metro Ethernet Network or MEN. Of course, such a definition is valid for urban areas. In

rural areas, MEBH may be extended over larger distances. In addition, the definition of

the service does not exclude multi-provider networks in the metro area; quite often, in

some locations the MEBH service is offered by two or more providers as a single

provider does not cover the entire service area.

Wireless backhaul may be differently understood by people depending on their

scope of responsibilities. Some may extend mobile backhaul to include the radio

equipment at the cell site as well as the equipment at the MTSO location. The definition

of the MEBH service is fairly loose in specifying the exact demarcation points. However,

the discussion in this book is limited to the segment of the wireline network between

interfaces facing the cell site on one end and the MTSO on the other end and remaining

under the management of the MEBH provider.

Figure 1.9 High-Level View of MEBH Service in MEN

The radius of the MEBH service is dictated by the wireless technology

requirements that set certain strict performance objectives for the traffic transport

between the cell site and the MTSO equipment. These performance objectives would be

impossible to support over large areas without a loss of the quality of the wireless service.

Several years ago, wireless carriers realized that their main service would evolve

from carrying voice to carrying data. Hand-held devices would become terminals for

voice, video, and text, supporting the full range of Internet services, evolving into

full-fledged multifunction data terminals demanding high bandwidth communication

channels. At the same time, the number of different applications that could be

implemented on the hand-held devices would grow beyond the wildest projections. This

evolution of cellular traffic would require explosive growth in wireless network capacity

as well as in all the segments of the transport networks carrying the wireless traffic20.

That was the reality to come.

In these early days, backhauling from the cell sites to the MTSO was

accomplished by using T121 or similar technologies. This architecture is presented in

Figure 1.10.

Figure 1.10. T1-Based Backhauling Design

T1 had its boom days, but with the limited capacity, cost, and maintenance

problems, this technology was not suited to support the future growth in capacity foreseen

by wireless providers. In the second half of the first decade of the 2000s, the diagram

presented in Figure 1.11, spelling doom to this method of carrying traffic, was circulated

on all conference presentations and copied in a multitude of industry magazines. The

diagram showed that with the T1 transport technology and the explosive growth in

20 It may come as a surprise to many that the biggest segment of the wireless services infrastructure is composed of thewireline networks.21 “The T1 is what telephone companies have traditionally used to transport digitized telephone conversations betweencentral offices. The bandwidth of a T1 is commonly known to be 1.544Mbps. This represents the maximum bit carryingability of a T1. The overhead necessary to frame a T1 is 8Kbps. Therefore, the total usable bandwidth is 1.536Mbps, orthe equivalent of 24 DS-0 channels. A single DS-0 has a bandwidth of 64Kbps and is designed to carry a digitizedtelephone call. Today, T1 technology is being used in private and publicnetworks to carry both voice and data traffic”. Pulse Technical Handbook Series - T1 Networking Made Easy. PulseInc., 2004. Accessed on the Web on May 19, 2012, at http://www.pulsewan.com/data101/pdfs/t1basics.pdf.

wireless traffic the cost of providing backhauling (BH) transport with T1s would outstrip

the revenues from the new data services.

A new method for transporting traffic from cell sites to MTSO locations needed to

be found, a method mature in the market, more efficient, more reliable, and cheaper.

Although with T1s wireless providers were able to carry several megabits of traffic from

a single cell site to an MTSO, marketing predictions professed the need for 20, 50, and

100 Mbps or more. And this was only the beginning, we were told. With this scenario

T1s were clearly out of the game. Of course, nobody in the sane mind believed in these

marketing curves predicting an exponential growth. But. Surprisingly, this prediction,

contrary to many other futuristic claims made in the past on a variety of topics, did

become reality22.

Figure 1.11. The “Doom” Scenario for Wireless Evolution (Circa 2007-2008)23

The choice of technology for MEBH was Ethernet or Carrier Ethernet (CE),

meaning the Ethernet network technology deployed for carrier-grade networking services.

Ethernet services have been maturing since the nineties (Ethernet is last-century

technology!) evolving from intra-office (enterprise) technology into Carrier Grade

networks. Ethernet services were cheaper, more reliable (than traditional T1s) if correctly

engineered and seemingly ubiquitous in metro areas. The problem was that although

network providers had extensive experience in using Ethernet as a carrier technology, for

mobile providers Ethernet was a new game. Yet the idea was born.

22 See for example Internet Collapses and Other InfoWorld Punditry. Robert M. Metcalfe . 198223 Carrier Ethernet for Mobile Backhauling. MEF. April, 2008.

The last few years (2010-2014) have witnessed explosive growth in Ethernet backhauling

services beyond even the most radical predictions. Looking toward the future, these

predictions still defy any previous estimates24. Some analysts predict that the combined

market of new wireless gadgets and applications ranging from all kinds of smartphones,

tables, and e-book readers to a plethora of online applications such as Internet radio,

video, TV, and many others probably yet unknown will increase the demand for backhaul

10x by 201625.

The actual evolution of the MEBH networking architecture shows the process of

adaptation of ‘legacy’ networks to the new BH paradigm - Ethernet - Figure 1.12

Figure 1.12 Evolution of Mobile Back-hauling architecture.

In the initial phase the mobile service providers maintained two network connections -

the connection over the legacy transport (A) and the connection over the Carrier Ethernet

(B). It was quite often the case that the MTSO and RAN BS equipment did not support

Ethernet UNIs. In this case the interfaces to the Carrier Ethernet networks was

accomplished using the GWR with legacy to Ethernet interfaces. The support for the

legacy network was also dictated by the fact that the mobile operators wanted to grow the

24 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2010–2015. Accessed on the Web onNovember 10, 2011, athttp://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html25 Golstein, P. Study: U.S. Mobile Backhaul Demand to Grow Nearly 10x by 2016. Accessed on the Web on March 22,2012, at http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/study-us-mobile-backhaul-demand-grow-nearly-10x-2016/2012-03-13.

experience with the Ethernet services, they did lack initially. In the next phase the mobile

providers, after gaining some experience with the Ethernet services decommissioned the

legacy networks and used only the Carrier Ethernet service, in some cases still with

GWRs conversion services (C). Finally, the MTSO equipment and RAN BS were

upgraded to the full Ethernet UNI functionality, GWRs could be decommissioned and the

MTSO and RAN BS interfaced with Ethernet UNIs directly into the Carrier Ethernet

METRO network, achieving the end to end Ethernet service.

Evolution of EthernetWe may say that at the beginning there was the ALOHA network and Norman

Abramson.

ALOHA NetworkThe ALOHA network was the first practical implementation of the shared

communication channel ( with multiple access protocol)- the key element of the Ethernet

technology in its early days. The ALOHA network or ALOHA protocol was designed

in 1968 (with implementations in early 70ths) to support communication between the

central time-shared computer located at the main campus of the University of Hawaii and

distributed user terminals.The design was developed by Norman Abramson and his team

( Frank Kuo, N. Gaarder and N. Weldon)26. The design used two communication

channels one out-band and one in-band and the network was configured in the star

architecture. The central hub broadcasted messages to all the clients over the outbound

channel; the clients sent messages to the hub over the inbound channel.

The inbound channel was shared; the clients did not have to negotiate when to send

the message. Each message from the client was acknowledged by the hub with the special

message to the client. In case messages from different clients collided ( as the

communication channel was shared) the client did not get the acknowledgment, assumed

the collision, waited a certain amount of time (back-off) and attempted to resend the

26 R. Binder; N. Abramson; F. Kuo; A. Okinaka; D. Wax (1975). "Proc. 1975 National ComputerConference". AFIPS Press. Franklin F. Kuo (1981-08-11). "Computer Networks-The ALOHA System".Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards Vol.86, No.6, November-December 1981.Breyer Robert and Sean Ripley. Switching, Fast, and Gigabit Ethernet. 3rd ed. Macmillan TechnicalPublishing. USA. 1999.

message. Such acknowledgment/re-transmission scheme in which the clients did not have

to negotiate when to send the message greatly simplified the network and consequently

the client’s hardware. The second outbound channel was used to broadcast messages to

all clients; messages had the ‘client specific address’ allowing for the selective reception

of the messages from the hub.

Two variants of the ALOHA network were developed- Pure ALOHA and Slotted

ALOHA. In the Pure ALOHA design the clients did not check whether the channel was

busy and could send the message any time. The acknowledge/back-off/re-transmission

algorithm was used to provide the reliable communication. This configuration resulted in

random collisions limiting the capacity of the channel. The slotted ALOHA introduced

discrete time slots ( it required the global time synchronization which the Pure ALOHA

did not); client could only sent the data at the beginning of each time slot. This method

reduced the collisions and increased greatly the throughput of the channel ( from about

10% for Pure ALOHA to the theoretical 36.8 % for slotted ALOHA)27. However, the

multiple access ALOHA protocol could never achieve 100% throughput of the

transmission channel.

Figre 1.13 Performance of the Pure Aloha and Slotted ALOHA in the function of the

traffic load G28.

For the Pure ALOHA assuming G as a offered mean load (frames per time frame) the

throughput S is expressed as:

S= Ge -2G

27 Tanenbaum, A.S. Computer Networks, 4th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River. 2003.28 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALOHAnet. Retrieved 12.12.2014.

The maximum throughput (theoretical) occurs at G=0.5 ( S=1/2e) equal to about

(practically) 0.184.

For the Slotted ALOHA the throughput S is expressed as:

S= Ge-G

The maximum throughput (theoretical) occurs at G=1 ( with S=1/e) equal to about

( practically) 0.36829.

The speed of the ALOHA network was eventually 9600 bps ( upgraded from 4800

bps). Packets consisted of a 32-bit header, 16-bit priority check field, and up to 80 bytes

of data and a 16-bit check word for the data part of the packet. The header contained the

unique client identification information, so the client accepted only the data sent to him in

the broadcast message.

The key concepts in the ALOHA network were the use of two channels (outbound

and inbound) and the random access of the clients for the inbound transmission. This

ideas was to be reused in the concept of Ethernet30.

Xerox PARC YearsIn 1972 Bob Metcalf was working in the Computer science Laboratory of the Xerox

Palo Alto Research Center on the network to connect the Xerox computers to the

Arpanet31. He read Abramson’s paper from 1970 on the ALOHA network and realized

that the throughput of the network may be improved to reach 100% capacity. In May of

1973 the first implementation of such a network was demonstrated. It run at 2.94 Mbps32

and used its own multiple access protocol algorithm known as CSMA/CD ( Carrier

Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection). In 1976 100 nodes were connected over

the coaxial cable at the Xerox research Center PARC. This year the famous paper

29 Tanenbaum, A.S. Computer Networks, 4th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River. 2003.30 The interesting twist in the Ethernet story is that the ALOHA network by the size of its service area was not theLAN but WAN network.31 The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was one of the world's first operational packetswitching networks, the first network to implement TCP/IP. It begun operations 1969. See also Roberts, Larry(November 1978). "The Evolution of Packet Switching". Proceedings of the IEEE 66 (11): 1307. And · Roberts,Larry (September 1986). "The ARPANET & Computer Networks". ACM.32 This speed was the result of the clock in the PARC computer that clocked the interfaces with a pulse every 340nanoseconds.

describing the Ethernet architecture was published33. In 1977 Robert M. Metcalfe, David

R. Boggs, Charles P. Thacker, and Butler W. Lampson received U.S. patent number

4,063,220 on Ethernet for a "Multipoint Data Communication System With Collision

Detection."

At this point in time Ethernet was defined by the following features; the capacity of

2.94 Mbps, the CSMA/CD algorithm, it was running over the 1000-meter thick coaxial

cable (or ThickNet), similar to RG-8/U coax cable connecting (in 1976) 100 nodes. The

nodes NICs were connected to the external transceiver unit with an AUI34 connector that

was in turn connected to the coax cable. The Ethernet Frame included 8 bits field for

Destination Address ( one byte) , 8 bits field for source Address ( one byte) around

4000 bits filed for the data, and 16 bits for the Checksum (two bytes)35. The network

design for the first Ethernet network was called the shared bus topology. The Thick

Ethernet Cable is presented on Figure 1.14.

Figure 1.14 Thick Ethernet cable36 (RG-8 IEEE 802.3 10Base5).

33 Robert M. Metcalfe and David R. Boggs (July 1976). "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local ComputerNetworks". Comm. of the ACM 19 (7).34 Attachment Unit Interface35 Robert M. Metcalfe and David R. Boggs (July 1976). "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local ComputerNetworks". Comm. of the ACM 19 (7).36 Thick 50 ohm Ethernet trunk cable http://www.iec.net/cab-trunk.html

The 1976 Ethernet network with its components is shown in Figure 1.14. This

implementation of the Ethernet is sometimes referred to as “Experimental Ethernet”.

Figure 1.15 Ethernet Architecture from 1976 Metcalf and Boggs’ paper.37

After XeroxThe subsequent story of the Ethernet is the story of rapidly evolving standards,

standards wars, dead technologies, and enthusiasm in the market that made Ethernet

ubiquitous and the preferred choice over all other competing solutions.

In the Fall of 1979 DEC, Intel and XEROX (The first letters of these corporations

created the acronym DIX) begun to work on the Ethernet Specification. It was published

the next year as the Ethernet Blue Book or DIX; this was DIX V 1.0 standard that offered

the speed of 10 Mbps with the Ethernet’s thick trunk cable scheme38. In 1982, after two

years of work the DIX standard was refined as DIX V 2.0 and published in 1982 as The

Ethernet Version 2.039 or Ethernet II as it is usually known. The specifications differed

from the “original Ethernet from 1976. The maximum length was extended to 2500

meters with the segments of up to 500 meters. The preamble increased from 1 bit to 64

bits, the address filed had 48 bits each, and the CRC filed had 32 bits. Both Ethernet

37 Metcalf, Boggs (1976).38 Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel Corporation and Xerox Corporation (30 September 1980). "The Ethernet, ALocal Area Network. Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications, Version 1.0". Xerox Corporation. Retrieved2014-12-12.39 Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel Corporation and Xerox Corporation (November 1982). "The Ethernet, A LocalArea Network. Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications, Version 2.0". Xerox Corporation. Retrieved2014-12-12.

(experimental and DIX) specifications used Manchester encoding.

The following table summarizes the features of both Ethernet specifications40..

Table 1.5 Experimental and DIX Ethernet Specifications.

In 1981 the IEEE decided to standardize the LAN technologies and created the

subcommittee to develop an international standard based on DIX specifications. The

IEEE standard was created within the IEEE Local and Metropolitan Networks

(LAN/MAN) Standards Committee, which identifies all the standards it develops with the

number 802. The subcommittee was designated as 802.3. The specifications were

completed in 1983 as a draft and became the IEEE 10Base541 standard in 1985. The

IEEE 802.3 is not exactly the same as DIX v 2.0 but the differences are minor. The IEEE

802.3 specifications allow backward compatibility with the systems build according to

earlier DIX specifications. We may assume safely that all of the Ethernet equipment built

after 1985 is based on the IEEE 802.3 standard. Subsequent supplements to the IEEE

802.3 specifications have been identified by a small letter or letters added to the number.

40 John F. Shoch; Yogen K. Dalal; David D. Redell; Ronald C. Crane (August 1982). "Evolution of the Ethernet LocalComputer Network". IEEE Computer 15 (8).41 How to read an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) shorthand identifier. The "10" in the mediatype designation refers to the transmission speed of 10 Mbps. The "BASE" refers to baseband signalling, which meansthat only Ethernet signals are carried on the medium. The "T" represents twisted-pair; the "F" represents fiber opticcable; and the "2", "5", and "36" refer to the coaxial cable segment length (the 185 meter length has been rounded up to"2" for 200). http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/10BASE-T.

ExperimentalEthernet

DIX V 1.0

Date Rate 2.94 Mbps 10 Mbps

Maximum End-to-end rate 1000 m 2500 m

Maximum Segment Length 1000 m 500 m

Encoding Manchester Manchester

Coax Cable Impedance 75 ohms 50 ohms

Coax Cable Signal Levels 0 to +3 V 0 to -2 V

Transceiver Cable connectors 25- and 15- pins Dseries

15-pin D series

Length of preamble 1 bit 64 bits

Length of CRC 16 bits 32 bits

Length of address fields 8 bits 48 bits

Major revisions of the IEEE 802.3 have been identified with the revision year.

Xerox did nothing to further the Ethernet technology and in 1979 Bob Metcalf left

the company. In 1979, with Howard Charney, Bruce Borden, and Greg Shaw he jointly

founded 3Com with the purpose of productizing the Ethernet technology. 3Com

specialized in building Ethernet adaptor card for early computer systems such as Apple,

LSI-11, IBM PC, and VAX-11. In 1982 3Comm developed the NIC card - the

EtherLink for the IBM PC introducing the Thin Ethernet which was much cheaper, easier

to install and did not need the bulky, external transceiver unit. Figure 1.16 shows the thin

Ethernet cable.

Figure 1.16. Thin Ethernet cable42 (RG58 Thinnet 10Base2 Coax Cable- IEEE 802.3

10Base2).

The Thin Ethernet (cheapernet, thinwire, thinnet) was named 10Base2; for 10 Mbps

throughput and 200 m segment size ( in fact 185 meters). The Ethernet market for PCs

was growing beyond any predictions and in 1983 3Com filed its first public offering of

stock. The Thin Ethernet was defined as a part the IEEE 802.3a standard in 198443.

Both 10Base5 and 10Base2 networks supported bus topology. The next milestone in

the Ethernet evolution was the development of the start topology and introduction of the

UTP wire. The start topology ( tree or hierarchical topology) was easier to install,

maintain, configure and troubleshoot, lowering the operational cost of the whole network.

42 http://www.showmecables.com/product/belden-9907-rg58-thinnet-10base2-ethernet-coaxial-cable-per-ft.aspx43 In 2012 3Com was acquire by Hewlett-Packard and ceased to exist.

It was initially developed by Intel ( with the partnership from AT&T and NCR) in 1983

as StarLAN44. StarLAN was defined by the IEEE 802.3e standard in 1986 as the 1Base5

version of Ethernet and in 1987 StarLAN was patented by AT&T as US Patent

4674085. The advantage of StarLan was that it run over the telephone, twisted pair wire,

so it could reuse existing telephone installations. However, it was slow delivering only

1Mbps. This cemented demise of the bus network and StarLAN itself.

In 1987 SynOptics Communications introduced LattisNet delivering 10 Mbps

throughput over an unshielded twisted pair in a start topology know as Ethernet 10BaseT.

Two years earlier in 1985 the Xerox engineer (Eric Rawson) demonstrated that Ethernet

can be run over the fiber, but only in a start topology. The first LattisNet hub for fiber

optics and shielded twisted pair (STP) was shipped in 1987. LattisNet was called the

Ethernet-over-telephone-wire technology and was hailed as price and technology

break-through as it proved the superiority of the UTP over the thinnet coaxial cabling.

For the record, the tests performed by Novell showed the LattisNet thought at

173.5Kbyte/sec and thin Ethernet for the same conditions to be 168.2Kbyte/sec45. In

1990 the IEEE approved the 802.3i/10Base-T version of Ethernet over the UTP cable.

While StartLAN never took off as the LAN technology, it has to be credited with the

introduction of the novel architecture (start topology) replacing the bus design of earlier

Ethernet.

The next milestone in the Ethernet evolution was the introduction of the Ethernet

Switch in early 1990s. The invention of the Ethernet switching is credited to Kaplana46.

Kaplana in 1989 introduced into the market a multi-port Ethernet switch with 7 ports The

Kaplana EtherSwitch EPS-700. The Kaplana switch used new cut-through rather than

store-and-forward technology for packet processing, in-hardware processing logic,

allowed for multiple simultaneous data transmission flows, increasing the performance

of the switch by the order of magnitude. The Kaplana switch was not positioned as a

bridge but as a device boosting the LAN performance. It created a new category of the

44 Mary Petrosky (June 9, 1986). "Starlan nets: Chip set chips away at Interface cost". Network World 3 (14). p. 4.45 Eric Killorin (November 2, 1987). "LattisNet makes the grade in Novell benchmark tests" 4 (44). Network World.p. 19.46 Kaplana was co-founded by Vinod Bhardwaj and Larry Blair.

networking devices - the Ethernet network switch and it soon became the standard

equipment in the LAN space. The basic parameters of the first Kaplana switch are

presented in Table 1.6. It is worth having this table in mind when reviewing the

specifications of the to-date networking equipment to see how far did the industry

advanced over last 20 years. In 1994 Kaplana was acquired by Cisco.

Ports 7ForwardingMethods

Cut-through packetforwarding

Throughput 30 MbpsLatency 40 μsBuffer 256 packets

Table 1.6 Kaplana EtherSwith-700 Specifications

In 1993 Kaplana developed another break-through technology; the full duplex

Ethernet. Full-duplex allows to simultaneously transmit and receive increasing the

bandwidth two-fold. Of course, this is only possible in the start topology with

point-to-point links. In the bus topology Ethernet operates in the half-duplex mode. In the

full-duplex mode there is no possibly of packet collision. As there is no need for the

CSMA/CD detection the limitations of the distance due to the collision detection are no

longer existing and the link distance depends only on the strength of the signal in the

transport medium used. In 1997 the IEEE published 802.3x full duplex/ flow control

Ethernet specifications.

The next step in the Ethernet ascend was the development of 100Mbps links called

Fast Ethernet. Fast Ethernet in fact refers to the several standards that carry traffic with

the rate of 100 Mbps. Fast Ethernet can use the UTP wire or an optical cable in the start

topology. Fast Ethernet is referred to as 100Base-X where X stands for FX, SX, BX, T4,

LX10, or TX depending on the physical media used. The IEEE published the 100Base-T

standard in 1995 as 802.3u.

This is how 100 Mbps Ethernet was born. In 1992 the need for the faster than 10

Mbps Ethernet were discussed in the IEEE 802.3 committee. Lack of agreement among

the attending parties caused the creation of the splinter group The Fast Ethernet Alliance47.

The group’s objective was to develop on the basis of existing Ethernet standards the

specifications for 100Mbps Ethernet (the competing solution, based on a completely new

MAC method, came from Hewlett-Packard). In 1993 the Fast Ethernet Alliance

publishes its 100Base-T document and Grand Junction Networks begins to ship its Fast

Ethernet hubs and NICs. Grand Junction Networks were founded in 1992 with explicit

goal to develop and market high-speed Ethernet equipment48. By 1994 more vendors

jointed the Fast Ethernet Alliance shipping new products and the market for Fast Ethernet

was exploding.

Subsequent technology milestones that define the development of Ethernet are 1000

Mbps Ethernet published in 1998 as the IEEE 802.3z (1000Base-X 1Gbps standard),

development of 10Gbps Ethernet(IEEE 802.3ae published in 2002 with several

subsequent revisions), development of 40Gbps and 100 Gps Ethernet (802.3ba published

in 2010) specifications and, in the future 400 Gbps Ethernet (802.3bs expected to be

completed in 2017).

Table 1.7 provides the comparison of basic characteristics of Ethernet 10Base5,

10Base2, 10Base-T, 1Base5, 100Base -X and 1000Base-X.

Designation Supported Media Maximum SegmentLength

TransferSpeed Topology

10Base-5 Coaxial 500m 10Mbps Bus10Base-2 ThinCoaxial (RG-58 A/U) 185m 10Mbps Bus

10Base-T Category3 or above unshieldedtwisted-pair (UTP) 100m 10Mbps

Star,using either simplerepeater hubs orEthernet switches

1Base-5 Category3 UTP, or above 100m 1Mbps Star,using simplerepeater hubs

100Base-TX Category5 UTP 100m 100MbpsStar,using either simplerepeater hubs orEthernet switches

47 The Fast Ethernet Alliance was funded in 1993 by the consortium or Ethernet vendors including Grand Junction,Intel, LAN Media, SynOptics, Cabletron, National Semiconductor, Sun Microsystems, and 3Comm. Hewlett_Packardand AT&T did not join.48 Grand Junction Networks. http://www.fastcompany.com/33233/grand-junction-networks.

100Base-FX Fiber-optic- two strands of multimode62.5/125 fiber

412 meters(Half-Duplex)

2000 m (full-duplex)

100 Mbps

(200 Mb/sfull-duplexmode)

Star(often onlypoint-to-point)

1000Base-SX Fiber-optic- two strands of multimode62.5/125 fiber 260m 1Gbps

Star,using buffereddistributor hub (orpoint-to-point)

1000Base-LX Fiber-optic- two strands of multimode62.5/125 fiber or monomode fiber

440m (multimode)5000 m(singlemode)

1GbpsStar,using buffereddistributor hub (orpoint-to-point)

1000Base-T Category5 100m 1Gbps Star

Table 1.7 Comparison of characteristics f Ethernet from 10Base5 to 1000Base-X49.

In the wide adoption of Ethernet the IEEE standard called Ethernet in the first mile or

EFM was of critical importance. The standard IEEE 802.3ah-2004, later to be included in

the IEEE 802.3-2008 defined the Ethernet technology to be used for access between the

customer’s premises and the telecommunication company access facilities. The EFM

facilitated the deployment of the pure Ethernet transport rather than Ethernet over ATM

or FR.

In addition to speed increases the development in the service and control planes

significantly contributed to the Ethernet adoption. These include the development of

VLAN construct with its ability to signal QoS and create virtual connections (EVCs)50,

development of PWEs for Ethernet transport51, the development of protected ring and

linear architectures52, and the development of the whole suit of SOAM facilities53. The

introduction of EVCs allowed for customer specific services, high-granular QoS, and

segmentation of the control plane; making Ethernet services more sophisticated and

managed (2003). The specification of PWEs for the Ethernet transport (2006) allowed to

49 10BaseT 10BaseF 10Base2 5-4-3 rule 10Base5 100BaseFX 100BaseT4 100BaseTX.http://computernetworkingnotes.com/network-technologies/10base-ethernet.html50 IEEE 802.1Q is the most widely used implementation of the VLAN Ethernet. There is also the Cisco proprietary ISLprotocol ( Inter-Switch Link). IEEE 802.1Q was published in 1998 and had several revisions in 2003 (802.1Q-2003),2005 (802.1-2005), and 2011 (802.1Q-2011).51 IETF developed a series of standards in the area of pseudo-wire and MPLS. Probably the most important forEthernet are RFC 3985 (2005) Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) Architecture and RFC 4448 (2006)Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet over MPLS Networks.52 ITU-T G.8032 Ethernet Ring Protection switching architecture developed between 2010 and 2013. ITU-T G.8031Ethernet Linear Protection switching developed between 2006 and 2013.53 ITU-T Y.1731 – OAM Functions and Mechanisms for Ethernet based Networks developed between 2006 and 2013and IEEE Std 802.1ag-2007 Virtual Bridged Local Area Networks, Amendment 5: Connectivity Fault Management

extend the Ethernet over MAN and WAN in the same time providing robust MPLS

protection and resiliency mechanisms, scaling and QoS. The Ethernet PWEs provided the

entry of the Ethernet service into the Carrier world. Protected linear (2006) and ring

(2010) architectures introduced SONET-like protection design for Ethernet into the MAN

and fostered the development of so called connection -oriented Ethernet or COE service;

the technologies that opened MAN and WAN networks for Ethernet LAN. And the

development of complex SOAM facilities (2006-7) offering the SONET/SDH -like

complex control and management plane for Ethernet services contributed to the

establishment of Ethernet as Carrier Grade network technology. The specifications for

these technologies were developed by IETF, ITU-T and IEEE standard organizations.

The creation of Metro Ethernet Forum, in 2001, to foster the convergence of Ethernet

services, had difficult to overestimate impact on the Ethernet world. Metro Ethernet

Forum (MEF) was founded with the specific task of defining Ethernet Services. While

not technical in the understanding of IEEE work, the work of MEF was critical to

wold-wide adoption of Ethernet as a service medium by providing the unified

terminology and definition of service types, interfaces, NID equipment, performance

measures, OAM specifications, equipment and service certification, and architecture. The

MEF terminology and conceptualization of service features became the lingua franca of

the Ethernet service providers and Ethernet equipment vendors. In 2011 MEF launched

CE 2.0 Certification Program introducing the carrier features into the Ethernet service.

The milestones in the Ethernet technology development in IEEE standards are

summarized in Table 1.5. The MEF standards milestones are presented in Figure 1.17.

Ethernet

StandardDate Description

Experimental

Ethernet1973 2.94 Mbit/s (367 kB/s) over coaxial cable (coax) bus

Ethernet II

(DIX v2.0)1982 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over thick coax.

IEEE 802.3

standard1983

10BASE5 10 Mbit/s (1.25 MB/s) over thick coax. Same as

Ethernet II (above) except Type field is replaced by Length,

and an 802.2 LLC header follows the 802.3 header. Based on

the CSMA/CD Process.

802.3u 1995100BASE-TX, 100BASE-T4, 100BASE-FX Fast Ethernet at

100 Mbit/s (12.5 MB/s) w/autonegotiation

802.3x 1997 Full Duplex and flow control

802.3z 19981000BASE-X Gbit/s Ethernet over Fiber-Optic at 1 Gbit/s

(125 MB/s)

802.3ae 2002

10 Gigabit Ethernet over fiber; 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LR,

10GBASE-ER, 10GBASE-SW, 10GBASE-LW,

10GBASE-EW

802.3ah 2004 Ethernet in the First Mile

802.3bm 2014 100G/40G Ethernet for optical fiber

802.3bs ~ 2017400 Gb/s Ethernet over optical fiber using multiple 25G/50G

lanes

Table 1.5 Evolution of Ethernet technology in IEEE 802.3 working group standards54.

54 Adapted with some changes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.3. Retrieved 12.12.2014

Figure 1.17 Development of Ethernet Service Specifications in MEF55.

55 An Overview of The Technical Work of MEF. MEF Reference Presentation 2011.http://metroethernetforum.org/carrier-ethernet/presentations Retrieved 12.14.2014.