ETX-201A Carrier Ethernet Demarcation Device
Carrier Ethernet demarcation device delivering business services over fiber infrastructure
MEF certified, supporting Ethernet Private Line (EPL) and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) services with flexible mapping of the user
traffic into Ethernet flows
Robust bandwidth control mechanism and Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring per Ethernet flow starting at customer premises
Complete Ethernet OAM solution based on IEEE 802.3-2005 (formerly 802.3ah), IEEE 802.1ag, and ITU-T Y.1731 for Opex reductions
Network link protection based on 802.3ad or dual homing for increased service
resiliency
ETX-201A is a carrier Ethernet demarcation device owned and operated by the service provider and installed at the
customer premises. The ETX-201A is part of RADs EtherAccessฎ portfolio and features Carrier Ethernet attributes,
including Ethernet OAM for proactive SLA monitoring, quality of service (QoS) per
Ethernet flow, advanced traffic management capabilities, and powerful bandwidth profiles for differentiated
services all starting at the service handoff points.
ETX-201A is equipped with two Ethernet network ports (copper or SFP-based interfaces), supporting link protection
based on 802.3ad or dual homing for increased service resiliency. The four Ethernet subscriber ports use copper or
SFP-based interfaces. The SFP-based Ethernet ports accommodate a wide range of Fast
Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet SFP transceivers, allowing service providers to
seamlessly connect customers located at different distances from the ETX-201A.
RAD ETX-201A FLEXIBLE TRAFFIC MAPPING
Traffic is mapped to the Ethernet flows (EVC.COS) using very flexible classification
criteria that can be combined, for example:
Port-based (all-to-one bundling)
VLAN + VLAN priority
VLAN + IP precedence
VLAN + DSCP
Ether Type
Untagged.
More classification criteria and combinations can be found in the user manual.
HIERARCHICAL SCHEDULING AND SHAPING PER FLOW WITH ETX-201A
Every flow has its own queues and scheduler. ETX-201A supports up to 130 services, and a total of 30 queue
blocks per network port. Each queue block is a group of eight queues per CoS. Each
flow can be bound to each queue block.
QOS with ETX-201A
Different service types require different levels of QoS to be provided end-to-end.
QoS can be defined per subscriber as well as per service. QoS has three aspects: rate
limitation, traffic shaping, and traffic prioritization. Traffic policing is applied per flow or group
of flows, and operates according to the dual token bucket mechanism based on user-configurable CIR + CBS and EIR +
EBS. Traffic can be limited to the line rate or the data rate. For prioritizing user traffic, ETX-201A
maps user traffic to eight separate queues. Each can be configured as strict priority queues or weighted fair queues
(WFQ). The queues handle traffic with different service demands, such as real-time traffic, premium data, or
best-effort data. The device uses the WRED policy to ensure that queues are not congested and
high-priority traffic is not dropped.
ETHERNET OAM
Ethernet OAM is one of the important tools that has upgraded Ethernet technology to carrier Ethernet class.
It enables providers to deliver packet-switched networks. ETX-201A implements the full suite of Ethernet OAM
standards, which can be monitored by performance monitoring systems such as RADview or a third-party tool.
The device provides these types of Ethernet OAM:
Single segment (link) OAM according to IEEE 802.3-2005 (formerly 802.3ah) for remote management and fault
indication, including remote loopback, dying gasp, and MIB parameter retrieval.
End-to-end connectivity OAM based on IEEE 802.1ag that enables Ethernet service providers to monitor their
services proactively and guarantee that customers receive the contracted SLA
End-to-end service and performance monitoring based on ITU-T Y.1731. Fault monitoring and end-to-end
performance measurement include frame delay, frame delay variation, frame loss and availability.
NETWORK INTERFACE REDUNDANCY
Two redundancy modes can be applied:
Link aggregation (LAG) based on 802.3ad
Dual homing (1:1), allowing ETX-201A to be connected to two different upstream devices.
TYPICAL APPLICATIONS FOR THE RAD ETX-201A
ETX-201A is used in the following MEF-defined applications:
Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) Site-to-site connectivity over shared
bandwidth with service multiplexing (see Figure 1)
Ethernet Private Line (EPL) Site-to-site connectivity over dedicated bandwidth without service
multiplexing (see Figure 2).
LAYER-2/ LAYER-3 LOOPBACK WITH MAC AND IP ADDRESS SWAPPING
Layer-2 and/or layer-3 network integrity can be tested by a non-disruptive loopback performed per flow, with
swapping of MAC address and optionally IP address. When the loopback is activated, ETX-201A exchanges the source
and destination MAC/IP addresses of the incoming packets. This loopback passes through Ethernet bridges (MAC address)
and routers (IP address).
L2CP HANDLING
ETX-201A can be configured to pass through Layer-2 control frames (including other vendors L2CP frames) across the
network, to peer-supported protocols (802.3ah), or to discard the L2CP frames. seamlessly connect customers located at
different distances from the device.
FAULT PROPAGATION
The ETX-201A provides a user-configurable fault propagation mechanism. When a link
failure is detected at the network port, ETX-201A optionally shuts down a user port until the network link is restored. The
fault propagation mechanism enables routers and switches connected to both ends of the link to reroute the traffic to
the redundancy path.
ETX-201A DYING GASP
Units equipped with a single AC power supply report power failures to defined network management stations by sending
traps, thus enabling the unit to properly disconnect from the network.
MANAGEMENT OF THE RAD ETX-201A
The unit can be managed using the following ports and applications:
Local management via an ASCII terminal connected to the RS-232 port
Remote inband management via user or network ports routed via separate VLANs, Telnet, or RADview, RADs
SNMP-based management system
Out-of-band management via a dedicated management port.
RAD ETX-201A COMMAND LINE INTERFACE
Databases and scripts of commonly used commands can be easily created and applied to multiple units using command
line interface.
SECURITY
The following security protocols are provided by ETX-201A to ensure client server communication privacy and correct
user authentication:
SNMPv3
RADIUS (client authentication only)
SSH for Secure Shell communication session.
DHCP
IP address, IP mask, and default gateway can be automatically obtained using DHCP.
JUMBO FRAMES AND EGRESS MTU
The ETX-201A supports large frames of up to 12 Kbytes. The egress MTU can be defined
per port (UNI/NNI).
Key points of the ETX-201A:
Carrier Ethernet demarcation device delivering business services over fiber
infrastructure
MEF certified, supporting Ethernet Private Line (EPL) and Ethernet Virtual
Private Line (EVPL) services with flexible mapping of the user traffic into
Ethernet flows
Robust bandwidth control mechanism and Service Level Agreement (SLA)
monitoring per Ethernet flow starting at customer premises
Complete Ethernet OAM solution based on IEEE 802.3-2005 (formerly 802.3ah),
IEEE 802.1ag, and ITU-T Y.1731 for Opex reductions
Network link protection based on 802.3ad or dual homing for increased service
resiliency
RAD ETX-201 product data sheet (pdf)
