When SuperComm 2003 convenes next week in Atlanta vendors will make a big push to prove that highly touted yet emerging communications technologies really do work.

Dubbed SuperDemos and huddled together on the show floor, these demonstrations will draw together a mix of cooperating vendors to show that despite the lack of standards in some cases, these network innovations are more than concepts. Interoperability among vendors' gear will be highlighted in some of the demos - such as those of Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and resilient packet ring- while others will demonstrate technologies such as optical interworking. SuperComm is the premiere show in the U.S. for carriers. (For more on SuperComm see our Planning Guide )

The MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance  is scheduled to demonstrate that multiple protocols, including frame relay, ATM and Ethernet, can be carried over a multivendor MPLS core network. It might show off Ethernet virtual private LAN services supported by multiple vendors' gear.

Ethernet as a carrier service is getting double attention, being featured by the Ethernet in the First Mile Association (EFMA) and the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF ).

More than a dozen vendors associated with MEF are claiming the first public demonstration of metropolitan Ethernet service interoperability between what customers perceive as point-to-point circuits and meshed networks. This is a combination of two services MEF calls point-to-point Ethernet virtual circuits, or E-Line, and multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet virtual circuits called E-LAN.

Streaming video, voice over IP and instant messaging are among the applications that will ride the 10M and 20M bit/sec virtual circuits. Twenty-two vendors are scheduled to demonstrate interoperability among their gear for creating a combination of E-Line and E-LAN connections.

EFMA says it will proclaim how Ethernet can be used for broadband access in service provider networks using copper and fiber lines. The technology is being worked on by an IEEE task force. Participants in the group include Cisco, Extreme Networks, Hatteras Networks and Intel. But because there is no standard yet, vendors won't try to demonstrate interoperability with the technology.

Some vendors are scheduled to announce products that contribute to the technologies in the SuperDemo areas. Transition Networks, for example, is set to introduce gear that supports Ethernet services that businesses can buy in 64K bit/sec increments so they don't have to pay for bandwidth they don't need. Called Remotely Managed 100 Megabit Converter, the device delivers 100M bit/sec Ethernet to customer sites over a fiber link and then converts it to an electrical signal on a copper port that customers plug their Ethernet LANs into. The boxes won't be generally available until July.