Date

Topic

Speakers

Recording

SD-WAN Managed Services: Terminology, Use Cases, Challenges and MEF Work

SD-WANs have become very popular because they solve current business challenges while leveraging new SDN, NFV, orchestration and cloud technologies. Enterprises have been building SD-WANs for several years but prefer to have a service provider manage the service for them rather than build and operate it themselves. Service providers are challenged to quickly introduce new SD-WAN managed services due to the lack of standardization of service definitions and architectures. Today, SD-WANs come in all types and flavors. In this webinar, you will learn about the MEF's SD-WAN standardization work and different use cases from the perspective of two SD-WAN managed service providers (MSPs) with different delivery models. The webinar will discuss the market drivers and business benefits for SD-WAN managed services and how MEF standardization of SD-WAN services using the LSO reference architecture could address current operational challenges to accelerate service delivery.

Speakers:
Stan Hubbard
Director of Communications & Research, MEF (moderator)

Peter Agnew
Director, Network Service Design, Colt

Ralph Santitoro
MEF Distinguished Fellow and Head of SDN/NFV Solutions Practice, Fujitsu Network Communications

Play Recording

Puntos de Interconexión Ethernet: Construyendo el Camino a los Servicios de la Tercera Red

Carrier Ethernet es el combustible para la economía digital global y la base sobre la cual se construye nuevos servicios dinámicos, seguros y orquestados para el mundo hiper_conectado. Pero la falta de estandarización para interconectar proveedores y operadores de servicios Ethernet es un obstáculo para el crecimiento y la eficiencia del mercado. Actualmente, la mayoría de las interconexiones Ethernet son interconexiones de red a red (NNI) no estándar y personalizadas, lo que impide escalar el mercado. Más de una docena de proveedores de servicios y proveedores de tecnología miembros del MEF han participado en el proyecto MEF para crear Puntos de Interconexión Ethernet (Ethernet Interconnect Points o EIP) aprovechando los estándares existentes para interconexión CE. La primera fase del proyecto EIP involucró la creación de una Directriz de Implementación de Punto de Interconexión Ethernet que recomienda cómo usar las Interfaces Estándar de Red a Red (ENNIs) de forma eficaz. Esta guía inicial se enfoca en la configuración de servicios de acceso Ethernet (E-Access) de una manera simple, y las nuevas directrices avanzarán en complejidad con en el tiempo. Las directrices ayudarán a la industria a escalar rápidamente y reducir complejidad.

Este webinar explorará dónde se dirige el mercado, las expectativas técnicas, los obstáculos operacionales que pueden surgir y la necesidad de que los operadores gestionen eficazmente la transición a medida que el mercado avanza hacia la estandarización. Este seminario apunta a aquellos proveedores de servicios que compran servicios de Ethernet mayoristas de operadorese interconectan sus redes para crear servicios CE minoristas de extremo a extremo pasando por múltiples redes. También se compartirá informaciones que pueden ser importantes para la toma de decisiones mientras desarrolla su estrategia de cómo sacar total provecho de interconexiones Ethernet estandarizadas.

Speaker:
Emerson Moura
Distinguished Systems Engineer, Cisco & MEF CALA Marketing Co-chair

Play Recording

Winning Strategies for Preparing MEF 2017 Award Submissions

The MEF 2017 Awards program is open for entries until 13 September 2017. This prestigious program recognizes excellence in the Third Network and Carrier Ethernet community that creates innovative solutions optimized for the digital economy and hyper-connected world.

This year’s program includes 40 awards in enterprise applications, services, proof of concept demonstration, technology, and professional categories.

This webinar that will help you identify the award categories in which your company excels. We will cover:

• MEF award categories and important dates
• How to use the awards submissions portal
• Tips for writing concise, compelling submissions

This is an excellent opportunity to have all of your questions answered and will help you to get one step closer to being an award winner.

Speakers:
Stan Hubbard
MEF17 Program Director, MEF

Rosemary Cochran
Principal and Co-founder, Vertical Systems Group

Play Recording

Adopting MEF’s SAT Power Play for Improved Testing Efficiency

Service Activation Testing (SAT) plays an important role in MEF’s Third Network vision of delivering agile, assured, and orchestrated connectivity services. MEF 48 (SAT), MEF 46 (Latching Loopback) and MEF 49 (SAT Control Protocol and PDU Formats) specifications make up a framework for standardized testing and troubleshooting of Carrier Ethernet-based services for service providers. Collectively these specifications are known as the MEF SAT Power Play. These specifications can be used all together or individually to comprehensively test Carrier Ethernet-based services.

The webinar will discuss the important relationship between MEF’s SAT specifications and the work of other standards developing organizations (SDOs), such as IETF RFC 2544 and ITU-T Y.1564. Discover the many benefits of MEF’s SAT Power Play including improved testing efficiency for retail and wholesale Ethernet service deployments, boosting customer satisfaction by reducing the number of faulty turn ups, and accelerating the interconnection process between peer operators.

Speakers:
Bruno Giguère, Director Product Marketing, MEF

Eric Leser
Director of Service Level Management, Spectrum Enterprise

Mike Bencheck
Fellow, Siama Systems, Inc.

Play Recording

Understanding CE 2.0 Service Assurance - Can It Generate Revenue?

Service assurance encompasses the procedures used to monitor a network service and maintain a particular service quality. Learn how MEF has tackled this topic to enable Service Providers to deliver high-value Carrier Ethernet (CE) services that are fully assured and can deliver the service quality required in today’s competitive business service and carrier-to-carrier markets. This webinar begins with the key business drivers, CE 2.0's performance attributes and best practices for measuring CE 2.0 service performance. With multiple transport technologies, legacy tools, proprietary instrumentation, interoperability challenges as well as other related service assurance standards, these factors conspire making it difficult to understand and leverage best practices. CE 2.0 product owners, network engineering and OSS engineering will benefit from this webinar by better understanding the potential return on investment to be gained from adopting these best practice. Attendees will also learn how to simplify management, accelerate delivery and turn-up of existing services, and new service launches.

Moderator:
Bruno Giguère, Director Product Marketing, MEF

Christopher Cullan
Dir. Product Marketing, InfoVista

Eric Leser
Director of Service Level Management, Spectrum Enterprise

Play Recording

Considerations for Deploying Virtual Network Functions and Services

This webinar discusses considerations for implementing NFV to add new virtual network functions and virtual network services onto foundational Carrier Ethernet (CE) connectivity services. The webinar discusses terminology and use cases for different deployment models for virtual network functions at the customer premises or within the service provider’s data center or central office. The webinar also discusses different business and operational considerations when deploying NFV using Network Interface Devices (NIDs) and vCPE at the customer premises for different network functions and services.

Moderator:
Bruno Giguère, Director Product Marketing, MEF

Diego Lopez
Chair of ETSI NFV ISG, Co-chair of IRTF's NFVRG, and Sr. Technology Expert at Telefonica I+D

Ralph Santitoro
MEF Distinguished Fellow and Head of SDN/NFV Solutions Practice, Fujitsu Network Communications

Mike Sapien
Principal Analyst at Ovum

Play Recording

LSO Innovation Platform Technical Overview & User Guidance

This webinar will provide a technical explanation of the LSO Innovation Platform, its capabilities and how it can be used to develop micro-services. Attendees will receive detailed, hands-on instructions on how to implement micro-services on the LSO Innovation Platform including examples of the user interface and functionality.

Moderator:
Bruno Giguère, Director Product Marketing, MEF

Yaakov Berkovitch
Senior Architect, ECI Telecom

Play Recording

LSO Innovations Platform for Rapidly Introducing New Network Functionality

MEF's LSO Innovation Platform is a valuable tool for technology providers to develop and test both service orchestration functionality and business applications incrementally. Traditionally, service orchestration and business applications have been the domain of monolithic OSS/BSS systems that precluded the rapid introduction of new functionality. MEF's LSO Innovation Platform upends that approach and enables any best-of-breed analytics, assurance, control, fulfillment, performance, policy, security and usage functionality to be rapidly introduced into service provider environments. This webinar will provide a business-oriented view of the LSO Innovation Platform and explain its importance to service providers and technology providers in the telecom and cloud services market.

Speakers:

Daniel Bar-Lev
Director of Strategic Programs, MEF

Sarit Tager
VP of R&D, SDN, LSO, Apps, ECI Telecom

Play Recording

Achieving Optimal Performance Through Smart Mobile Backhaul Network Design

To meet the increase in mobile devices and the demand for more bandwidth, as well as high quality of service (QoS) and experience (QoE) for users, operators are deploying new types of infrastructure and technologies, such as Small Cells, carrier-grade Wi-Fi, distributed antenna systems (DAS), and remote radio heads (RHH), among others.

These new technologies impose different requirements on the backhaul network in order to achieve better user experience. Therefore, operators must have a clear strategy to improve their current mobile backhaul networks. Mobile backhaul network design may determine the capacity and performance of the mobile network.

This webinar covers current and future work of MEF with regard to mobile backhaul for LTE/ LTE- Advance Small Cells, including:

• Optimizing your network for LTE Advance Small Cell backhaul 
• Assessing the impact of Small Cells’ synchronization and coordination on the backhaul
• Outlining requirements for synchronization and latency, site-to-site communication
• Best practices in LTE-Advance and Small Cell backhaul transition

Moderator:
Bruno Giguère, Director Product Marketing, MEF

Speakers:
Julius Robson, Chairman Backhaul SIG & Member Release Steering Committee, Small Cell Forum

Glenn Parsons, Editor MEF 22.2, Standards Advisor, Ericsson

Rami Yaron, MEF Global Marketing Co-chair, VP of Strategy & Business Development, Telco Systems

Play Recording

Business Benefits of Becoming a MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional
This webinar will present findings from the first independent study to measure the value of MEF’s Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional (MEF-CECP) certification program. Conducted by Vertical Systems Group, the research study was focused on gaining objective input directly from MEF-CECPs to analyze if and how certification actually impacts job performance, career advancement and company success in the Carrier Ethernet (CE) market.

The research study is based on responses from 330 MEF-CECPs from 38 countries worldwide who work for service providers, equipment vendors, software suppliers and other firms. Highlights of the findings include an effectiveness rating of 9 out of 10 for improvements in the typical CE sales process and even higher on order processing flow improvements.

In this webinar, two leading service providers with more than 450 MEF-CECPs in their organizations (Level 3 Communications & Charter Communications) will provide testimonials on the value of MEF-CECP certification and share the business benefits that can be reaped by having a highly skilled CE-focused professional work force.

Erin Dunne - Director of Research, Vertical Systems Group

John Morgan - Sr. Director, Global Sales Training & Performance, Level 3 Communications

Tammy Famularo - Sr. Network Sales Engineer, Charter Communications

Craig Easley - President, Carrier Ethernet Academy

Play Recording

MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0: The Foundation to Agile, Assure &amp Orchestrated Third Network Services
This webinar for the CALA region will be presented in Spanish with supporting slides in English.

A significant transformation is taking place in data communications networks that is accelerating the ability to deliver on-demand services with unprecedented user control over interconnected networks. MEF refers to this transformation and the underlying network that deliver these services as the “Third Network.” The Third Network combines the on-demand agility and ubiquity of the Internet with the performance and security assurances of Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0.

As the global defining standards development body for Carrier Ethernet for the past 15 years, MEF has accelerated the growth and adoption of CE services through its specifications, service definitions and information models that are agnostic to the underlying transport technology used to deliver them. MEF offers certification programs for CE services, network equipment and individuals.

Lifecycle service orchestration (LSO) is a key enabler to deliver Network as a Service as defined in MEF’s Third Network vision. The objective of the Third Network is to provide an on-demand cloud-centric experience with unprecedented levels of user control over the network’s capabilities. Such capabilities are orchestrated between physical and virtual service endpoints across multiple networks and technology domains.

This webinar will cover the work of the MEF that delivers on the Third Network vision and defines the complete service lifecycle requirements to deliver Network as a Service from ordering through service activation including supporting APIs.

Moderator:
Andres Madero - Director, Service Provider Architecture & BD, Infinera

Speakers:
Emerson Moura - Distinguished Systems Engineer, Cisco & MEF CALA Marketing Co-chair

Andres Ramos Acosta, Product Portfolio Manager, Internexa & MEF CALA Marketing Co-chair

Play Recording

Ethernet Interconnect Points – Paving the Way to Third Network Services
The connectivity services market has entered an “Era of Ethernet,” with a fundamental shift from TDM to Ethernet services. However, a lack of standardization for Service Providers and Operators interconnecting is hindering market growth to build dynamic services for the hyper-connected world. Several MEF-member Service Providers and Equipment Vendors have completed the first phase of a unique industry project to leverage existing MEF standards for Carrier Ethernet interconnections through its Ethernet Interconnect Points (EIP) project.

Through the EIP project, MEF is developing Ethernet Interconnect Point Implementation Guidelines that recommend how to effectively use standardized Ethernet Network to Network interfaces (ENNI). The initial guidelines focus on the most basic Ethernet E-Access configuration possible and will advance in complexity over time. The guidelines will help the industry rapidly scale and reduce complexity.

This webinar will explore key areas such as current market assessment, where the market is heading, technical expectations, operational obstacles that may be encountered, and the need for Operators to effectively manage the transition as the market moves to standardization. Service Providers who buy wholesale Ethernet services from Operators and interconnect their networks to create multi-network end-to-end retail Carrier Ethernet services should attend this webinar to be better informed to make decisions on their journey towards leveraging standardized interconnections.

Stan Hubbard, Director of Communications & Research, MEF Dan Blemings, Director of Ethernet Product Management, AT&T Tim Sheehan, Technical Manager, University of NH Interoperability Lab Jeff Brown, Director of Marketing & Product Management, Windstream

Play Recording

New Dynamic & Assured Third Network Services Powered By LSO
The Carrier Ethernet market is evolving from static connectivity services toward dynamic network services that provide an on-demand, assured, and secure experience with user-directed control over network resources and cloud connectivity. To assess the impact of this transition, the MEF recently worked with Vertical Systems Group on a new study, Dynamic ‘Third Network’ Connectivity Services Enabled By LSO, SDN & NFV, that involved a global survey of service providers, technology vendors, and other industry professionals.

This webinar covers key findings from the survey and also includes additional insight gained from real-world service provider experiences in offering dynamic network services. Among other things, we explore:

• How and when revenue-generating dynamic services will impact the market
• The drivers, benefits, and challenges of deploying dynamic services
• Available & planned dynamic capabilities that customers can control on their own networks, and
• The role and relative importance that LSO, SDN & NFV will play alongside CE 2.0 in driving the market forward.

Moderator: Stan Hubbard, Director of Communications & Research, MEF

Guest Speakers:
Rosemary Cochran, Principal, Vertical Systems Group

Adam Saenger, Vice President - Global Product Management & Development, Level 3 Communications

Global Market for Small Ethernet Access Operators – MEF Services Interconnect
The MEF Services Interconnect program is designed for Carrier Ethernet access Operators with annual revenues of up to US$50M that are, or plan to, sell E-Access and/or E-Transit services to Service Providers building retail Carrier Ethernet services.

Listen to this MEF Webinar for an overview of this valuable program and how it can enable your company to:

• Raise its profile in the Carrier Ethernet industry
• Gain insight into the latest MEF wholesale services activities
• Achieve CE 2.0 certification

Service Activation Testing (SAT) Power Play
Building upon its services standardization and certification work, MEF has recently ratified an innovative suite of Service Activation Testing (SAT) technical specifications, enabling operators to quickly deploy and test CE 2.0 services globally.

The MEF Service Activation Testing Power Play provides a comprehensive set of management tools and standard test suites to automatically verify the performance and conformance of CE 2.0 services during service turn up and activation.

This webinar demystifies Service Activation Testing, describing how MEF-based SAT can improve customer satisfaction, by reducing the number of faulty turn ups, and accelerating the interconnection process between peer operators. It reveals the benefits for retail and wholesale Ethernet service deployments and analyze use cases where Service Providers are successfully improving their operations effectiveness, using CE 2.0 Service Activation Testing (MEF 48).

Mastering the Paradigm Shift - New Professional Certification from the MEF
Today and in the future, Carrier Ethernet (CE) 2.0 will support the automated provisioning of dynamic cloud-based services through NFV and SDN as outlined in MEF’s Third Network vision and Lifecycle Service Orchestration strategy. The MEF’s Professional Certification Program is evolving to keep pace with these rapid developments in our industry.

This webinar covered two key topics. It introduced the new MEF C3 Professional Certification program and covered the terminology and concepts of Service Architecture, Connectivity Services, Lifecycle Frameworks and Lifecycle Orchestration. In addition, it revealed why it is critical to fully understand how to deploy those CE service attributes necessary to support agile cloud services, which are covered in the current MEF-CECP exam.

Moderator:
Bruno Giguère,
Director, Product Marketing, MEF

Mark Fishburn,
Tech 2000

Lance Hassan,
Principal Engineer, Time Warner Cable

Differentiating Your Wholesale Ethernet Services in a Changing Market
A growing number of service providers worldwide are offering Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) certified services to retail customers and are seeking to buy CE 2.0 E-Access services from wholesale partners in order to deliver robust end-to-end solutions. CE 2.0 certified services represent the gold standard when it comes to assured, high-performance connectivity. Thus, wholesale service providers who provide CE 2.0 services are better able to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. CE 2.0 services also are the critical foundation for service innovation as the industry transitions towards more dynamic Third Network connectivity services enabled by LSO, SDN, and NFV.

This webinar covered:

• The latest research and trends on the growing wholesale CE 2.0 Ethernet services market
• How CE 2.0 E-Access certification (and in the future E-Transit certification) is becoming more important in the RFP process
• MEF’s new Services Interconnect (MEF-SI) program that is enabling small wholesale access Operators worldwide to increase their revenue and market share.

Moderator:
Stan Hubbard, Director of Communications & Research, MEF

Speakers:
Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services, Vertical Systems Group

Bob Mandeville, President, Iometrix

Matthew Duckworth, Marketing Director, Verizon

MEF Lifecycle Service Orchestration – Enabling Third Network Services
Lifecycle service orchestration (LSO) is a key enabler to deliver Network as a Service as defined in the MEF’s Third Network vision. The objective of the Third Network is to provide an on-demand cloud-centric experience with unprecedented levels of user control over the network’s capabilities. Such capabilities are orchestrated between physical and virtual service endpoints across multiple networks and technology domains.

This webinar will discuss the MEF work to define the complete service lifecycle requirements to deliver Network as a Service from ordering through service activation including supporting APIs. We also will share highlights from a joint survey conducted by the MEF and the Rayno Report that (1) benchmarks where service providers are in terms of evolving data service portfolios toward more dynamic solutions and (2) sheds light on network operator views about how lifecycle service orchestration can be applied to overcome operational support system (OSS) challenges as they transition to SDN and NFV-enabled networks.

Scott Raynovich, Chief Analyst, Rayno Report

Marie Fiala Timlin, Director of Marketing, CENX

Ralph Santitoro, Director of Solutions Architecture, Fujitsu and MEF Distinguished Fellow

Stan Hubbard, Director of Communications & Research, MEF

MEF Third Network Vision Based on Network as a Service Principles
A significant transformation is taking place in data communications networks that will accelerate the ability of network operators to deliver self-service, on-demand services over interconnected networks. This transformation has begun through the adoption of Carrier Ethernet - the predominant network connectivity service for enterprise networking, cloud computing, and backhaul of cell sites and broadband access services.

As the global defining body for Carrier Ethernet, the MEF has been the driver for the accelerated growth and adoption of Carrier Ethernet services through its standardized service types, such as E-Line and E-LAN, service definitions and the information models that are agnostic to the underlying transport technology used to deliver them.

This webinar describes the MEF vision for the evolution and transformation of network connectivity services and the networks used to deliver them. The MEF refers to this as the “Third Network” which combines the on-demand agility and ubiquity of the Internet with the performance and security assurances of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0).

Ralph Santitoro,
MEF Distinguished Fellow and Director of Solutions Architecture, Fujitsu

Rami Yaron,
VP of Strategy & Business Development, Telco Systems

John Hawkins,
Sr. Product Line Manager, Ciena