Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) page
The MEF has created more than 30 specifications based on thousands of technical contributions and have been responsible for a wealth of certified products. services and skilled professionals -- all ready to drive the ffuture of global communications... this $25bn market is forecast to exceed $47bn by 2015... watch this video to understand the carrier Ethernet journey plus gain a glimpse in to its Cloud-based future...
Metrofibre networx is the first African Service Provider member of the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and chose to seek MEF membership for its MetroCONNECT™ products to provide industry leading connection quality to our customers. The MEF is a global industry alliance comprising of more than 170 organizations that aim to accelerate the worldwide adoption of Carrier Class Ethernet networks and services.
The MEF was formed in 2001 to develop ubiquitous business services for Enterprise users principally accessed over optical metropolitan networks to connect their Enterprise LAN
The MEF develops technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide which is a ubiquitous, standardised, Carrier-Class Service that distinguishes it from familiar LAN based Ethernet.
The MEF have created a new language to describe Wide Area Ethernet. Previously providing a detailed ethernet service specification has been very difficult due to common ethernet being a Local Area Network (LAN) technology and not having enough well defined terms to properly describe the service when used in a Wide Area Network (WAN) environment.
This new language allows for detailed and unambiguous service specifications ensuring that you get what you need and what you pay for.
Carrier Ethernet
Carrier Ethernet provides industry leading performance, features and security designed specifically for wide area ethernet, making it a true replacement for legacy services such as Frame Relay and ATM.
Carrier Ethernet is a ubiquitous, standardised, carrier-class service defined by five attributes that distinguish it from familiar LAN based ethernet.
Standardised Services:
E-Line, E-LAN and E-Tree provide transparent, private line, virtual private line and LAN services ideally suited for converged voice, video and data networks.
Scalability:
Scalability of bandwidth from 1Mbps to 10Gbps and beyond, in granular increments.
Reliability:
The ability for the network to detect and recover from incidents
without impacting users, with recovery times of less than 50ms.
Quality of Service:
A network managed to carrier-class standards.
Service Management:
Services that deliver end-to-end performance matching the
requirements for voice, video and data over converged networks.
