Ethernet for the First Mile (EFM) - is a technology based on SHDSL which allows connection speeds of up to 20 MB. The purpose of this service is to allow businesses with multiple locations to extend their local networks at speeds that have not been attainable before.


Anyone ever heard of this and if so could you give some thoughts on it? I have a customer that has been offered this and I am trying to get some info on it for them.

I've never heard of it, but I'm a little out of the loop. Who's offering it?

Sam

Yes I've had several customers who moved to, or added EFM,
also sometimes known as "Carrier Ethernet".
A more archaic term related to this was MAN, or Metropolitan Area Network. Typically, the carrier employs level 3 ethernet switches at the CO/node which interact/integrate with ethernet-over-shdsl converters which trasport the traffic to cpe that typically connects to the customer's router or other device.
All kinds of protocols can be encapsulated into Carrier Ethernet, including TDM-related protocols.
The thinking is that ethernet is a very mature protocol with 30+ years of continuing development. As it has become ubiquitus it has also become very cheap/port.
By personal experience, it works very nicely at least in NYC. Customers are using it to get emulated dynamic T1s for both voice and data and the cost (to them) more than makes up for occasional lapses in signal quality.
The CPE is still pretty expensive though, and the learning curve can be steep. On the other hand, if your customers commit to a multiyear contract, most providers will do the config/install for free, and also give away or rent the equipment for a nominal fee.

Need to add that the SLAs my customers got from the providers were identical to T1-level SLAs.
Also: over the past 2 years, at least one of the providers (an out-of-state clec) has been creeping up charges...the price (for 2 T1s at the same location with 3 year commitment) is still less than half what it would be with "regular" T1, but that has gotten me thinking.

I have not heard of EFM either, but much like Sam and sph, the “service” sounds familiar. Sounds what I know as Metro-E (Metropolitan Ethernet) and uses Ethernet format signal either over fiber or copper to transport data. It can be used point-to-point between customer locations of can also connect to an ISP. Relatively new in relation to other Telco services but it’s getting more and more common in some areas.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just an old cranky guy, but I think that Ethernet is for LANs and belongs inside and that Carrier is for WANs and belongs outside.

It's been that way for years. It's proven. It works. Why mess with it. This sounds like another bad idea from the CGs.

Sam

Aw c'mon, Sam..y'aint old and y'aint cranky. You'd be suprised though..We just started implementing carrier-ethernet/ethernet-over-copper about six months ago using "Actelis ML1300" systems. The funny part, is that I also never heard of this referred to as "EFM", until I just read the updated online brochures.

Xcountry, this has worked really well here, but we only use it to support critical hi-speed services to locations where no fiber is available.

In a nutshell, if you look at the link, each of the cards supports 2 amphenol connections for 25-pair cables laid down to a block, allowing cross-connect to copper pairs to a portable corresponding hub at the far end, that provides hi-speed data connections for subscribers. The bottom card provides a fiber interface to the network. The brochure explains it better. I'm sure that there are different solutions out there, but that's about how we use it here.

I also strongly agree with sph, that this can get quite expensive, so I'd advise to definately shop around for the best value.

Thanks for all your info guys! My customer is telling me that is less then half all the t1 prices she has been getting. Sounds like it wouldnt be a bad idea but if they are creeping up prices, how long before its going to be worth getting straight t1?

Sph- you say that the cost savings offset the occasional lapse in qaulity. Do you have any idea what kinda signal lapse you are talking about? How often or how much loss??

Well, maybe the terminology I used was not entirely correct. A few times customers lost service temporarily. Certainly it wasn't long enough to trigger the SLA. At other times, the connection seemed sluggish, again well within the parameters of the SLA.
The "signal" comes over Verizon hdsl loops, but in all instances (there were about 6-7 the first year) bar one, the problems were the result of misconfiguration by the CLEC rather than Verizon's transport. It doesn't seem much (and it wasn't really) but compared to the previous setup that was ironclad (plain vanilla "traditional" T1s for voice and data) it gave us the jitters. I'm happy to report that the customers have not reported any problems in the past 6 months or so.
It seems the CLECS are learning themselves how to provision and configure this properly.
In the meantime, the customers save a ton of money and it makes us look like the smartest kids on the block.

My experience? This thing works.

We've got a lot of customers on our Actelis gear and it's wonderful. At short distances I can get almost 6 megabits up and down per pair, bonded up to 16 pairs.

We are doing this in Manhattan using Adtran TA5000 DSLAMs and Adtran Netvanta SHDSL/EFM bridges. Works great and we're able to deliver up to 40M (8 loops) over standard copper pairs. (Dry unbundled loops)

Don't get me started with SLAs. Verizon in NYC can take 3 days to fix DSL or T1 or even a T3. It's quite sad how bad it's gotten really.

If I can answer anything more specific, let me know.

Take care,

Fred

I don't know. Maybe I'm just an old cranky guy, but I think that Ethernet is for LANs and belongs inside and that Carrier is for WANs and belongs outside.

I'm just as old and cranky. I have always called it carrier ethernet. Plug your network connection into a black box and out of the other side comes DSL. Put that on a private line (even with POTS) and use another black box at the other end to connect the DSL to the remote network.

Don't know why the CGs have to make it so complicated. Just call it private DSL. And it is carrier.

-Hal

DSL covers a wide variety of technologies, being imprecise works fine on the marketing side where you just have a guy that wants to get on the Internet. Most of the EFM gear is a variation on SHDSL that provides symmetrical bandwidth instead of the ADSL products.