RCN Metro Optical Networks
Carriers
Long Distance Carrier
A long distance carrier uses RCN Metro Optical Networks’ SONET VPN to enter new markets.
Challenge
A major long distance carrier was entering new markets in the Northeast and wanted to avoid the cost and hassle of building their own network. They were looking to offer services with a high-degree of reliability and saw that a SONET-based network would allow them to do just that. They needed to be able to rapidly provision bandwidth in order to meet customer demand. At the same time, they didn’t want excess network capacity while they added new customers.
Additionally, since many of these markets were new to them, they needed the ability to quickly and easily shift capacity away from underperforming markets to areas where they had strong demand.
Solution
At the suggestion of RCN Metro Optical Networks, this customer chose a SONET VPN network as a cost-effective and scalable way of providing service in these markets.
Combining the reliability and availability associated with dedicated SONET rings and the ease and flexibility of ordering individual circuits, RCN Metro Optical Networks’ SONET VPN is provisioned over multiple shared SONET rings – offering a fully protected service with SONET reliability.
The service provides an OC-48 or OC-12 virtual SONET ring connecting a predetermined set of locations. Once the service is established, any combination of DS-3s through OC-12s can be added between locations, up to the total capacity of the network.
Benefits
- Flexible & Scalable – With SONET VPN, the customer doesn’t need to know the exact service mix upfront. They can add bandwidth where they need it and when they need it
- Cost-Effective – With SONET VPN, the carrier gets the same functionality of a dedicated SONET ring, but because it is delivered over a shared infrastructure, they avoid paying for fixed dedicated equipment, fiber, and nodes
- Speeds time to market – Rapid circuit turn up ensures that they have the bandwidth available when they need it, guaranteed
- Reliable – 24x7 network monitoring and technical support are offered by RCN Metro Optical Networks
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier
A CLEC leverages RCN Metro Optical Networks’ network to enter new markets.
Challenge
A major CLEC was entering new markets in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic and wanted to avoid the cost and hassle of building their own network. They were looking to offer services with a high-degree of reliability and saw that a SONET-based network would allow them to do just that.
Since many of these markets were new to them, they needed the ability to quickly and easily shift capacity away from underperforming markets to areas where they had strong demand.
Additionally, in order to be competitive in the marketplace, they needed to cost-effectively aggregate traffic from multiple cities and transport to their switch sites.
Solution
At the suggestion of RCN Metro Optical Networks, this customer chose SONET as a cost-effective and scalable way of providing service in these markets.
RCN Metro Optical Networks’ SONET Service is offered from DS-3 up to an OC-192 worth of bandwidth. The CLEC can begin with just one DS-3 circuit and scale it when their business needs dictate.
The CLEC orders the local loops out to their end customer location from a service provider. At the central office, RCN Metro Optical Networks aggregates the DS-1 traffic into a larger circuit and backhauls the traffic to the CLEC’s switch site. Between CLEC switches, RCN Metro Optical Networks also provides SONET capacity to transport the traffic. This allows for very cost-effective transport of the customer traffic across the CLEC’s entire network.
Benefits
- Diversity – Utilizing our unique ROWs, RCN Metro Optical Networks was able to provide service over a network that was truly diverse from their alternatives
- Cost-Effective – The CLEC leverages the RCN Metro Optical Networks network to serve their clients and avoids costly and lengthy builds
- Scalable – This network will quickly scale in order to continue to meet this customer’s bandwidth requirements
- Carrier Neutral – Because RCN Metro Optical Networks has connections to multiple carriers and most major POPs throughout New England, the CLEC can decide which carrier they want to connect to on a location-by-location basis
Wireless Carrier
One of the nation’s largest wireless voice and data carriers leverages RCN Metro’s Custom Private Optical Network solution as the platform on which they operate their business.
Challenge
One of the nation’s largest wireless voice and data carriers was experiencing rapid growth in New England. As wireless applications continued to boom, the company was in need of a backbone network capable of enabling rapid speed to market. With an established reputation for being at the forefront of bringing new services to market, this carrier needed a solution that would provide a reliable, redundant, and fully diverse network – delivered by a provider capable of meeting and exceeding their stringent go-to-market timelines. The company underwent an exhaustive search and selected RCN Metro based on its ability to provide a highly diverse, scalable end-toend solution.
Solution
Standardized, off-the-shelf service offerings no longer meet the needs of many carriers and businesses, and this wireless carrier was no exception. They were in need of a network designed and built to support their specific networking requirements.
RCN Metro recommended a Custom Private Optical Network. The team worked directly with the wireless carrier to gain an understanding of its individual networking requirements and developed a custom network architecture, combining Wavelength, SONET, and Ethernet technologies to support their requirements.
In addition to the dedicated account team, RCN Metro assigned a Project Manager to oversee the construction of this network, working to coordinate the efforts of the various groups involved in the project and ensuring that it stayed on track. Additionally, RCN Metro secured the elements required to implement the design, including negotiating rights-of-way (ROW), leasing space, and procuring equipment.
RCN Metro has built into all of the carrier’s Mobile Telephone Switching Offices (MTSOs) in the Northeast, and RCN Metro now manages more than 800 circuits for this wireless carrier. Because of the scalable solution RCN Metro implemented, it is capable of providing additional bandwidth to this customer in a matter of days.
Benefits
- Speeds time to market – RCN Metro eliminates unwanted bureaucracy and provides rapid circuit turn up to ensure the carrier has the bandwidth available when and where they need it, guaranteed.
- High Availability – For wireless carriers, dropped calls lead to lost customers – so having a reliable network is crucial to this customer’s success. Utilizing unique ROWs, RCN Metro was able to provide the carrier with a network that is truly diverse. That level of diversity, combined with RCN Metro’s network protection switching, ensures the carrier will achieve maximum network availability.
- Rapid Response – RCN Metro was able to quickly mobilize resources and build this complex network within the carrier’s aggressive timeframe and to their exact specifications. In addition, the RCN Metro Optical Networks design allows for additional bandwidth to be provisioned in an extremely short interval.
- Scalable – With RCN Metro, this carrier’s customers won’t receive busy signals. RCN Metro Optical Networks has designed the network to anticipate and facilitate smooth, linear growth. This ensures that the carrier can rapidly increase capacity as business needs dictate.
- Reliable – RCN Metro provides 24x7 network monitoring and technical support, and proactively keeps the carrier informed on how each of its circuits are performing.