Carrier Ethernet has been almost ubiquitous in providing network connectivity services for enterprise networking, cloud computing and backhaul of cell sites and broadband access services.
Today, service provider networks are offering Carrier Ethernet access services needed for all customer segments – residential, SMB, enterprise, hosted services, mobile backhauling and other carriers.
In addition, high-speed internet access, IPTV, leased line or private line services, Layer 2 VPNs, Layer 3 VPNs, are offered over the same network infrastructure using Carrier Ethernet services.
This white paper examines the emergence of Third Network architecture in the metro access and mobile backhaul networks using SDN and NFV.
The paper also scrutinizes the need for infrastructure vendors to adapt to this changed architecture with enhanced software functions powered with next generation silicon architectures.