Every industry worth its salt has a certification organization. Whether it’s the North American Energy Reliability Corporation to certify utility companies in compliance with federal regulations, or the SIP Forum (News - Alert) which promotes the advancement and adoption of Session Initiation Protocol technologies, when there is a need, an organization will form to meet that need. And, in the realm of metro Ethernet, the Metro Ethernet Forum has arisen as a global industry alliance, boasting over 190 organizations, joined together to promote the spread of metro Ethernet technology.

One of the duties of the Metro Ethernet Forum (News - Alert) (MEF) is to certify technology as compliant, and just this week, the MEF (News - Alert) took a look a switch from the Edge-Core Networks Corporation. The switch, known as the ECS-28F, is a Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet carrier-grade switch. It is said to enable voice, video and data managed services over virtual Ethernet networks. It also supports dual AC/DC power and fan hot swappable modules, front panel access, Synchronous Ethernet and IEEE (News - Alert) 1588v2.

The switch is aligned with carrier-class standards for Ethernet aggregation switches, and, according to the MEF, is certified as MEF-9 and MEF-14 compliant. These certifications are designed to accelerate the deployment of metro Ethernet services by offering assurance to corporate, institutional and government subscribers that the switches in question match specific service requirements. In this case, Iometrix (News - Alert), the official laboratory of the MEF, conducted the certification testing, which were said be comprehensive in nature.

Specifically, the MEF-9 certification verifies that the equipment in question complies with MEF service delivery and performance at the user network interface, while the MEF-14 certification verifies that the switches comply with MEF service performance and bandwidth profile objectives.