BellSouth next year plans to turn up metro Ethernet services that support multiple service classes per port, enabling enhanced voice and video transmission for business customers.

In the first half of 2006, BellSouth will rollout its Virtual Ethernet Service (VES), an MPLS-enabled offering that will support four classes of service assigned on a per VLAN basis. The four service classes will be similar to what BellSouth now offers customers of its MPLS-based RFC 2547 Layer 3 VPN service: real-time for voice, interactive for video, business critical and best effort.

VES will be the basis of a Layer 2 metro Ethernet service and as an access option to the Layer 3 VPN service connecting metro areas within BellSouth's nine-state region. As an access option, VES will support multiple service classes per VLAN.

BellSouth is but one of scores of carriers bulking up their Ethernet portfolios with class-of-service features, scalable multipoint capabilities, and reliability for voice and video support. Verizon, for example, recently said it plans to add three service classes to its switched Ethernet services, as well as other enhancements.

Analysts say virtualizing the Ethernet port could enable different types of service - such as frame relay - to be terminated on Ethernet, facilitating the migration from a legacy data service to a new one.