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Reality Check: Understanding Ethernet OAM standards for mobile backhaul

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.

The proliferation of smartphones and growing demand for broadband services are driving mobile backhaul network operators to increase bandwidth. However, to make these increases profitable, transport costs per bit must drop drastically. Ethernet can be a solution, but its packet-based nature poses deployment and service verification challenges, and any rise in operating expenses offsets the lower costs of Ethernet devices.
To use Ethernet as a cost-effective, carrier-grade technology for mobile backhaul, operators must thoroughly understand the key aspects and best practices of operations, administration and management (OAM) for various layers and functions of the network. These layers include the:
• access link layer
• connectivity layer
• service layer

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