Ethernet continues to go mainstream and will eventually dominate the metro space, as SONET/SDH slowly but surely decline over the next 10 to 20 years, industry experts have predicted.

According to a new study of 25 top tier service providers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific by Infonetics Research, the percentage of access or collector rings/mesh that are Ethernet jumps from 32 per cent (among respondents that have adopted Ethernet adapter rings) in 2005 or earlier to 60 per cent in 2007 and beyond.

"The trend is clear: Ethernet is growing in the access space to the detriment and displacement of SONET/SDH, as service providers continue to look for ways to reduce operating expenditures and enable new revenue streams," said Michael Howard, principal analyst of Infonetics Research and lead author of the study, Service Provider Plans for Metro Optical and Ethernet.

"And now that the number one technical issue that was plaguing service providers rolling out metro Ethernet networks last year – quality of service (QoS) – is being addressed by manufacturers, the Ethernet adoption curve is speeding up.

The research found that all respondent service providers offer Ethernet services
already, and most plan to offer Ethernet over a variety of technologies, including fibre, copper, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX.

By 2007, 52 per cent of respondents have a strategy to deploy an all-Ethernet and/or an Ethernet/MPLS network that combines residential/triple play and business traffic.