ns Ecosystem Standardized Services Quality Scalability Service CARRIER ETHERNET Service Management Reliability Figure 7.17 Carrier ethernet attributes. Reproduced from © 2008 Metro Ethernet Forum [24] In the subsequent sub-sections we will look into the different SDOs that are involved in the development of Carrier Ethernet (CE), evolution towards Connection-oriented packet transport, CE technologies, CE Service Types and CE applications. 7.4.2.3.2 Carrier Ethernet Standardization Bodies Most recently there has been a sustained and significant effort in the standardization of features to enhance the fit of Ethernet to carrier networks. Several standard bodies are involved in the development of Carrier Ethernet including IEEE 802 working group, IETF, ITU-T SG15, and MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum): The most instrumental one is MEF which has redefined Ethernet to make it a carrier class technology and is also focused on enabling CE services. The MEF is a combination of a technical and marketing forum to promote the adoption of Metro Ethernet. As of February 2009, the MEF has approved 26 technical specifications. The IEEE 802 working group has developed a number of standards to expand Ethernet beyond the boundaries of LAN. The ITU-T (mostly SG15) takes care of OAM (Operations, Administration and Maintenance) and Ethernet interfaces and it collaborates with the IEEE and the MEF on common and overlapping issues. The IETF (Pwe3 WG) has primarily worked on defining circuit emulation services over Ethernet. 7.4.2.3.3 Connection Oriented Packet Transport As the demand for data services increased, the shortcomings of SONET as a transport mechanism for carrying IP traffic (packet networks) also started to emerge in greater numbers. This led to finding out ways to efficiently fast process IP headers and subsequently to the birth of MPLS. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is not connection-oriented and some of its functions are redundant which can be removed to make it a carrier class solution. This has led to the development o