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IEEE ComMag Feature Topic on "Next-Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies”


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IEEE Communications Magazine Feature Topic on
"Next-Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies”
Over the last few years, the share of packet-dominated traffic has grown exponentially in networks worldwide. As a result packet-based transport technologies such as MPLS are increasingly deemed to be more efficient for carrying this traffic compared to legacy SDH/SONET technology (and its next-generation incarnations) or the more familiar ATM/FR technology. A majority of this traffic is now either Ethernet or Internet Protocol (IP), so enterprises (and even residential customers) familiar with Ethernet technology have begun demanding a simple, inexpensive and high-speed universal Ethernet service. With the availability of low-cost, high-bandwidth Ethernet beyond the Local Area Network, the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has defined such a service as Carrier Ethernet, and defined it as a ubiquitous, standardized, carrier-class service/application characterized by some key attributes: reliability, hard Quality-of- Service (QoS), service management, and scalability.
These features set it apart from the ubiquitously deployed LAN-based Ethernet and serve as an add-on to switched Ethernet (GigE, and 10GigE variants). There are, however, several options for building the underlying transport infrastructure to deliver such a carrier Ethernet service. These include, for example, using: IP/MPLS technology to deliver point-to-point Ethernet circuits joined together with physical Ethernet bridges/switches; IP/MPLS with Virtual-Private LAN Service (VPLS) or Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service (H-VPLS) (developed at the IETF); Transport-MPLS (T-MPLS) being proposed at the ITU-T, using modified Ethernet technology with Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and Provider-Backbone Transport (PBT) being proposed at the IEEE; using a combination of a modified Ethernet data-plane and a GMPLS-based control-plane with VLAN cross- connect (being proposed by several vendors and under consideration at the IETF) and Circuit Emulation Services (CES) over an Ethernet fabric to provision Pseudo Wires (PWs).
The quest, therefore, is for the most feature rich, and CAPEX/OPEX efficient, packet-based transport infrastructure for next-generation Carrier Ethernet services. Debate and discussion is rife in the industry and the academic/research communities about which technology will provide the best combination of cost, ease of use, OAM features, performance and service management, ability to offer Quality-of- Service (QoS) guarantees, traffic engineering, and resilience, and capability to manage and bill for services running atop the transport infrastructure.
This special issue aims to consolidate and disseminate the latest developments and advances in transport technology options for Carrier Ethernet service. With this objective, the list of topics includes (but will not be limited to) the following:
• Metro Ethernet and Carrier Ethernet evolutions – requirements, services specifications, carrier drivers, customer drivers • Requirements on QoS, traffic engineering, resilience, manageability, OAM, and service scalability for carrier Ethernet transport technologies • IP/MPLS (VPLS, H-VPLS) for carrier Ethernet services – choices, pros, cons, costs/benefits • Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) and Provider Backbone Transport-Traffic Engineered (PBT-TE) as alternatives to IP/MPLS for Ethernet transport – pros, cons, costs/benefits • Transport-MPLS for carrier Ethernet – pros, cons, costs/ benefits • GMPLS-based control of Ethernet networks – changes in the data and control planes • Assessment of the proposed transport solutions in terms of their ability to provide QoS, traffic engineering, resilience, manageability, and so on. • OAM, network management, service management – options, choices, pitfalls, needs, and cost analysis and comparison of solutions. • Solutions that meet the perceived requirements of the community that are alternatives to the ones being proposed in the various standards bodies. • Traffic engineering and dimensioning of carrier Ethernet transport networks • Techniques to ensure QoS, especially with a mix of transport technologies in use • Analysis and studies of resilience and protection approaches utilized by different transport architectures and associated technologies • Studies comparing the different transport technologies along multiple dimensions – deployment cost, day-to-day running cost, features provided, ease of deployment/management, and so on • Comparisons and case-studies from the provider community to highlight why existing technologies do not meet current and evolving provider requirements. • Commentaries from providers who feel existing techniques/ choices meet their requirements or can be easily modified to meet their requirements. • Network operators, vendors, and standards bodies’ perspectives on any of the above. • Implementations, test-beds and field trials related to carrier Ethernet transport technologies 
•           State of current standards

Submission
Articles should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. Articles may be edited for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and will be copyedited according to the Magazine's style. Mathematical equations should not be used (in justified cases up to three simple equations could be allowed, provided there is consent of the Guest Editor; more than three equations require permission from the Editor- in-Chief). Articles should have no more than 4,500 words, no more than 6 tables/figures, and no more than 15 references. Guidelines for prospective authors can be found on-line at http://www.comsoc.org/ pubs/commag/sub_guidelines.html. Please submit no later than 31 July 2007. All articles to be considered for publication must be submitted through IEEE Manuscript Central (http://commag- ieee.manuscriptcentral.com). Please select "March 2008/Next- Generation Carrier Ethernet Transport Technologies" in the drop down menu. Accepted papers will also be included in Communications Interactive (CI), the online version of Communications Magazine. 

Manuscript Due:                        1 August  2007
Acceptance Notification:             1 November 2007
Final Manuscript Due:                1 December 2007
Publication Date:                       March 2008


Guest Editors:
Thomas D. Nadeau, Cisco Systems, Inc., (tnadeau@cisco.com)
Vishal Sharma, Metanoia, Inc. (v.sharma@ieee.org)
Ashwin Gumaste, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (ashwing@ieee.org)