Abstract Test Suite For Ethernet Services at the UNI
© The Metro Ethernet Forum 2004. Any reproduction of this document, or any portion thereof, shall contain
the following statement: "Reproduced with permission of the Metro Ethernet Forum." No user of this
document is authorized to modify any of the information contained herein.
3. Scope
This document defines the requirements and corresponding test procedures to qualify the ability of a
Metro Ethernet Network to deliver Ethernet services, such as E-Line and E-LAN services as defined
by the Metro Ethernet Forum. The tests are defined from the point of view of the Subscriber’s
equipment that is used to access the services. The goals of the test definitions are three-fold. The first
goal is to provide test procedures to Subscribers to help them ensure the successful integration of
Ethernet Services into their overall networking infrastructures. The second goal is to provide test
definitions to host, switch, and router vendors allowing them to ensure that their products can be used
in the MEN to allow Subscribers to successfully access Ethernet Services. The third is to provide
Service Providers with a suite of tests that allow them to determine the ability of the MEN to offer
Ethernet Services conformant to Metro Ethernet Forum specifications. The requirements defined in
this document are based on Sections 6 and 7 of the Metro Ethernet Forum Technical Committee
Ethernet Services Model document [Ethernet Services Model]. Requirements and test procedures to
qualify the readiness of a MEN to support further services, attributes and parameters will be defined in
subsequent revisions.
This document does not define methods for the measurement or monitoring of Service Level
Specifications (SLSs) but it does define test procedures which determine the readiness of a MEN to
deliver various SLSs defined in [Traffic and Performance Parameters for Ethernet Service Level
Specifications]. This document does not re-define metrics or testing methods described in any of the
standards documents already defined by such groups as the Benchmarking Methodology Working
Group (BMWG) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), however metrics used in this
document conform to BMWG definitions.
Implementation specifications are outside the scope of this document. This document may be updated
in the future to reflect new work in the MEF Technical Committee.
4. Compliance Levels
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”,
“SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be
interpreted as described in RFC 2119. All key words MUST be use upper case, bold text.
5. Introduction
This document describes the requirements and corresponding test procedures to be used when testing
the ability of a MEN to deliver Ethernet Services, such as the E-Line and E-LAN services defined in
[Ethernet Services Definitions]. Vendors can refer to such requirements and test procedures in the
development and commercial cycles of their products, carriers can use them to ensure that the devices
or systems they select to deploy in the MEN will result in the successful delivery of Ethernet Services
and subscribers can attach to the MEN knowing that the Ethernet services they access satisfy criteria
based on accepted requirements and test procedures.