What are the advantages of Ethernet in an access network?

The sole advantage of Carrier Ethernet is its low price-to-bandwidth ratio. Ethernet is a ubiquitous technology, and its widespread acceptance and simplicity have made Ethernet-supporting silicon relatively cheap compared to any other networking technology.

You can manage per-user bandwidth in three different ways:

• By configuring rate-limiting on the switch's physical port to which the end-user is connected;
• If you use PPPoE for user access in a Carrier Ethernet environment, you can perform per-user rate-limiting on the broadband remote access server (BRAS);
• The most scalable solution is undoubtedly a dedicated traffic management device, such as Cisco's Service Control Engine (SCE).

You can learn more by reading this workshop on service provider network market trends.