IEEE
Communications Magazine
Feature Topic
on
"Next-Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport
Technologies"
The share of packet-dominated traffic
has grown exponentially in networks worldwide. A majority of this
traffic is now either Ethernet or Internet Protocol (IP), so
enterprises (and even residential customers) familiar with Ethernet
technology have begun demanding a simple, inexpensive and high-speed
universal Ethernet service.
The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has
defined such a Carrier Ethernet, service characterized by some key
attributes: reliability, hard Quality-of-Service (QoS), service
management, and scalability, which set it apart from the ubiquitously
deployed LAN-based Ethernet.
There are several options for
building the underlying transport infrastructure to deliver such a
carrier Ethernet service. These include, for example, using: IP/MPLS
technology to deliver point-to-point Ethernet circuits joined
together with physical Ethernet bridges/switches; IP/MPLS with
Virtual-Private LAN Service (VPLS) or Hierarchical Virtual Private
LAN Service (H-VPLS) (developed at the IETF); Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS)
being proposed at the ITU-T, using modified Ethernet technology with
Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and Provider-Backbone Transport
(PBT) being proposed at the IEEE; using a combination of a modified
Ethernet data-plane and a GMPLS-based control-plane with VLAN
cross-connect (being proposed by several vendors and under
consideration at the IETF) and Circuit Emulation Services (CES) over
an Ethernet fabric to provision Pseudo Wires (PWs).
This special
issue aims to consolidate and disseminate the latest developments and
advances in transport technology options for Carrier Ethernet
service. With this objective, the list of topics includes (but will
not be limited to) the following:
- Metro
Ethernet and Carrier Ethernet evolutions – requirements,
services specifications, carrier drivers, customer
drivers
- Requirements for QoS, traffic engineering,
resilience, manageability, OAM, and service scalability for carrier
Ethernet transport technologies
- IP/MPLS (VPLS, H-VPLS) for
carrier Ethernet services – choices, pros, cons,
costs/benefits
- Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and
Provider Backbone Transport-Traffic Engineered (PBT-TE) as
alternatives to IP/MPLS for Ethernet transport – pros, cons,
costs/benefits
- Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS) for carrier Ethernet
– pros, cons, costs/benefits
- GMPLS-based control of
Ethernet – changes in the data and control planes
- OAM,
network management, service management – options, choices,
pitfalls, needs, and cost analysis and comparison of
solutions.
- Traffic engineering and dimensioning of carrier
Ethernet transport networks
- Techniques to ensure QoS &
resilience, with a mix of transport technologies
- Studies
comparing the different transport technologies along multiple
dimensions – deployment cost, day-to-day running cost, features
provided, ease of deployment/management, and so
on
- Case-studies from the provider community highlighting
why existing technologies meet or do not meet current and evolving
provider requirements.
- Network operators, vendors, and
standards bodies' perspectives.
- Implementations, test-beds,
field trials for carrier Ethernet transport
technologies
- State of current
standards
Submission
Articles should be
tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to
readers outside the specialty of the article. Articles may be edited
for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and will be copyedited
according to the Magazine's style. Mathematical equations should not
be used (in justified cases up to three simple equations could be
allowed, provided there is consent of the Guest Editor; more than
three equations require permission from the Editor-in-Chief).
Articles should have no more than 4,500 words, no more than 6
tables/figures, and no more than 15 references. Guidelines for
prospective authors can be found on-line at http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/commag/sub_guidelines.html.
Please submit no later than 31 July 2007. All articles to be
considered for publication must be submitted through IEEE Manuscript
Central (http://commag-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com).
Please select "March 2008/Next-Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport
Technologies" in the drop down menu.
Manuscript Due:
15 September 2007
Acceptance Notification: 1 November
2007
Final Manuscript Due: 15 December
2007
Publication Date: March 2008
Guest
Editors
Thomas D. Nadeau, Cisco Systems, Inc., (tnadeau@cisco.com)
Vishal
Sharma, Metanoia, Inc. (v.sharma@ieee.org)
Ashwin
Gumaste, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (ashwing@ieee.org)