Standards-based Carrier Ethernet 2.0-based networks are getting faster by an order of magnitude as the MEF today announced the first 6 vendors to offer 100G CE 2.0 certified products – supporting the future of high-speed interconnects in the Internet and in the Cloud. The vendors are Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Huawei, and Infinera.
In May 2015, the MEF announced expansion of the CE 2.0 Certification Program to include network equipment used for delivering E-Line and E-Access services that can be port or VLAN based up to 100 Gigabits per second. Previously, the upper limit for MEF CE 2.0 certifications was 10Gbps. The 6 CE 2.0 equipment vendors have since undergone rigorous testing procedures to be among the first to achieve 100G CE 2.0 certification.
Kevin Vachon, Chief Operating Officer of the MEF, said: “We congratulate all of the vendors who have achieved the important industry milestone of 100G CE 2.0 certification. In the near term, this will enable service providers to deliver standards-compliant connectivity and access solutions up to 100G to support demanding applications like data center interconnection. Over time, it also helps lay a highly scalable CE 2.0 services foundation to support dynamic, cloud centric services that will be orchestrated over more automated, interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV.”
100G CE 2.0 testing and certification was performed by Iometrix, the network industry’s preeminent testing authority globally recognized as the official test laboratory of the MEF. Iometrix President and Founder Bob Mandeville said, “The MEF’s inaugural 100G certifications are proof-positive that service providers can now procure and deploy equipment to immediately respond to emerging customer requirements for the next level of capacity and speed wrapped into fully compliant Carrier Ethernet E-Line and E-Access services.”
The first group of certified companies attended a special ceremony on Tuesday, 17 November that was hosted by Iometrix in the Services Interconnect Zone of the GEN15 global networking conference held at the the Omni Hotel in Dallas, Texas.