November 11, 2004 Tokyo, Japan -- Asia Netcom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the China Netcom Group, plans to revamp its existing MAN in Tokyo. Asia Netcom will migrate its current leased network platform to a new wholly owned DWDM platform to increase network capability. The upgrade is expected to be completed by January 2005.
"The new platform will serve as a key component of our strategy to drive more efficiency and performance from our core network," said Bill Barney, president and chief operating officer of Asia Netcom. "This is part of our company-wide vision to leverage cutting-edge technology in order to enhance our service capabilities to our customers."
Barney added, "The new Tokyo Metropolitan Area Network will dramatically enhance our ability to serve our Japanese customers. The new network, combined with our unique relationship with our parent, China Netcom, now gives Japanese companies a powerful solution to link up their manufacturing centers and growing customer base inside China."
Asia Netcom currently operates five points of presence (PoPs) in Tokyo. Previously, these locations were interconnected using leased lines. The new DWDM platform will be deployed on a fiber infrastructure that is wholly owned by Asia Netcom. The new network, which also extends the company's Tokyo MAN to cover the NF Park PoP, will link to Asia Netcom's national backhaul connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka to EAC -- the company's wholly owned, 19,500-km regional submarine cable system connecting Japan with Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, and soon China through a planned extension to Qingdao.
The new Tokyo MAN gives Asia Netcom enhanced scalability together with complete control over its service platform. This enables the company to ensure the highest level of service quality and responsiveness to its customers.
"With the new network upgrade and extension, we will dramatically increase our service capabilities and extend our range of services to the NF Park site," said Hideo Ishii, Asia Netcom Japan's director of IP architecture. "While we already offer customers ATM, FR, subrate IPL, subrate voice, and carrier voice solutions from our NF Park PoP, the new DWDM connection now brings our core network and portfolio of services, including a full suite of IP-based solutions and collocation service, much closer to our customers."
The new NF Park network extension will initially feature 32 wavelengths of 2.5-Gbit/sec Ethernet and STM-1 links, allowing Asia Netcom to offer robust connectivity services to Tier 1 and Tier 2 carriers. The network will also serve as a critical alternative for ISPs and corporations looking for route diversity in protecting their network.
The new DWDM-based Tokyo MAN will also serve as a foundation for Asia Netcom's future plans for a next-generation network featuring GMPLS technology. GMPLS, also known as Multiprotocol Lambda Switching, will enable the network to perform traffic routing and switching at the photonic level without conversion into electronic signals, hence improving the performance of the network.
"This upgrade is the first step to a truly next-generation network infrastructure using technology such as GMPLS network for Asia Netcom. GMPLS is fast becoming an industry standard solution and will be a key technology to optimize IP routing over optical networks," Ishii added. "This architecture allows Asia Netcom to combine our existing submarine fiber cable and our high-speed IP network infrastructure. With the implementation of GMPLS, our Tokyo MAN will have one of the most powerful and efficient network architectures in the industry."