Hi mahler_one ,
I actually enjoyed the Light Reading Webinar today. It was hosted by Passave and the EFMA (Ethernet in the First Mile Association), as well as MRV, which was nicely represented by Troy Larsen.
I participated in the early IEEE 802.3ah standards discussion list about two years ago, so it had a special appeal to me, I suppose. Back then, a whole slew of issues were still up in the air, especially with regard to operations, administration and remote maintenance (OAM) capabilities, which has always been a key factor behind the incumbent carriers holding back on deploying Ethernet in the past. So, to me it was interesting to hear how they've progressed and ratified a set of protocols to get beyond those hurdles.
Having said that, the most promising items discussed were the fiber pt-pt (E-Line) and pt-mpt (E-LAN, or PON) topologies now supported, which ironically probably won't go too far during the current FTTP craze due to the incumbents' preoccupation with ATM-based PONs, or APONs. As it stands now, only independent carriers, coops and municipalities seem to be going the route of Ethernet. I'm still waiting to find an RBOC who'll even trial it at this time.
In contrast, over a million optical Ethernet ports have been sold to carriers in Japan thus far, with much more projected there and for Korea over the next year. NTT has been on a $2Billion campaign to both greenfield EFM and replace DSL with 100 Mb/s and Gbps Ethernet, which they call GEPON in order to differentiate from previous GPON designations that were used for protocols that were not .ah standards based. Elsewhere, mention was made of Bell West's aggressive push with GbE in the Alberta section of Canada, as well as in a number of Scandinavian and Western European nations.
So, it's eventually going to get out there, but getting it anywhere close to your home, if you live in an RBOC serving area, may take a long while. I'm not sure how much folks here want to know about EFM, so fire away and if I don't know the answer I surely know where to get it. Isn't that right, Troy? <g>
FAC
frank@fttx.org |
