Great Plains Communications (GPC) has launched deployments of elements of Ciena’s Coherent Routing portfolio in its 13-state network, according to the communications technology provider. The fiber network upgrade initiative will enable enhanced services GPC’s varied customers
The service provider operates a more than 16,500-mile network across Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. GPC serves residential and business customers with broadband services as well as regional and national telecommunications carriers, LECs, ISPs, wireless carriers, and other service providers with network services. This latter group will particularly benefit from the network upgrade initiative, as the enhanced capabilities will support 5G and xHaul services of up to 10 Gbps (10X the previous top-end speed) for fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) customers, 400-Gbps data center interconnect offerings, and improved resiliency for Layer 2 VPNs with Segment Routing.
GPC will leverages 5164 Router and 8110 Coherent Aggregation Router with WaveLogic 5 Nano 100G–400G coherent pluggables within the as well as the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic coherent optics, for optical transport. The service provider will manage its new capabilities via Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) multi-layer domain controller. Ciena also is providing Installation, turn-up, and test services.
“We strive to continuously improve our network to meet rising bandwidth demands with greater scalability and agility,” said Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer, Great Plains Communications. “GPC is committed to providing a customer experience that meets or exceeds the changing needs and expectations of our customers, whether it’s ultra-fast 5G, cloud computing, or high-bandwidth applications like streaming video and gaming—and Ciena’s coherent routing, switching, and optical technology play a key role in this.”
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