The evolution of Ethernet has seen the migration of Ethernet technology from the Local Area Network (LAN) to Metro Area Networks (MAN) as Service Providers have embraced the Ethernet architecture as a replacement for traditional TDM services. The promise of the Ethernet service offering is the extension of the customer’s Local Area Network (LAN) with greater flexibility and simplified management in a cost-effective solution.

The flexibility of Ethernet service offerings is requiring a new approach to service assurance that addresses all aspects of the Ethernet life cycle. Those responsible for delivering Ethernet service offerings must to deploy a cost effective infrastructure to allow your organization to effectively provide:

• Service validation: Turn it up right ... the first time
• Identify problem areas: Reduce repeats, chronics and SLA violations
• Rapid Trouble Resolution: Dispatch to fix not find

Ethernet architectures enable the service provider to offer, for instance, bandwidth in incremental steps. Attractive to customers, this allows end users to pay for what they use. When their needs change, it's normally a quick and simple change to provision more bandwidth remotely. While a simple process in isolation, scaling these transactions across a large enterprise with hundreds of network elements and thousands of end points is creating new challenges for service providers and their operation organizations.

For those creating and delivering the highly complex networks of today and tomorrow, the challenges have never been greater. Any operational service assurance strategy must provide the means to efficiently provide a high quality service, fix problems faster, and ensure that promises to your customer are kept.