Providing Ethernet Circuit Quality of Service and High Bandwidth Efficiency through Fusion Networking

In this paper we propose the Fusion network as a solution technology that enables the deployment of Ethernet in carrier and mobile-backhaul networks by adding a circuit transport service while maintaining Ethernet’s important property of low-cost highthroughput. We experimentally demonstrate, through a field-trial in the UNINETT carrier network with real production traffic, that the Fusion network enables circuit quality transport on an Ethernet wavelength: low deterministic delay, delay-variation in the range of 15 ns and no packet loss. The high resource utilization is enabled by the insertion of statistically multiplexed (SM) traffic on the same wavelength dedicated to the circuit service; SM traffic is added transparently and without affecting in any way the circuit service. Results show that the resource utilization is increased to an average of 88% by inserting 78.7% additional Ethernet packet-traffic on the production traffic’s wavelength link.