EoX Gateway

EoX Gateway

Connection-Oriented Ethernet (COE) combines the “private line” quality, performance and reliability of SONET, with the efficiency and flexibility of Ethernet. Regardless of the access technology involved, an EoX Gateway provides the most scalable and cost-effective way to aggregate and switch Ethernet and IP services.

The EoX Gateway transparently terminates the different physical layer access network types, including their Layer 1 protection protocols and OAM. The EoX Gateway also extracts the Ethernet Virtual Connection (EVC) and provides Ethernet cross connections, service OAM, and fault management for each EVC. As a result, service providers are able, for the first time, to define a common Ethernet service specification for their retail or wholesale Ethernet service portfolio. This common specification applies to all Ethernet services regardless of the type of access network over which the service is delivered, including native Ethernet (EoF), SONET (EoS), T1/T3 (EoPDH) and WDM (Eoλ).

The advanced functionality of the EoX Gateway offers additional benefits:

• Provides a very flexible MEF-compliant Ethernet External Network-to-Network Interface (ENNI) handoff to retail service providers who want to reach their off-net or out-of-franchise customer locations, enabling wholesale access providers to turn their central offices or collocation facilities into “Ethernet Exchanges.”
• Eliminates expensive service provider edge router and switch ports by aggregating all subscriber services onto a single, fully protected Ethernet UNI or ENNI using GbE/10GbE Link Aggregation.