Frontier deploys BTI Systems for rural backhaul applications

Optical transport systems vendor BTI Systems says that Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FTR) is leveraging the application-aware service delivery capabilities of its 7000 Series platform to support delivery of high-demand services such as over-the-top (OTT) video.

In particular, Frontier is using BTI’s WideCast video transport capabilities in rural applications in Utah and California, according to Sally Bament, senior vice president for global marketing, and Paul Crann, senior vice president of product management and business development. WideCast, part of BTI’s Content Aware Networking portfolio, is designed to provide the intelligence and capability to automatically cache and locally serve large unmanaged content files including OTT video (see “BTI Systems unlocks video at the edge with content-aware networking”).

Video represents half of Frontier's traffic, BTI says, and the company’s product suite enables Frontier to overcome network congestion, deliver up to 24% in bandwidth savings, and generate a return on investment (ROI) of less than a year.

Frontier has deployed 7000 Series products in its network since 2005, Bament and Crann told Lightwave. The addition of the WideCast capabilities were accomplished through a simple field upgrade, they said. While Bament and Crann would not comment in detail on Frontier’s deployment plans and strategies, they did say that the ability to generate significant ROI within a year is a driving factor on where the WideCast capabilities are deployed.

"As Frontier continues to enhance its network management capabilities, we want partners who will proactively help us meet our critical goals," said Michael Golob, senior vice president, engineering and technology for Frontier, via a BTI press release. "BTI's applications are providing vital support as we rapidly expand HSI [high-speed Internet] broadband and Ethernet services across our footprint. BTI is helping us to optimize our bandwidth and address customer requirements with an intelligent solutions approach."

Frontier is part of a global customer list for the WideCast capabilities that is more than 20 deployments long, the BTI executives told Lightwave.