Shentel turns to Cisco for 100-Gbps DWDM technology

Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (Shentel; NASDAQ: SHEN) has deployed 100-Gbps coherent transmission technology from Cisco across its DWDM network in the Mid-Atlantic. Cisco says it has supplied its ONS 15454 MSTP platform and ASR 9000 Series routers for the fiber-optic network upgrade.

The 100G upgrade includes DWDM deployments to serve its markets in Virginia (Ashburn, Herndon, Leesburg, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Warrenton, Front Royal, Edinburg, Christiansburg, Rustburg, Rocky Mount, Farmville, and Wytheville), West Virginia (Charleston, Martinsburg, Weston, and Summersville) and Maryland (Hagerstown).

"We are continually trying to ensure we deliver the fastest, most reliable, and most advanced services to our subscribers,” said Ed McKay, vice president of engineering and planning at Shentel. “Our transition to 100G was not a question of when – we recognized the need to act now and as a result are among the first regional service providers in the US to deliver 100G speeds. The transition is already paying off through our ability to test and deploy new services quickly."

All parameters of the DWDM network were configured automatically by the smart-management subsystem and optical channel power control tools integrated in the ONS 15454 MSTP, Cisco says. The 100G DWDM capabilities of the platform will support coherent transmission over fully uncompensated networks links of up to 3000 km (1864 miles) without regeneration, Cisco asserts.

Meanwhile, Shentel has begun to deploy the Cisco ASR 9000 platform to meet the increasing demand for IP traffic support. Since the first deployment in 2010, Shentel has been upgrading its Cisco 7600 network to the ASR 9000, which providing up to 96 Tbps per system.

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