ATIS & MEF Collaborate To Accelerate Ordering Process for MEF-Defined Carrier Ethernet Services

Los Angeles and Washington, DC, 8 June  2015 – ATIS and the MEF are pleased to announce that they have completed joint work to update the Access Service Request (ASR) ordering process to fully support MEF-defined Carrier Ethernet services. The ASR enhancements have been published and successfully implemented in the ATIS OBF Access Service Ordering Guidelines (ASOG) Version 50.

The ASR updates will speed service deployment by giving service providers a standards-based guide to automate and operationalize their MEF service offerings. The new guidelines also will provide an opportunity for non-MEF member companies who use the ATIS Ethernet ordering model to easily comply with MEF service specifications.

“The joint MEF-ATIS work on the ASR updates is an excellent example of how industry standards organizations can collaborate to help service providers streamline operations, be more responsive to customer demands, and accelerate market growth,” said Allan Langfield, Co-Chair of the MEF Service Operations Committee (SOC) and Executive Director of Product Development at Comcast Business.

“ATIS’ Ordering and Billing Forum and MEF members conducted a high-level analysis of the current ASR ordering process versus MEF 10.3 (ENI/UNI Service Attributes) and MEF 26.1 (OVC/ENNI Service Attributes), to better align these two processes.” said Dawn Kaplan, Principal Systems Engineer, Ericsson; Co-Chair of the MEF SOC; and Co-Chair of the ATIS OBF Ordering Solutions Committee. “The result is a much-needed industry specification that makes the Ethernet ordering process less complex and easier to use.”

“The completion of this critical work provides the basis for the next phase of our collaboration, which is to jointly develop an order and service delivery standard for broader global use beyond carriers that use ASRs. This new ordering will be a fresh and streamlined approach to facilitate the tremendous growth in carrier-to-carrier Ethernet,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller.

Access ASOG Version 50 in the ATIS Document Center, your leading resource for technical operations standards for the global ICT industry that are produced by ATIS Committees and Forums: https://www.atis.org/docstore/product.aspx?id=28178

About the MEF

The MEF is the driving force behind the $80+ billion global market for Carrier Ethernet services and technologies and the defining body for LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) standards that underpin emerging Third Network services with CE 2.0, SDN, and NFV.  An industry alliance consisting of 220+ member organizations based in 43 countries, the MEF operates through a powerful collaborative framework of service providers, network solutions suppliers, and other stakeholders to achieve CE 2.0 and LSO development and globalization objectives.

MEF’s flagship work is CE 2.0, including specifications, operational frameworks, and certification programs for services, equipment, and professionals. Visit www.mef.net for more details on these programs.

Building on fourteen years of success with Carrier Ethernet, the MEF is now focused on development of LSO with APIs to enable paradigm-shifting agile, assured, and orchestrated services over more efficient, automated networks. The MEF’s vision for the transformation of network connectivity services and the networks used to deliver them is referred to as the “Third Network,” which combines the on-demand agility and ubiquity of the Internet with the performance and security assurances of CE 2.0. For information on the Third Network and LSO download the MEF’s Third Network Vision & Strategy White Paper and Third Network Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Vision White Paper.

About ATIS

As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies
to advance the industry’s most pressing business priorities. ATIS’ nearly 200 member companies are currently working to address the All-IP transition, network functions virtualization, big data analytics, cloud services, device solutions, emergency services, M2M, cyber security, network evolution, quality of service, billing support, operations, and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle – from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open source solutions, and interoperability testing.

ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The organization is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding Partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member of and major U.S. contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit www.atis.org.