Any-to-any connectivity across a town, city or region, at Ethernet speeds

Metro Ethernet VPN networking offers all the functionality you’d expect from a Local Area Network but spread over entire towns, cities or other metropolitan regions. The result is radically simplified network management and much more bandwidth than you’d get from traditional services based on Leased Lines or Frame Relay.

Why Metro Ethernet VPN?

If you’re interested in any of these, then maybe you should be looking at Metro Ethernet VPN:

• High quality, high bandwidth connectivity 
• Metropolitan or regional connectivity between multiple sites 
• A low cost replacement for ATM or leased lines 
• The transfer of mission critical data 
• Reliable voice, data and video applications between sites 
• Secure, centralised storage of data
• The simplicity of an Ethernet LAN between multiple sites

The ntl:Telewest Business network has the largest Ethernet presence in the UK and is capable of carrying a variety of services and high bandwidth applications, such as multimedia packages, as well as voice and data traffic. With us, you know you have a partner you can rely on.

Cost effective solutions

Our customers have experienced significant reductions in both bandwidth and network management costs as well as benefiting from simplified network topologies and much more flexibility in managing IT across multiple sites. In fact, Ethernet Bandwidth is cheaper by up to a factor of 10 than traditional Wide Area bandwidth. It provides the most flexible wide area bandwidth connections available, enabling you to stay in charge of the evolution of your services; keeping costs under control on the one hand and easily managing bandwidth growth on the other.

Fast and reliable communications

Metro Ethernet VPN’s affordable high throughput of data has allowed our clients to really open up their networks, allowing them to deploy new services like IP CCTV, disaster recovery provision and Voice over IP, without the restrictions or complications that have dogged Wide Area Networking in the past. 

Metro Ethernet VPN networking delivers the flexibility and security to meet the needs, timescales and budget of your business, delivering both voice and data traffic, with the ability to prioritise traffic flow. Multiple bandwidths are available, from 1Mb to 1Gb and these can be easily scaled to meet your organisation's individual requirements. With Metro Ethernet VPN you have a reliable, cost effective and scalable way to connect your different sites with the reassurance that you are receiving a service based on the best technology available, supported by the specialist network expertise of project and service managers.

• Now go to Features & benefits

Features

• Layer 2 technology - Ethernet is transparent to the layer 3 routing protocols, which means that it supports a wider range of applications, which run on protocols that are not IP. By contrast, an IPVPN can only run IP traffic.
• Multiple bandwidths – we can offer bandwidths from 1Mbps to 1 Gbps and we can easily scale them to meet your organisation's individual requirements.
• Any to any connectivity – Metro Ethernet VPN reduces the dependency on central sites in hub and spoke networks built on traditional point to point networks. This gives greater resiliency and allows customers to reduce the bandwidth requirements into central sites.
• Simple to configure - because this is a packet switched network rather than a circuit switched network, adding new sites with connectivity to all the others in the VPN is far simpler than configuring logical connections over traditional VPNs, this makes it cheaper and more flexible. Consequently customers can manage their estate more easily and the cost of removing staff from one site for refurbishment or disaster scenarios and relocating them becomes very manageable..
• Class of Service – Along with our Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees you can manage different traffic with different priorities across your network  - something that is particularly important as IPvoice and video applications become more popular. We can prioritise business critical applications over other traffic types according to your requirements.
• Remote management - remote configuration and upgrading of VLANs means that most upgrades do not require a site visit, offering a cost effective and efficient solution. Bandwidth can be upgraded remotely in 1Mb increments, as required.

Benefits

• Reducing costs - Ethernet Bandwidth is cheaper by up to a factor of 10 than traditional Wide Area bandwidth.
• Cost effective - Ethernet VPN charges are based on the cost of connecting to the VPN, not from site to site. This means that for each additional site only one connection is required to our network as opposed to two (A end and B end). As a result, costs reduce even further.
• Central management - Ethernet unblocks the Wide Area Network and creates a large Local Area Network across multiple sites, opening up your network to sharing applications and allowing for data to be stored centrally or duplicated in a coordinated manner. This removes issues with maintaining multiple incidences of information such as HR policies or training materials.
• Flexibility – A Metro Ethernet VPN enables you to make decisions about geographical deployment of equipment that are based on the best use of your capital rather than on physical location.
• Easier management - Ethernet networks are inherently more simple to deploy and manage than traditional Wide Area Networking technology. This not only means management costs are reduced but also frees up staff for other business critical areas.
• Easy to upgrade - because our Ethernet services are deployed over fibre, which has a much greater bandwidth capacity than copper, the complexities of upgrades are removed. 
• Share resources - Your organisation can share the physical network resources between various departments/buildings, and still keep data segregated securely by the creation of multiple Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs).

• Now go to Detailed info

Any-to-any connectivity across a town, city or region, at Ethernet speeds

Metro Ethernet VPN mimics the LAN within a building yet it is spread over a metropolitan area. Ethernet VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) can be set up to cater for many separate communities within one Ethernet VPN service platform, using the same scalable, integrated and flexible infrastructure. Each VLAN community can have a different communication pattern involving only the appropriate number of connections and with the relevant speed of connection.

Connection Options

All logical topologies are supported:

• Point to point - straightforward connection between two sites.
• Point to multipoint / Multipoint to point- multiple smaller sites connected to a main Head Office site (otherwise known as hub and spoke). This topology can be presented as a single or multiple connections at the central site. Please note that the access speed at the central site must be at least as large as the aggregated speeds of all the other sites.
• Any to any - any number of sites connected to any other given number of sites. The access speeds to each site can be selected without reference to any other site.

Traffic prioritisation

The application of up to four classes of service, with predefined Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, will ensure that data critical to a business is delivered in advance of lower priority traffic such as internet data, with each being allocated a percentage of the total bandwidth. We’ll also strive to ensure that the end-to-end delay does not exceed a specified level. This is of particular importance in real time communications such as voice and video where delays would impact on the application.

Service Level Agreement

The Metro Ethernet VPN Service Level Agreement includes:

• Guaranteed Ready For service dates.
• 24x7 helpline with a 6hr fault restoration guarantee, which includes any faults detected by us.
• Annual availability guarantee backed by service credits for any failure to meet these targets.

Typical Network Performance 

• Round trip delay less than 8mS. 
• Jitter less than 1mS. 
• Packet delivery: better than 99.99%.

Case studies

Northern Ireland Regional Network

Working in partnership with NIRAN, our specialists developed an innovative Metro Ethernet VPN solution connecting multiple sites. This advanced approach allowed us to keep costs down, yet, by installing a second Point of Presence (PoP) in Derry, we were able to route circuits right across Northern Ireland. “The ntl:Telewest Business proposal is technically sound and represents good value for money,” Brian Doran, Technical Director of NIRAN comments. “This is an innovative use of technology and gives us the increased bandwidth we want while keeping within our budget.”

Garlands Call Centres

Our converged Metro Ethernet VPN connects all of the company’s contact centre locations and supports data, voice and video communications. Using this sophisticated network, Garlands has implemented Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony, enabling it to take advantage of advanced call management functionality and reduce costs. Our next generation IP-enabled network supports cutting-edge multimedia contact solutions – such as a 3G video calling facility and live web interaction to help customers complete self-service forms online.

West Midlands Police

Our resilient, fully-managed Metro Ethernet Virtual Private Network (VPN) service provides a scalable and flexible way to deliver the high-speed, high-performance connectivity needed by neighbourhood police officers – while reducing costs.

If you'd like to discuss how we can help with your site to site connectivity requirements, give us a ring on 0800 953 0180.

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