EANTC, Ancotel & Light Reading Announce World's Most Advanced Carrier Ethernet Interconnect Test & Demonstration Program For Service Providers

EANTC AG (European Advanced Networking Test Center), the leading independent test lab - along with ancotel, Europe's largest carrier interconnect company, and Light Reading, the leading media company in the worldwide communications industry today - announced the launch of a new extensive test program for service providers to validate and showcase end-to-end Carrier Ethernet services across multiple carriers.

The testing effort consists of a pilot testing program using External Network-Network Interfaces (ENNI) as specified by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), a report on the program to be published on Light Reading, and a year-long demonstration program involving Global Carrier Interconnect demonstrations at Ethernet Expo London and Ethernet Expo New York.

The pilot testing program is scheduled to be organized in January. Service providers looking to evaluate their Carrier Ethernet services interconnections in a public, independent, multi-party effort can register with EANTC for the pilot test campaign.

The key to unlocking the explosive growth expected for Carrier Ethernet services in the next 18 months will be for enterprises to be able to obtain secure, robust, and manageable services quickly from multiple carriers around the world. Service providers need to demonstrate to their customers and prospects that they can provide these interconnected services, and Ethernet access and core equipment vendors need to show carriers they can support this requirement. Using the MEF standards that are designed to provide a common interconnect standard as a benchmark, EANTC and ancotel will focus on validating advanced Carrier Ethernet interconnects by examining functionality, resilience, and service-level management.

The campaign will kick off with a pilot evaluation in January. EANTC, along with ancotel and participating service providers, will develop a comprehensive plan for the tests and demonstrations based upon experience from more than ten Carrier Ethernet interoperability events and active participation in the MEF standardization of ENNI Abstract Test Suites since 2006.

Results of the pilot test campaign will be publicly demonstrated live at MPLS and Ethernet World Congress / Ethernet Wholesale Conference 2010 in Paris, February 9-12, 2010. Detailed information on the test campaign will be made available in an independent test report published by Light Reading. As with previous white papers that have come to be considered pioneering documents in the telecommunications industry, these publications will provide much-needed assessments of the state of service provider interconnects today.

"As a next-generation operator, we are very proud to participate in the Advanced Global Interconnection Test Program," said Frederic Dhieux, CTO of BSO Network Solutions. "Thanks to realistic end-to-end network scenarios, the Global Interconnect Test Program will help provide an even higher level of interoperability in an advanced and complex technology area, increase the level of innovation, and essentially move the technology ahead."

"P&TLuxembourg is proud to take part in this program because it is a real opportunity to validate, in an international Ethernet network test, that the Ethernet services can be transported through the ancotel interconnection facility to different service providers without any traffic performance degradation and to provide the right service level agreement to the customers," said Marc Panneel, International Connectivity Manager of P&TLuxembourg.

"This project will give providers more flexibility in global operation of Ethernet services and as a result we expand on service quality improvements for the customers," said Anna Dudko, ??? of Ucomline CJSC - member of Vega Telecom Group.

With the findings of the pilot test, EANTC plans to create a Global Interconnect Demonstration at Ethernet Expo London, April 12 and 13 in London, and Ethernet Expo NY, Nov. 2 and 3 in New York City. Service providers should contact EANTC to participate.

Carsten Rossenhovel, Managing Director at EANTC, comments: "Our primary goal is to support the industry in driving the establishment of new standards that are vital to providing real technical value to the industry. We expect that by the end of 2010, vendors and providers will have solid and dependable answers to major technical questions involving Carrier Ethernet global coverage and service quality."

"Supporting the service provider community is the aim of our business," said Michael Boehlert, Director of Technology & Consulting for ancotel. "With the ongoing ENNI specification work in the Metro Ethernet Forum this program is a perfect test bed to demonstrate the current state of Carrier Ethernet Interconnections and to show how far the progress in those specifications have already been put into practice."

"Light Reading and Ethernet Expo are proud to partner with EANTC and ancotel in order to help drive the Carrier Ethernet industry forward," said Joe Braue, SVP and Group Director.

Further information describing the testing procedures and the results in detail will be available on EANTC's Website at www.eantc.com.

About EANTC

The European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) offers vendor-neutral consultancy and test facilities for network equipment manufacturers, service providers, and enterprise customers. Primary business areas include interoperability, conformance, and performance testing for Carrier Ethernet, IP/MPLS, and Triple Play technologies and applications. For more information and service provider program registration contact Carsten Rossenhoevel, Managing Director, at +49.30.3180595-0 or via email at cross@eantc.com.

  http://www.eantc.com/

  About ancotel

ancotel GmbH, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, operates the largest and most significant telecommunications and data hub in continental Europe with more than 360 service providers co-located and interconnected in its neutral carrier hotel. As an independent company, ancotel is a leading provider of managed services in the area of virtualized carrier transport and interconnection infrastructure for legacy and NGN networks, including TDM, VoIP, IP/MPLS and Carrier Ethernet. For more information contact Michael Boehlert, Director Technology & Consulting, at +49.69.750013-203 or via email at mboehlert@ancotel.de. http://www.ancotel.com/

About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About BSO Network Solutions

Founded in 2004, BSO Network Solutions (a Carinae Group company) is the leading next-generation operator providing network services, hosting, and integration. With its rapid growth, BSO Network Solutions is already present in more than 12 countries and has offices in Paris, London, and Hong Kong. BSO Network Solutions administers and operates its own Nx10Gbit/s network which has been crafted to be compatible with future 100Gbit/s interfaces. Thanks to a range of very high added value services and to comprehensive facilities management and validation offerings, BSO Network Solutions provides its customers with guidance and assistance from the most upstream phases of their projects, in terms of advice and expertise, to the most downstream, including the daily administration, upgrading, and adaptation of their infrastructure. All its services are covered by extremely robust service level agreements (SLA) tailor-made to match each problem addressed.

  www.bsonetwork.com

  About P&TLuxembourg

P&TLuxembourg is the No. 1 telecom operator in Luxembourg, with a turnover of 349 million Euros in 2008. As a comprehensive operator and owner of its fixed and mobile infrastructure, P&TLuxembourg builds and operates with TERALINK, one of the most innovative European IP networks offering customers data and telecommunications solutions and services by providing connections to Europe's foremost telecommunication and carrier hotels.

  www.teralink.biz / www.pt.lu

  About CJSC Ucomline - member of VEGA TELECOM Group

VEGA TELECOM is the largest alternative fixed operator in Ukraine, providing a full scale of telecom services in fixed retail and wholesale markets, with about 1 million subscribers in both retail telephony and data service lines. UCOMLINE is a wholesale division of VEGA TELECOM Group. VEGA TELECOM owns and operates a nationwide fiber-optic network including a DWDM backbone, robust metro networks, and highly developed and modern MPLS network.

www.vegatele.com

Company or product names mentioned in this release are trademarks of their respective companies.

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SOURCE: EANTC

CONTACT: Carsten Rossenhoevel, Managing Director, EANTC,
+49-30-3180595-0, cross@eantc.com; Michael Boehlert, Director Technology &
Consulting, ancotel, +49-69-750013-203, mboehlert@ancotel.de

Web Site: http://www.eantc.com/