Hello Folks,

Our Group had a lot going on the past few months, so I’m taking this opportunity to update you on the excellent discussions we’ve had.

i) Attached is a link to a summary of the most interesting discussions from Quarter 1 of this year (304+ comments, 129 discussions in Q1!)
http://bit.ly/1pA5Tzt.

Some other key items worth calling out:

ii) We had Sanjay’s discussion on the value of the CECP 2.0 for new and seasoned Carrier Ethernet professionals http://lnkd.in/dg2Bvd6. This lead to a lively debate about what professionals interested in the CECP 2.0 examination can do to raise awareness of this & it’s value within their companies, regions, or even countries (we have nations,that have only a handful (or less!) of CECPs, yet are deploying Carrier Ethernet services aggressively, so it makes sense to have professionals trained in the fundamental technologies).
I had proposed a CE Live! (TM) session for the benefit of our global membership, and that is still on the stack. 🙂

iii) Larry Samberg, a respected industry veteran, has launched a very interesting discussion on use cases for the MEF’s CEBP (Carrier Ethernet Business Professional) Certification that is being developed as we speak.
This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Group members globally to get involved in shaping the development of the exam by contributing interesting use cases (I had to specially request Larry and Daniel Bar-Lev, to allow members to do this, so folks don’t let me down!). Larry’s discussion is here, and I heartily encourage you to voice your views. http://lnkd.in/bMxrjUp

iv) There have been announcements of some extremely valuable events & webinars that should be of great interest to all, given the discussions on SDN, NFV, cloud, and cloud computing in the recent few months.

First, is Tim Skinner’s invitation to attend Ethernet World at the SDN & NFV 2014 event in Nice in June … http://lnkd.in/b9qDbsH
Then is Lauren Menzies invitation to contribute to the Virtualization Survey on SDN & NFV here …http://lnkd.in/bbdhXan

And Elizabeth Palmer’s reminder about the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley’s Innovation Showcase (deadline May 30th!) here … http://lnkd.in/b8qjq7u

Marcus Jonsson’s invitation to the SDN Traffic Engineering webinar http://lnkd.in/dpefAsd, and Brian Blondy’s post on SDN & NFV in the Backhaul Network webinar http://lnkd.in/bNgBHFD and, finally, Nirav Modi’s cogent Orchestration Primer for Network Operators, http://lnkd.in/bU5Cc86

v) We had so many interesting discussions that it’s impossible for me to list them all there, which is why you have the summary document above! But, Khurram Shahzad pointed us to an NFV survey http://lnkd.in/bxC9MBf, Paolo Volpato contributed on the value of microwave rings to optimize TCO (my favorite subject, and also that of many operators CXO’s!) http://lnkd.in/dnrS4rk, Sanjay Nanda discussed a very practical problem on TCP throughput issues in a wireless uplink http://lnkd.in/dHhQkrQ, while Adrian Stefan asked about Data Center bridging and Carrier Ethernet http://lnkd.in/bTWFqbV, and Mahamudul Hasan inquired about standard values for delay, loss, and jitter http://lnkd.in/bBcA2sc.

So, all in all, a very productive 2014 so far indeed! And, we have a lot more in store in the next couple months so stay tuned for some key announcements to come!

And, if you haven’t been very active in the Group or taken a look at the wealth of knowledge and insights that are available here, you’re selling yourself short 🙂 and I encourage you to partake of the goldmine of info. and the collaborative environment of friendly colleagues, peers, and seasoned veterans who are so selflessly willing to help out, and build a stronger community of Carrier Ethernet & networking professionals!

Until next time, may the bits in your bytes and the bytes in your packets be profitable! I know mine are!

Best,
Vishal