Metro Ethernet

Product Description

The definitive guide to Enterprise and Carrier Metro Ethernet applications

• Discover the latest developments in metro networking, Ethernet, and MPLS services and what they can do for your organization
• Learn from the easy-to-read format that enables networking professionals of all levels to understand the concepts
• Gain from the experience of industry innovator and best-selling Cisco Press author, Sam Halabi, author of Internet Routing Architectures

Metro networks will emerge as the next area of growth for the networking industry and will represent a major shift in how data services are offered to businesses and residential customers. The metro has always been a challenging environment for delivering data services because it has been built to handle the stringent reliability and availability needs for voice. Carriers will have to go through fundamental shifts to equip the metro for next-generation data services demanded by enterprise customers and consumers. This is not only a technology shift, but also a shift in the operational and business model that will allow the incumbent carriers to transform the metro to offer enhanced data services.

Metro Ethernet from Cisco Press looks at the deployment of metro data services from a holistic view. It describes the current metro, which is based on TDM technology, and discusses the drivers and challenges carriers will face in transforming the metro to address data services.

Metro Ethernet discusses the adoption of metro Ethernet services and how that has led carriers to the delivery of metro data services. With a changing mix of transport technologies, the book then examines current and emerging trends, and delves into the role of virtual private networks (VPN), virtual private local area networks (VLAN), virtual private LAN services (VPLS), traffic engineering, and MPLS and Generalized MPLS (GMPLS).

Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful Authoritative guide to metro Ethernet services/technology, November 18, 2003 By  Nigel Seel (Wells, UK) - See all my reviews    This review is from: Metro Ethernet (Networking Technology) (Hardcover) Sam Halabi's book is described on the cover as "the definitive guide to enterprise and carrier metro Ethernet applications". As you would expect from the author of the justly-celebrated "Internet Routing Architectures", Halabi does a superb job. Chapter 1 reviews traditional TDM ways of getting to the customer. With traditional SDH/SONET-based transmission, carriers pay a high price in operational complexity, cost and provisioning delay. Ethernet's advantages include fast provisioning, fine-grained bandwidth granularity (inherent in packet technologies) and a scalability from kbps to Gbps. The customer also expects a lower cost service, although carrier pricing remains volatile, partially from fear of cannibalising their existing connectivity revenues. Chapter 2 looks at metro Ethernet technologies. Carriers with already deployed SONET/SDH networks naturally consider how to use them efficiently to carry Ethernet. The problem of mapping continuously-scalable packet flows into the... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful Smoke and mirrors removed, October 23, 2003 By  Paul Miller "Network Planner" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews    This review is from: Metro Ethernet (Networking Technology) (Hardcover) I recently read the book titled "Metro Ethernet", authored by the legendary Sam Halabi. ISBN: 158705096X. Let me be the first to say that this title lives up to Mr. Halabi's high standards for delivering top quality information. Sam Halabi does an excellent job of taking away the smoke and mirrors of the often misunderstood world of Metro Ethernet. This book explains, in superb detail, every way to skin the Metro Ethernet cat. The author does it in a way that helps to give the reader a complete understanding of a particular application of Metro Ethernet without dropping the reader off the deep-end of this hybrid technology. The book is organized very well. The author has taken a crawl, walk, run approach to the layout of this book. The introduction alone gives the reader a great road map of the book, so the reader can pinpoint a given topic, rather quickly. In the past I've had to rely heavily on the Index to provide pointers to a given topic, but the Introduction of this book... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment A rare excellent book for Metro Ethernet, February 21, 2005 By  Muhamad Carlos Patriawan "carlos@carlos.net" (Santa Clara,CA) - See all my reviews    Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Metro Ethernet (Networking Technology) (Hardcover) Sam Halabi did it again.This is a rare and very informative book on Metro Ethernet developments.It has very clear explanation on all the subjects.I particularly like the VPLS section. One thing tough,the HVPLS section needs to have more coverage on real world scenario. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment

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Praise For Metro Ethernet

Metro Ethernet
Reviewer Name: Paul Miller
Reviewer Certification: Pursuing CCIE Security

I recently read the book titled Metro Ethernet, authored by the legendary Sam Halabi. Let me be the first to say that this title lives up to Mr. Halabi's high standards for delivering top quality information. Sam Halabi does an excellent job of taking away the smoke and mirrors of the often misunderstood world of metro Ethernet. This book explains, in superb detail, every way to skin the metro Ethernet cat. The author does it in a way that helps to give the reader a complete understanding of a particular application of metro Ethernet without dropping the reader off the deep-end of this hybrid technology. The book is organized very well. The author has taken a crawl, walk, run approach to the layout of this book. The introduction alone gives the reader a great road map of the book, so the reader can pinpoint a given topic, rather quickly. In the past I've had to rely heavily on the Index to provide pointers to a given topic, but the Introduction of this book is a great reference.

Along with the author's previous book, Internet Routing Architectures, the author wastes little ink. Each topic is clear, concise and to the point. He's taken a lot of information from several sources and compiled the information in an easy to understand text. The illustrations help out a lot with capturing the complexity of the many different Metro Ethernet architectures. One thing I liked about the book is that the author gives the reader insight or background as to why a certain application of metro Ethernet was designed and where it is likely to be applied.

This book is best suited for telco carrier personnel or enterprise personnel at any level. Companies that are looking for different strategies for their metro area networking requirements will find this title very useful. For enterprise customers, this book is a great place to start, prior to calling in a consultant or discussing services offered by a service provider. Consultants will likely find this title very valuable to understand the complexities and furthermore gain the ability to transform the complex lingo into something palatable for a non-technical audience/customer. Telco support personnel would benefit a great deal by understanding what their existing offers are or perhaps alternatives to their current offerings. The book is well-rounded for a large target audience. A general understanding of the technologies discussed in this book is not really necessary, because the characteristics of the technologies discussed in the book are not implemented in the traditional sense. It does help to have an understanding of the technologies to be able to contrast the difference in the applications of metro Ethernet. There is a great deal of information that covers the use of MPLS in conjunction with metro Ethernet. The sections covering MPLS get a little more technical and may lose some individuals that are not technically savvy, however, the concepts are clearly stated.

There is another title that covers information about metro Ethernet technology offered by Cisco Press titled Cisco Self-Study: Building Cisco Metro Optical Networks (METRO) by Dave Warren and Dennis Hartmann. Since metro Ethernet is one of many technologies covered in this title, it doesn't have as much to offer on the subject of metro Ethernet as the book Metro Ethernet. The chapters overing metro Ethernet in Cisco Self-Study: Building Cisco Metro Optical Networks (METRO), focuse more on implementation details and the configuration of metro Ethernet in Cisco equipment. If you're looking for detailed information about metro Ethernet, I would recommend the book Metro Ethernet by Sam Halabi.

This is one reader that is thankful Sam Halabi chose to write another book.

Index

Download - 123 KB -- Index

Table of Contents

Introduction.

I. ETHERNET: FROM THE LAN TO THE MAN.

II. MPLS: CONTROLLING TRAFFIC OVER YOUR OPTICAL METRO.

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Download - 351 KB -- Chapter 3: Metro Ethernet Services