18 March 2003 -- Italian metro Ethernet service provider Acantho has selected Cisco's ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform and ONS 15302 Multiservice Access Platform.
Cisco Strategic Alliance partner Italtel is working with Acantho on systems integration for this new project.
Through its 600km fiber-optic backbone network, Acantho already provides Ethernet-to-the-Business broadband connectivity and services to business and residential customers in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region by using Cisco Metro Ethernet Switching solutions.
Integrating the Cisco ONS 15454 MSPP into its network will enable Acantho to extend its services to business customers with investments in SDH network infrastructures, alongside native Ethernet over Fibre services.
The combination of the ONS 15302 and ONS 15454 MSPP could also help provide a way for Acantho to deliver Ethernet-based connectivity over an SDH transport layer, while continuing to meet customer needs to connect traditional private branch exchange (PBX) voice traffic and other legacy applications over the same network.
"This technology is helping us access one of today's market needs - namely, large organisations seeking to benefit from broadband services to connect their LAN traffic, alongside their existing PBX voice technology," said Gaetano Morena, chief marketing officer at Acantho.
Acantho is now taking advantage of this new deployment in working with the Regional Government of Romagna, where the service provider will deliver broadband services to municipalities, including municipal buildings, university sites and public health clinics. Acantho will provide a mixture of native Ethernet and SDH services to connect the different sites.
In addition to providing high-speed data connectivity and access to advanced services such as IP telephony and video surveillance, the project will help enable the local government to introduce new online initiatives, including telemedicine and citizen portals. Acantho is providing daily data storage services to the Municipality of Bologna over 100Mbit/s switched Ethernet.
Cisco Strategic Alliance partner Italtel is working to integrate the multiservice products within Acantho's Metro Ethernet architecture, as well as supporting the deployment of voice over IP services throughout the Acantho broadband network.