As part of its drive to provide next generation network services to carriers, service providers and corporate users, KPN International is moving ahead with this upgrade to 40 Gbit/s. Customer demand for bandwidth and performance have driven this development, and with the upgrade KPN International has been able to quadruple performance.

KPN International has achieved these new service and performance levels through the widespread adoption of new Optical Transport Network (OTN) technologies from technology partner Huawei.

The new solution has been exhaustively tested over recent months. This testing culminated in a London launch event at which KPN International wholesale and Huawei customers were invited to test drive the next generation network.

Carolien Nijhuis, Managing Director of KPN International, explains the business logic for this significant upgrade: ‘As data, video and voice use continue to grow for both wholesale and corporate customers, there is no limit in sight for capacity or performance. As network owners, we need to distinguish ourselves both by being ready for demand and by being flexible in our response.’

To achieve these new un-regenerated 40 Gbit/s links, KPN International capitalises on its stake in the 208 km Ulysses sea cable between the Netherlands and the UK.

Fan Miao, Managing Director of Huawei in the Netherlands, sees the KPN International 40 Gbit/s network as a showcase initiative: ‘We have worked together to create a solution of outstanding flexibility. This will allow KPN International to route and balance traffic more effectively than ever before. We should also mention the environmental intelligence of the solution, which radically drives down the cost and impact of power consumption.’

The Paris – London - Amsterdam link is now fully functioning and highly-resilient at 40 Gbit/s, and initial client interest has been high. KPN International intends to extend the next generation service across its key business hubs in its pan-European network by the close of 2008.

 

This service will enable TIWS to focus its working team on analysing business and searching for new services, while leaving daily operations to Carriers Interconnect.

This service provides a total outsourcing of traffic business operations at TIWS level and of its related companies at the Telefónica Group level. This service is rendered through the use of the Carriers Interconnect Product, which manages the international traffic business and is already installed at the different companies belonging to Telefónica Group.

By providing this service, CARRIERS-Interconnect® is one step closer to their customers, no only offering them the possibility to purchase the product but helping them in their business operation so that they can focus on its analysis.


 

AboveNet customers will now have greater ability to scale as their traffic needs grows, with up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet hand-offs available in all AboveNet markets.

The Juniper Networks MX960 Ethernet Services Router provides AboveNet with one of the industry’s largest-capacity carrier Ethernet platforms. The MX960 is capable of supporting 960 Gbps of switching and routing capacity, enabling AboveNet’s network to scale to protect customers’ investments. The MX960 supports a wide range of applications and services, while enabling AboveNet to reduce power, space and cooling costs by as much as 50 percent.

This significant upgrade builds upon AboveNet’s recent investments in its European network presence and its core IP backbone which, taken together, form its next generation IP infrastructure. Customers can now benefit from increased scalability and capability while leveraging AboveNet’s expertise in low-latency, high bandwidth services.

“AboveNet continues to invest in leading edge technology to better serve the high bandwidth needs of our customers,” said Rajiv Datta, AboveNet’s CTO. “This network-wide MX-series deployment provides a scalable platform for our IP connectivity services as well as an intelligent edge architecture for advanced services such as Ethernet VPNs.”

“AboveNet’s customers rely on its high-bandwidth services to move their business communications faster and more certainly, so it is absolutely critical these services deliver high performance and superior reliability,” said Manoj Leelanivas, senior vice president and general manager of the Edge and Aggregation Business Unit, Juniper Networks. “The MX960 Ethernet Services Router delivers industry-leading performance, scalability and efficiency, helping AboveNet rapidly introduce valuable new services for its customers, while driving down operating costs.”

 

Tata Communications, a leading provider of the new world of communications, announced the launch of its Application Performance Optimization (APO) service to provide companies with end-to-end, network application management. Ipanema Technologies, a well-known WAN (Wide Area Network) optimization solutions provider, is one of the technology partners for this service.

Tata Communications’ APO service available globally, is highly scalable, and can be implemented across thousands of sites. The service offers a unique consultative approach in the delivery of Application Performance Services. The service helps companies dramatically improve the performance of network applications that feed core business processes, increasing productivity and user satisfaction by reducing transaction delays across the network. It also improves application delivery and ensures continuous control, IT consolidation, bandwidth reduction and slow applications acceleration.

As part of the service, Tata Communications evaluates a company’s goals then designs a solution that uniquely fits their needs. The customer’s environment is assessed, a WAN optimization vendor is chosen, and application performance is analyzed in order to design the optimization sequence. APO is a globally managed service, including customized reporting of real-time environment and alarms (application performance degradation alarms). It can also propose application level service level agreements (SLAs) when bundled with customers’ connectivity solutions, such as IP and VPN.

"As network traffic increases, cost efficiencies demand effective utilisation of each IT application. Tata Communications APO Service offers enterprises a unique modular, flexible, and repeatable service with a depth and functionality not seen before on a global scale," said James Walker, Vice President, and Global VPN Services for Tata Communications.

Tata Communications chose Ipanema as an APO solution partner because of their capabilities in application optimization, such as in depth visibility and optimization including Quality of Service (QoS) optimization, acceleration, and compression features. Key advantages of the service include a continuous measure of performance at flow level (session by session), which is then aggregated in high level indicators to quickly detect degradations and perform accurate diagnostics. Ipanema’s solution also provides the unique concept of network wide QoS, globally optimizing the network and not only each WAN access independently.

According to research firm OVUM, 78 percent of European and North American companies said a performance degradation of networked applications would have a severe impact on their business. "The research highlights the imperative need to provide customers with highly effective traffic optimization solutions for networked applications. Partnering with Tata Communications provides the opportunity for us to deliver cost-effective, fully customizable solutions to meet each customer’s distinctive needs," said Thierry Grenot, CTO, Ipanema Technologies.

 

Reliance Globalcom, a leading global provider of managed network and application delivery services for multinational enterprises, carriers and consumers, signed multi year contracts with leading European companies to provide a comprehensive solution to manage challenging global networking requirements across continents.

"We continue to see strong demand in Europe for managed global networks,” said Eric Havette, managing director, of the French subsidiary of Reliance Globalcom. “Our keen focus on customer solutions and satisfaction has helped us to build strong, long term relationships with our clients. In this challenging global economy, our ability to manage large, global Ethernet and IP MPLS WANs seems to have struck a chord with clients looking for high performance, reduce costs and improve flexibility."

 

RCN Metro Optical Networks, a division of RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI) and a premier provider of fiber optic-based network solutions, announced that it will be expanding its relationship with Pine Tree Networks, a Maine based company providing reliable and affordable telephone and Internet services to homes, businesses, and service providers throughout New England.

RCN Metro has been providing Pine Tree Networks with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution that provides high speed connections to locations throughout New England. The VPN service has allowed Pine Tree to cost effectively deliver services to their customers and now Pine Tree needs additional bandwidth to expand to new markets.

“RCN Metro recognizes that the need for access to a reliable, fiber-based network extends past the traditional Tier 1 markets to underserved, rural markets. RCN Metro has long been the provider of choice to markets such as Portland, ME. We are pleased to provide Pine Tree Networks with additional bandwidth so that they can continue to grow their business,” said Felipe Alvarez, President of RCN Metro Optical Networks. “And, we are very confident that we will continue to provide the same level of reliability and great service that Pine Tree has come to expect from us, at a very competitive price point.”

RCN Metro was originally chosen by Pine Tree Networks due in large part to their outstanding network design, and high quality service and support.

“For a Maine-based telecommunications business competing within and outside of our state, it’s critical to have access to affordable, multi-megabit transport to a wide variety of locations,” said Trevor D. Jones, Director of Sales and Marketing of Pine Tree Networks. “RCN Metro has successfully quadrupled the bandwidth available to us so that we can expand our coverage to include customers in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island.”
 

Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier & Wholesale Services, presented Etisalat’s vision on the future of the industry, focusing on a perspective of the increasing demand for capacity, and high quality connectivity.

“The demand for broadband connectivity will drive the telecommunications business in 2009 and beyond. All operators, mobile, fixed-line and alternative wireless providers are today looking to establish a foot-hold in this sector,” Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier & Wholesale Services said. “Mobile Broadband promises to be an important growth segment, and this in turn will drive demand for national and international capacity and quality of service guarantees.”

To service the new community of mobile ISPs Etisalat is enhancing its already established mobile services hub in the UAE. This will provide a comprehensive platform of services for mobile operators including roaming aggregation or replication, clearing house services, signaling and more. Etisalat will also support new ISPS with managed international connectivity, enabling the operator to offer the highest possible service experience to their growing community of Internet customers.

“The complexity of services required from a mobile operator is far greater than for a fixed-line operator,” Ali Amiri continued. “The greatest strength of mobility is also its greatest challenge. As consumers increasingly gain the ability to access more and more services anywhere, over any device, the demand on the operator to be able to provision and deliver quality coverage will also grow. This will drive the creation of mobile hubs, where operators can access a variety of services from one intermediate, rather than being forced to develop relationships with hundreds of operators around the world.”

Now in its 13th year, GSM 3G Middle East is the region's leading communications conference and exhibition. This year it has broadened its focus beyond mobile to reflect convergence in the Middle Eastern communications market. 2,500 decision makers from across the whole communications value chain - mobile and fixed line operators, internet service providers, regulators, investors, telecoms solution vendors, content providers and more are gathering to participate in the event.