Enterprises, carriers, and service providers are being surrounded by a number of competing forces. The monumental growth in multimedia content and the always continuing business pressures to reduce costs while revenues remain flat are converging to wreak havoc on traditional network business models.
On top of this, the growth of the cloud, 5G, and other new technology are forcing companies to keep up in order to stay competitive and offer the most optimal network to its consumers. Cloud adoption statistics reveal that in 2020 a staggering 83 percent of the companies’ workload was stored on the cloud. As for 5G, the new network is predicted to grow and cover 40 percent of the world by 2024, handling 25 percent of all mobile traffic data.
With the rise in bandwidth needs driven by 5G, cloud computing and data backup starting to drive where network priorities lay, organizations are turning to innovative technology to revolutionize network infrastructure design and operations.
Today, Ribbon, a global provider of real-time communications software and IP Optical networking solutions to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors, announced that Rogers Communications, a leading Canadian-based technology, and media company, has selected Ribbon’s optical networking solution to upgrade its transport network.
Rogers is one of the first tier-one North American service providers to leverage DWDM 400G ZR+ technology, which supports multiple 400 Gigabits-per-second (400G) connections for increased capacity across its national footprint.
“We are thrilled to expand our already strong partnership with Rogers,” said Dave Shier, Ribbon’s Vice President of Sales for Canada. “We look forward to leveraging our strong presence in Canada to support the deployment of Rogers’ innovative Optical Transport network.”
The deployment is powered by Ribbon’s Apollo optical networking and MUSE SDN platforms. The MUSE Software Defined Networking (SDN) Domain Orchestrator enables Rogers to design and analyze their optical network deployment, rapidly automate the creation of new services, and ensure the network is optimized, available, and running at peak efficiency. The solution is designed to provide unparalleled levels of performance and agility for both metro and long-haul networks.
“The deployment of this technology for world-class telecommunications networks is an important step forward for the industry,” said Ian Redpath, Practice Leader, Transport and Components, Omdia. “When compared to existing embedded solutions, 400G ZR+ is an innovative technology that offers numerous benefits, including lowering the cost per bit, reducing power consumption, and simplifying network sparing.”
400G is the future of optical network transport, allowing 400 billion bits of information to travel down a single optical wavelength per second. And with the rate of technology adoption continuing to accelerate, 400G-capable solutions took under a year to ramp to 5,000 deployed transponders, which was three times faster than 100G.
The SDN technology in MUSE is a network architecture approach that enables the network to be intelligently and centrally controlled, or ‘programmed,’ using software applications. This helps operators manage the entire network consistently and holistically, regardless of the underlying network technology.
“At Rogers, we remain focused on enhancing and expanding our networks to bring our customers the most reliable wireless experience in the country,” said Kye Prigg from Rogers, Senior Vice President, Access Networks and Operations. “Our agreement with Ribbon will help us continue to maximize the efficiency and performance of our network, utilizing the latest in software-defined network technology to help bolster Canada’s most reliable wireless network.”
The enterprise network is being pushed to support all sorts of digital transformation efforts. Technology is only set to become even more essential to the way businesses will be run in the near future, with CEOs and business leaders leveraging every capable solution, program, and device necessary to give them a competitive edge. Technology, such as SDN and Optical networking, with the capabilities to provide the functions needed to support this enterprise, digital transformation will only become more critical.
“Rogers is demonstrating their foresight, leadership, and innovation by being one of the first major service providers in North America to introduce 400G ZR+ technology, which will allow them to modernize their transport network,” said Sam Bucci, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Ribbon’s IP Optical Networks Business Unit. “We are delighted that Rogers saw the differentiation in our solutions and entrusted Ribbon with this strategic rollout. Our Optical Transport solution enables Rogers to help future-proof their network and extend their leadership in 5G services deployment across Canada.”
Edited by
Luke Bellos
