The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) held its annual members’ meeting in Vancouver, BC on July 19th. In addition to the elections for the Board of Directors there were a number of interesting organizational and procedural changes. In this issue we’ll provide an insightful update on the latest happenings at the MEF.
It’s that time of year again when you get hot just looking outside. But what about outdoor plant equipment installed in cabinets where 180°F temperatures are possible. What’s the real impact of heat on network elements (NEs) and what can you do to ensure that you won’t be called back from vacation early to replace “melted” NEs?
Accedian Networks continues the global expansion of its commercial organization by acquiring $15M of growth equity financing lead by Summit Partners. This equity infusion to our already profitable company will enable us to keep up with demand and continue to grow our world-class customer support organization.
In other news, Craig Easley, Accedian’s VP of Marketing & Product Management has been re-elected to his 8th term on the MEF Board of Directors for 2010/2011.
Also in this issue, Ethernet Wholesale: Network & Operational Challenges – check out our ENNI & MEF Video tutorial on the reasons behind the development of the ENNI standard, a review of the ENNI phase I project scope, and an introduction to the important concepts covered in the MEF 26 technical specification.
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The MEF’s annual members’ meeting is typically the most exciting meeting of the year. This year was no exception as 18 Carrier Ethernet industry experts vied for the 11 seats on the MEF’s Board of Directors. Accedian’s Vice President of Marketing, Craig Easley, was elected to an 8th term, making him the second most tenured member after Nan Chen, the MEF’s founding President.
The MEF leadership also worked through a number of changes to the organization of the marketing committee. In order to better manage the definition and execution of its global marketing strategy, the Board created a Global Marketing organization to lead the Regional Marketing and Marketing Working Groups in the delivery of their respective contributions to the MEF’s marketing activities.
A number of technical and marketing projects made progress at the meeting, but none more visible than a procedural change to the MEF’s Certification Program. Having long been one of the keys to the MEF’s success, the Program was in need of an update to reflect the differing needs of the two groups (Equipment Vendors and Service Providers) who participate in the program. The new Certification Program starts with input from the Marketing Committee rather than relying solely on the Technical Committee to develop an Abstract Test Suite based upon a completed Technical Specification or Implementation Agreement. This will enable new Certifications to be developed drawing from multiple technical documents in order to meet the market needs of those seeking the certification.
At this time of year, during the dog days of summer, we’re all looking to take a vacation from work and to beat the heat. Although most of us will still stay tethered to work one way or another, we’ll be relying on the fact that the networking equipment doesn’t take an “unexpected” vacation while we’re enjoying ours.
Heat and humidity are the two greatest causes of failures in telecommunications equipment. Equipment installed in outdoor plant cabinets can be subjected to extreme heat conditions up to 60°C or a balmy 140°F! In order to avoid a meltdown in the network (literally!), manufacturers typically take steps to build and qualify environmentally hardened products suitable for deployment in harsh outdoor plant conditions.
Deploying low power, environmentally-hardened and self-cooled NIDs for Ethernet service demarcation instead of high power switch routers—that typically require active cooling in order to survive the dog days of summer—is proving to be a popular choice. This is especially the case for mobile backhaul deployments where remote equipment at cramped cell tower locations can mean poor air circulation, higher temperatures and more stress on the mission-critical networking equipment required to keep the air-waves talking.
For a more in-depth discussion on this subject, please refer to the EE Times article Some Like It Cool…
’s commercial efforts and support its continuing global market share expansion, as evidenced by four years of 100%-plus, year-over-year growth and profitability.
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The election, which was held at the quarterly members meeting in Vancouver, Canada marks Easley’s eighth term as a member of the MEF Board. Easley will continue to serve as MEF North America Marketing Co-Chair and as Executive Co-Chair for the Access and Mobile Backhaul Working Groups.
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