APRIL 17, 2007 -- GlobalConnect, provider of communication infrastructure services to service providers in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, has installed more than 350 of Foundry Networks' (search for Foundry Networks) metro Ethernet switches and Internet routers to support growing service provider bandwidth requirements.
GlobalConnect is leveraging Foundry's FastIron family of metro Ethernet switches and the NetIron XMR and MLX Series of Internet and metro routers in its production network to deliver fiber-optic infrastructure to telecom operators, cable TV network operators, and Internet service providers.
Headquartered in Copenhagen and operating a network with more than 7,500 km of optical cable from Sweden to Frankfurt, GlobalConnect is the region's largest independent supplier of fiber-optic infrastructure. It leases its infrastructure on a wholesale basis to more than 220 regional and international service providers and enterprises in Scandinavia and Germany.
"With our entire high-performance network powered by Foundry, GlobalConnect is able to provide advanced Ethernet services to our service provider customers across Denmark, Sweden, and Germany,'' said reports Peter Olsen, chief technology officer for GlobalConnect. "We have been adding approximately five new Foundry metro Ethernet switches and routers to our network every week. Today, with over 350 Foundry routers and switches in production, we have experienced a tremendous increase in overall network performance and reliability," he says. "The hardware is just part of the success; the other part is credited to Foundry's high level of customer service. Their experienced support team has resolved issues with a great sense of urgency, keeping our network running smoothly for our extensive base of service provider customers.''
Purpose-built for Ethernet, IPv4, IPv6, and MPLS based service deployments, multiple NetIron XMR and MLX core and metro routers anchor GlobalConnect's infrastructure. The platforms are ideal for GlobalConnect's bandwidth-intensive and QoS-sensitive applications and services, such as Ethernet transmission, IPTV, Video on Demand (VoD), and voice-over-IP (VoIP), say Foundry representatives. The highly scalable routing platforms include a switch fabric capacity of 7.68 Tbits/sec, peak processing speed of up to 2 billion packets per second, and an architecture that enables deterministic, wire-speed performance with very low latency, notes Foundry.
Customer traffic is aggregated at the network edge by an array of Foundry FastIron metro switches. According to Foundry, its Metro Ring Protocol (MRP) allows GlobalConnect to achieve fast network convergence and service restoration times measured in tenths of seconds. Hardware-based rate-limiting features enable GlobalConnect to deliver on strict service level agreements (SLA). In addition, to help protect the network inside and out, each port on the FastIron switches supports sFlow data collection, enabling wire-speed per-flow traffic inspection. This facilitates network-wide traffic monitoring and provides GlobalConnect with detailed network surveillance and statistics for applications such as service billing, network engineering, fault-monitoring, and troubleshooting.
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