February 9, 2010

Broadband Forum Now Certifies

At the MPLS & Ethernet World Congress in Paris today, the Broadband Forum announced its first-ever certification program.

The first certifications of the program cover implementations of compliant MPLS-based solutions and services.  Future areas will include broadband and digital home/business specifications.

The Forum said its MPLS certification is important for several reasons:

•    No other test covers global standards-based MPLS
•    MPLS is a widely deployed technology in every service provider network around the globe
•    The Forum works very closely with other standards development organizations
•    The Forum’s mission is to develop end-to-end architecture

Initially piloted in the IP/MPLS Forum prior to its Broadband Forum union, the program includes three MPLS certifications for circuit emulation services, ATM and (coming soon) IP & Ethernet.

Products from five companies—Alcatel-Lucent, Axerra, Cisco, Huawei and Juniper—have passed the BBF.248 (TDM services over MPLS) test suite. Iometrix is the Forum’s authorized certification lab.