SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 -- ADVA Optical Networking says that Belgacom International Carrier Services (ICS) has deployed the ADVA FSP 3000 reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) to offer competitive 1-Gbps and 10-Gbps Ethernet and wholesale STM-1/4/16/64 wavelength services to its customers.
Carrier-to-carrier service providers must respond quickly to customers’ requests and offer highly complex wholesale interconnect and storage area networking (SAN) services at the lowest possible cost. Because a presence at the most sought-after interconnection points is mandatory, Belgacom ICS relies on its more than 90 global points of presence (POPs) in cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Milan, Paris, and Zurich.
In these major locations, the carrier has built metro rings, which span up to 130 km and connect the carrier’s primary local data centers via high-speed, high-capacity WDM links. These rings provide Belgacom ICS a flexible and easily expandable transport infrastructure. The rings depend on the use of ROADMs, which enable Belgacom ICS to automate the provisioning of new services, reach remote locations, and decrease complexity in its network.
ADVA says that in planning this city-ring approach, Belgacom ICS considered numerous factors, including the need to deliver a broad spectrum of transmissions speeds (from 100 Mbps to 40 Gbps) on the same platform and with a minimum of channel cards. The carrier also considered options that would deliver built-in capacity of 40 wavelengths at the optical layer and enable automated deployment of services.
“The increasing competitiveness of today’s market creates a challenge: Build the highest degrees of flexibility and scalability into our network, at the lowest possible cost,” said Patrick George, vice president marketing and product management at Belgacom ICS. “The ADVA FSP 3000, with its ROADM-based platform and multi-service cards, was the perfect fit. It enabled us to increase the flexibility and overall quality of our network, while lowering power consumption, provisioning time and overall sparing and opex costs. ADVA Optical Networking has proven to be an extremely reliable and flexible partner.”
Visit Belgacom International Carrier Services S.A./NV (Belgacom ICS)