Ethernet Services Over Public Wan

A convergence of technology and applications has created an increased desire for Ethernet WAN connectivity. On the enterprise side, Ethernet is the dominant technology. Enterprise network administrators’ familiarity and comfort with Ethernet creates a natural desire that their WAN technology also be based on Ethernet. A number of applications, including voice and video, are already being encapsulated into Ethernet and run over their LANs. Another trend is for companies to have a number of remote offices that need to exchange data with the headquarters office or with each other. There can be significant advantages to placing data on common servers that can be accessed by all sites. The increased importance of the Internet for business applications has created an increasing desire for incrementally higher WAN interface rates. It is also common to want a single Internet firewall at one site that is accessed on the enterprise network by all sites.