(Cisco, 2009) It is reported by Nortel that it has been indicated by 86% of service providers that there is a high demand for Ethernet services today. The result is that carriers are seeking to fulfill the demand through "upgrading their metro networks to deliver cost-effective Ethernet-based services to their customers." (2009) MPLS is stated to have been invented for the express purpose of "...of solving the problem of bridging multiple disparate protocols such as Frame Reality, ATM and Ethernet." (Nortel, 2009)

MPLS is stated to have "...Over the last few years,...become a widely used packet technology in core networks and has become a common inter-networking technology. " (Nortel, 2009) However, there are key limitations of MPLS 'as it applies to the metro area and specifically issues identified are those connected with "..network complexity, scalability and performance arise when MPLS is applied to the sheer number of network elements required in a metro scenario. With new Ethernet technologies such as Nortel's PBT, Ethernet can be more intelligent and predictable for the metro area networks currently envisioned." (Nortel, 2009)

It is reported that in a Nortel study for a North American service provider interested in delivering Ethernet business services to a medium-sized city that Nortel compared three other vendor's MPLS solutions to its PBT solution and states findings that PBT "...delivered 43 to 82% CAPEX savings as compared to the other solutions in the metro. " (Nortel, 2009) Nortel is stated to have additionally found as follows: (1) Performance monitoring was a challenge with MPLS; (2) Additionally, costly new challenges arose such as: control plane complexity, more CAPEX and OPEX costs, and an MPLS learning curve for carrier operations personnel; (3) With MPLS, a variety of protocols (for traffic engineering and resiliency) must be supported, and must be ubiquitous throughout the metro network, adding to the control plane burden; and (4) The service provider's network operators must learn and understand these protocols, adding to the operations burden. (Nortel, 2009)

The network scales services were stated to have been "more resilient" with PBT and to have furthermore made offering of "more efficient traffic engineering and performed better as it was based on standard interfaces such as ITU Y.1731 and IEEE 802.1ag. These standards represent a major milestone for Ethernet technology because now, for the first time, standardized mechanisms exist to enable critical fault management as well as important performance...

These tools allow operators to pin-point where and why faults have occurred in the network so they can work quickly to a resolution and to offer differentiated services to customers. PBT is disrupting the industry. MPLS was the only option until this technology was introduced." (Nortel, 2009)
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