PDF of this tutorialEnterprises and commercial businesses are increasingly seeking customizable services from their service providers. They not only expect higher bandwidth connectivity services to support demanding applications, but also want the bandwidth delivered at greater levels of granularity. Their need for tailored bandwidth encompasses much more than simply data. Service providers need to provide support for data, voice, and video traffic according to their customers' specific business objectives and applications. Also, traffic is no longer treated in the same fashion. For example, terminal traffic should be latency optimized, while voice or video traffic should experience minimal loss and no packet reordering. The new service model is becoming one of "mass customization" rather than "mass production." Providers that can customize services for individual customers are more likely to realize the maximum revenue with these customers-all their requirements are acknowledged and fulfilled.
To deliver the tailored services that customers demand, service providers are changing their assumptions about how to design and deploy networks. In the past, service providers focused on building a network infrastructure, then on delivering the services that the infrastructure could support. Today, services are increasingly driving the network infrastructure. This is especially true with metro Ethernet networks. The transport-driven approach to networks is being replaced by a business-driven approach. This change is also causing many providers to shift from a vertical to a horizontal business model by removing operational silos and limiting internal overlap and competition. To generate new revenue, providers are expanding their service offerings with connectivity services like Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, as well as value-added services like storage, videoconferencing, and hosted IP telephony-all enabled by metro Ethernet networks. Service providers need solutions that provide the ability to deploy multiple services over a common metro Ethernet infrastructure; this greatly improves their return on investment (ROI). The concept of layering in the network remains-implementing different capabilities at different layers (Layer 1, 2, and 3) where they can be delivered in a scalable and cost-effective fashion. As providers build a service-driven metro network, they can use all three layers for service delivery and scalability, rather than just a single layer.
This guide offers an approach to building a service-driven metro network that will help you navigate through architectural and deployment issues, as well as technology considerations and complexities. By beginning the process focusing on the services you want to provide now and in the future, you can build a foundation for sustained success over the long term.
