May 6, 2004 Petaluma, CA -- Metro Core Aggregation Systems (MCAS) supplier Mahi Networks announced today that Buckeye TeleSystem (Toledo, OH) has expanded its Mi7 MCAS deployment to aggregate additional SONET rings utilizing the OSI/Data Communications Channel (DCC) management protocol. Systems utilizing the IP/DCC management protocol were initially cut over to the Mi7 in August 2003. This follow-on Mi7 buildout demonstrates the breadth of the Mi7 platform, say Mahi representatives, as it simultaneously terminates SONET rings from two other equipment suppliers supporting both IP/DCC and OSI/DCC operations management protocols.
"We have been very satisfied with the performance of the Mi7 so far," reports Joe Jensen, president of Buckeye TeleSystem. "As a result we decided to cut over additional rings to further consolidate our network and achieve greater operating and capital expense efficiencies. We believe that the direct termination of SONET rings from two other vendors onto the Mi7 is a first in the industry. Multi-vendor SONET interoperability has long been promised but was never realized in a live, traffic-carrying network until now," he contends. "Since our older access multiplexers utilize an OSI/DCC protocol scheme for management and our next-generation MSPP utilizes an IP/DCC protocol scheme, the Mi7's ability to simultaneously support operations management services for these two remote systems is truly ground breaking and revolutionary."
"By collapsing SONET rings from multiple vendors onto the Mi7, Buckeye is taking advantage of a key aspect of Mahi's value proposition: multi-vendor ring interoperability at both the physical and the management (DCC) levels," explains Dana Cooperson, group director, Optical Networks, for RHK Inc. (San Francisco). "True multi-vendor SONET ring management communication--not just DCC tunneling--gives Buckeye the flexibility to take full advantage of reduced network element, interconnect, and operating costs in the central office while it maintains visibility of subtending network elements at remote sites."