Verizon deploys more coherent 100-Gbps fiber-optic network technology

Verizon (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) reveals that it deployed coherent 100-Gbps capabilities across 13,000 miles (20,921 km) of its U.S. network and 1616 miles (2600 km) of its European infrastructure this year.

The U.S. Tier 1 service provider says it has targeted high-traffic routes for the deployments, including Atlanta to Tampa, Kansas City to Dallas, and Salt Lake City to Seattle in the U.S. The deployments used the same routers and coherent-enabled optical transport equipment as on the company's first 100G routes deployed in 2011 – which means Ciena and Juniper Networks are happy companies (see “Verizon offers U.S. 100-Gbps deployment details”). Those deployments included Chicago to New York, Los Angeles to Sacramento, and Minneapolis to Kansas City.

In Europe, Verizon’s deployments focused on connections between London and Paris and London and Frankfurt. Combined with the previous Paris-to-Frankfurt deployment (see “Verizon to deploy 100 Gigabit Ethernet on Paris-to-Frankfurt route”), Verizon now has a 100-Gbps European ring of more than 2600 km. Ciena supplied the 100-Gbps technology for these deployments as well. Juniper Networks supplied the routers for the initial Paris-to-Frankfurt deployment, and therefore would have been well positioned to supply the routers for the new 100G deployments.

In addition to expanding route capacity, the 100-Gbps technology also improves network performance and scalability as well as create a converged core network. The company announced its intention to create such a converged core earlier this year (see “Verizon begins backbone convergence”).

"Expanding 100G technology on our high-performance U.S. and European networks means Verizon is able to successfully meet traffic demand while increasing efficiency and capacity," said Kyle Malady, senior vice president of global network operations and engineering for Verizon. "Increased video traffic, LTE 4G growth, and cloud usage are driving bandwidth demand, and 100G is critical to creating that rich end-user experience."

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