Metro Ethernet Forum makes Ethernet peering progress

Service providers and their business customers may have embraced Ethernet as the next-gen enterprise networking technology, but the one issue that holds it back is service and geographic availability. To overcome that disparity, service providers have engaged in pre-standard Ethernet-Network to Network Interconnection (E-NNI) agreements with other service provider partners when they go out of region. Now it appears that the Metro Ethernet Forum, as reported in Light Reading, is close to putting the final touches on NNI specifications that could debut in a just a few short months.

Ethernet NNI is a major tenet of the MEF's Global Interconnect Initiative, one that's set on developing a common framework for service providers to carry Ethernet service over each other's networks. The end result of such an initiative is simple: expanding the reach of Ethernet services. Similar to Internet service peering points, the MEF's Global Interconnect Initiative would create so-called Ethernet exchange points. One service provider that's moving towards developing a global interconnect Ethernet exchange is Equinix, which launched its global Ethernet exchange earlier this month.

And while the MEF wants to get a standard NNI out as quickly as they can to counter the one-off deals carriers have been doing to expand their respective networks, they don't want to do it prematurely either. "What we didn't want to do is just throw more specifications at the industry," said Kevin Vachon, the MEF's chief operating officer. "We want to go to the industry with a plan: Here are our recommendations for interconnect; here are the pieces you need to take under consideration."

For more:
- Light Reading has this article [1]

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