Extreme Networks introduced new capabilities based on emerging Ethernet standards that enable its BlackDiamond 12K platform to address the scalability of service provider aggregation networks for business and residential subscribers.
Extreme Networks' "Multidimensional Ethernet" capabilities are comprised of three key dimensions:
- MAC-in-MAC scalability,
- Ethernet Cross Connect technology,
and Hierarchical Quality of Service (QoS).
Iometrix, the lab used to certify Carrier Ethernet products and services for the Metro Ethernet Forum, was commissioned to perform a battery of tests that covered scalability using MAC-in-MAC, the proposed IEEE 802.1ah standard, for provider backbone deployments; Ethernet Cross-Connect technology for directing subscribers to a variety of content networks; and hierarchical per- subscriber, per-application quality of service -- the key components to delivering cost effective and scaleable Carrier Ethernet networks.
"The last hurdle for Ethernet to effectively meet the demands of service provider networks is scalability," said Bob Mandeville, founder and president of Iometrix. "Until Ethernet can effectively scale to support hundreds of thousands of users, it will not be a legitimate solution at the core. This test, the first of its kind, has shown that MAC-in-MAC, and Extreme Networks implementation of Multidimensional Ethernet delivered that scalability."
Extreme Networks said the Iometrix test results demonstrated :
- Extended scalability to millions of distinct service instances with MAC-in-MAC while successfully encapsulating duplicate S-Tags.
- Delivered point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services at wire rate using MAC-in-MAC while guaranteeing subscriber traffic integrity.
- Successfully switched traffic from any selected individual subscriber to specific service instances by mapping C-Tag IDs to S-Tags IDs bi-directionally and at wire rate enabling simple layer 2 connections to content networks.
- Applied bandwidth profiles at both ingress and egress ports and accurately triggered on multiple criteria and at wire rate to prioritize subscriber traffic.
- Dynamically allocated bandwidth among different traffic classes at wire rate.
