Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) recently reached an important milestone when the IEEE 802.3ah specification was unanimously approved as an IEEE standard by the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board.
“The completion of the IEEE 802.3ah EFM standard significantly expands the range and reach of Ethernet transport for use in the metro and access networks,” says Craig Easley, president of the Ethernet in the First Mile Alliance (EFMA) and director of the service provider marketing at Extreme Networks. “This new standard gives service providers a variety of flexible and cost-effective solutions for delivering broadband Ethernet services in access and metro networks. Service providers can now focus on providing critical services to their market without worrying about interoperability conflicts,” he says.
The Ethernet in the First Mile effort, which has been undertaken by more than 100 companies, specifies new interface types for Ethernet over fiber-optic and copper media along with new OAM mechanisms for managing Ethernet subscriber networks.
The ratification of the IEEE 802.3ah standard came in conjunction with the first ever interoperability demonstration of EFM technologies by EFMA member companies at SUPERCOMM 2004 in Chicago. Members including Actelis Networks, Agilent Technologies, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Hatteras Networks, Infineon and Passav Networks participated in the demonstration of this new technology for the broadband access network. The interoperability demonstrations were verified by Iometrix, which has developed a suite of compliance and interoperability tests for EFM technology.
Showcasing Ethernet in the First Mile
The EFMA demo showcased technologies from the four EFM sub-task areas, including:
- Point-to-point copper
- Point-to-point fiber
- Point-to-multipoint fiber (EPON)
- Operation, administration and maintenance (OAM)
