Metro Ethernet services using Ethernet technology deliver cost-effective, high-speed connectivity for metropolitan-area network (MAN) and wide-area network (WAN) applications. This simple, easy-to-use technology appeals to customers that are already using Ethernet throughout their local-area networks (LANs). Metro Ethernet services provide scalable bandwidth in flexible increments with simplified management and faster, lower-cost provisioning. They are often used by companies wanting to link multiple offices around a metropolitan area or to connect data centers for backup or disaster recovery purposes but without the configuration and management requirements of other WAN alternatives. Different service offerings provide customer network interfaces at Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet speeds (10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps, respectively), at various Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) levels (OC-3, for example), or directly from wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) equipment.


Fiber-optic networking has several significant advantages over traditional wired and wireless networks: Optical signals can travel much farther than electrical signals, are more secure, are resistant to electromagnetic interference, and have the potential to provide bandwidth in the terabits-per-second range (1000 Gbps).

Customer LANs connect through service access points in office buildings, campuses, and curbsides. Increasingly, LANs are local in name only because a LAN can connect many sites through high-speed services in the public network. For enterprises, the primary concern is the availability of affordable high-speed services that satisfy their overall communications requirements.


Mobile wireless services blend traditional radio infrastructures with modern IP backbone networks to bring new services and convenience to mobile users. Two examples of such services are access to the Internet and other data services from cellular handsets and similar devices, and wireless remote access to corporate LANs.


Storage services can provide secure, 24-hour storage of critical data while helping to ensure the access and availability to support business productivity, communications, and transactions. Storage services can include assessment of an organization’s entire infrastructure to accommodate multiple operating systems and platforms, as well as planning for migration, maintenance, and disaster recovery. Regulatory pressures to maintain data and data privacy are important factors in evaluating the applicability of these kinds of services for your business.


Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer companies with multiple locations a means to interconnect branch and remote offices to the information technology resources at the main office. Traditional Layer 2 VPN-type services may be constructed using Frame Relay or ATM technologies, but cost and administrative difficulties are diminishing their adoption compared to IP VPNs, which are effectively operating at Layer 3. An IP VPN service offers the security and policy management of a network built from leased lines but over a shared, lower-cost environment (often the Internet). Some IP VPN services are intended primarily for data use, and others (identified by the IP multiservice VPN designation) are specifically designed to carry voice or video traffic simultaneously along with conventional IP data traffic. These services are thus an ideal solution for integrating voice and data traffic to improve productivity at branch offices.


Managed security services are network-wide management and monitoring services for security devices such as firewalls, IDSs, and VPN equipment that are offered in addition to other network services. Bandwidth optimization and traffic-filtering mechanisms are included, such as committed access rate (CAR) and anti-IP address spoofing (RFC 2827) to protect enterprise customer networks from malicious traffic and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Services such as incident notification service (which addresses breaches of network security and malicious or abnormal network activities) are typical. Service providers with managed security services can help ensure that businesses’ networks are safe and reliable for e-business.


IP communications services are voice, video, data, facsimile, and voice messaging applications that are transported via the public Internet or other IP-based networks. These services may be offered by traditional telephony service providers or by specialist telephony application service providers that provide telecommunication services as hosted applications. The services, which may be accessed from a specially equipped PC, a normal telephone set, or an IP phone, include basic telephone calling and value-added services such as Internet calling, second-line voice, unified communications, IP contact center, IP teleconferencing, IP videoconferencing, IP Centrex, voice-enabled Websites, and more. The services may be sold to users directly or through reseller channels.


Content services, sometimes called content delivery networks, offer features similar to Web hosting, with an emphasis on high volumes, fast response times, and customized content. Providers of content services intelligently distribute content to multiple locations, often near the edges of the network, and route queries to the location best positioned to respond. They also perform load balancing between servers based not only on traffic loads but also on content, cookies, etc.

• Does the service provider track and monitor the end-to-end network?
• Can the provider secure its own network traffic and manage priority traffic across other networks?
• What are minimum thresholds for network latency and availability?
• How do they measure network performance?
• Do they have standard procedures for threat escalation, load rebalancing, network security assessments, and regular data backups?
• Can its data center support your requirements for physical and network security, capacity, availability, operations, and backbone connectivity?
• How quickly will they be able to respond as your business grows or changes?
• What are the terms if the network goes down or the level of agreed-upon service is not maintained?