Optical transport systems vendor ECI Telecom says it has won a contract from SWITCH, which provides fiber backbone services to Swiss universities, to upgrade the research and education (R&E) fiber-optic network. The systems house will supply elements of its Apollo family of Optimized Multi-Layer Transport (OMLT) platforms to enable DWDM connectivity of 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps on the nationwide network.
SWITCH, the first Internet provider in Switzerland, operates a high-speed fiber-optic network that connects all Swiss universities and major national and international research institutions in Switzerland. As its capacity demands have increased, it selected ECI after what the systems provider described as “an extensive tender process, with specific technical and non-standard requirements” to supply equipment to upgrade SWITCH’s backbone network.
ECI will deploy a multi-degree colorless and directionless ROADM WDM network. The equipment will support 88 channels per fiber to deliver 10G and 100G customized services.
“With the new ECI Apollo transport system running on a substantially extended core backbone, SWITCHlan will be in a comfortable position to quickly provide terabits of capacity between its backbone nodes all over the country,” says Felix Kugler, network engineer at SWITCH. “The Apollo system’s inherent optical switching capability allows to easily reroute our traffic streams in case of damage to a backbone fiber. We are particularly pleased to see how well the new system is able to coexist with local links sharing the fibers – using an unusual but simple setup of versatile, passive optics along the existing backbone fiber routes.”
“SWITCH has established itself as a leading provider of high-capacity and advanced services to its research and educational members, who expect the highest standards of connectivity and cyber-security,” adds Christian Erbe, general manager for DACH, ECI Telecom. “With our proven experience in providing customized solutions to national research and educational networks (NRENs), we are looking forward to providing SWITCH with the network it needs to cater to its customers’ demands.”
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