Managed Wholesale Carrier Service
EtherReach™ is available as a managed solution. Exponential-e's wholesale Carrier portfolio - EtherReachTM is available as a managed service with real-time diagnostics and NOC-NOC direct support offered on each circuit. This gives our wholesale carrier customers the advantage of self-sufficiency in being able to diagnose faults as they occur. Customers of our managed EtherReachTM portfolio benefit from pro-active alerts including statistics about the circuit and its status. An SNMP feed and Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT), via our network operation centre, are all available along with troubleshooting OA & M capabilities. These features will be available via an online customer portal including an option to integrate trap feed information directly into your OSS later this year.
Just imagine how you could improve the service you give your customers if you had access to a point-to-point circuit with full management features including BERT and an SNMP feed. Our managed service gives you peace of mind and the ability to offer a step-change improvement in the service you can give your end customers. Our NOC and management system constantly monitor these circuits using the enhanced link layer management capabilities that 802.3AH-compliance gives to us. We run RFC 2544 tests on all circuits to check for throughput and performance. We carry out fault isolation and testing, for example, of cable loops and duplex problems before they affect your da-to-day operations. Our Ethernet Demarcation Device (EDD) gives us full visibility of any hardware failure.
Our state-of-the-art EDDs are used to constantly monitor service quality, allowing us to quickly and easily isolate performance issues. 802.3AH compliant link-layer management is a fundamental component of the EDD, offering status monitoring; port and VLAN loopbacks to perform Bit-error rate tests, remote cable integrity checks, per VLAN bandwidth management; multiple QoS classifications and even QinQ VLAN stacking.
These points are looked at in more detail below:
1. Real-time fault isolation & testing in conjunction with our NOC
Faults are identified proactively and the customer/partner is notified of it accordingly. If it is an unexpected fault, diagnostic checks are carried out rapidly on the EDD, the access circuits, and the core network to isolate the fault. If the fault is found to be on the access circuits, it gets referred to our service partner and the NOC liaises with our service partner towards a speedy resolution. Internal escalation paths are clearly defined so SLA can be enforced strictly. If the customer needs any assistance the NOC team is available to assist 24x7
2. RFC 2544 tests 802.3AH link layer management
It’s ensured that all access circuits comply with RFC 2544 standards as a part of service delivery. This maintains the link layer capabilities of all Exponential-e services as pure layer 2 services, besides ensuring that the service will provide sufficient MTU and bandwidth when commissioned.
3. Loop-backs for end to end testing initiated by your NOC with assistance from our NOC
Using the EDDs, our NOC can initiate a layer 2 loopback either facing the customer (terminal) or facing the far end (facility). The loopbacks may then be used to run additional diagnostics either by the customer or ourselves, including RFC2544 tests if required. The loopback may be initiated on a per port basis or a per VLAN basis.
4. Change interface, duplex and speed settings in real time
Our NOC have remote management to the EDDs at all times. If the speed, duplex or auto-negotiation settings need changing, this can be done quickly. It is useful to match the settings to the customers equipment in order to clear a possible mismatch and avoid the resulting packet-loss. All changes are documented.
5. Proactive notification of power failure
The EDDs have the capability to send a notification of a power failure. This is monitored by our NOC continuously and the customer is notified of a possible issue at a remote site proactively.
6. Network polling for throughput; packet-loss and sequence control
A web portal can be provided to the customer to monitor the usage of bandwidth on their service in both directions. There are several options in the portal which show the graphs of bandwidth usage for the past 24 hours, 7 days, 1 month, 1 year. The customer can use this to monitor any possible bottlenecks and for planning their infrastructure upgrades.
Customer portal launching soon
We will extend our managed service in the near future with the launch of an online customer portal. This will mean that, for the first time, your NOC can have a live management feed showing the status of circuits provided by a network operator. We will be able to offer you, the carrier, your own trap feeds from our management devices sitting on your circuits and integrate them directly into your OSS systems, so you get to see what we get to see in our own SNMP management system at the same time as do we.
So before you buy, check whether your operations people might benefit from this management option on the circuit. You'll pay slightly more for this (although we think you'll still find it highly competitive). Our management option will accrue you cost savings and better up-time, which will definitely balance out the slightly higher price. The management option might just make the day for your operations team.
