US Signal Deploys Cisco ASR 9000 Series for Enhanced Carrier Ethernet and New Managed Data Center Services

Investment Enables New Managed Service Opportunities While Minimizing Operational Expenses, Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series

US Signal is upgrading its Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) to support faster virtual Carrier Ethernet services and increase the adoption of its new Managed Data Center service, also known as Infrastructure-as-a-Service, by its enterprise customers.

Driven by increased customer demand for greater bandwidth to handle video, cloud and advanced collaboration services, the new IP NGN will enable US Signal to offer virtual Ethernet services up to 100 Gbps and grow its data center customer base. Integral to this growth will be the deployment of the Cisco® ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers for enhanced capacity, high resiliency and robust IPv6 support.

“We are pleased that US Signal has chosen the Cisco ASR 9000 Series as the foundation of its business and network. US Signal and Cisco have collaborated on this advanced, service-enabled IP Next-Generation Network that will help US Signal further its innovation of next-generation experiences for their customers,” said Surya Panditi, senior vice president and general manager, core technology group, Cisco.

The US Signal fiber optic network is one of the largest in the Midwest of the United States. With over 12,000 fiber route miles metro rings in 23 strategic markets, the US Signal optical backbone features advanced Cisco Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology in a highly resilient architecture. All of US Signal’s services are delivered over this protected IP NGN.

The US Signal Managed Data Center service is built with dedicated resource pools designed to rapidly provision and host Virtual Private Servers accessible through the upgraded US Signal IP NGN. Adding Managed Data Center service makes US Signal one of the first service providers in the Midwest to offer customers the opportunity to build Virtual Private Cloud environments.

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series utilizes the modular Cisco IOS® XR software operating system, simplifying network operations while enabling comprehensive system redundancy and intelligent routing for cloud computing-based services.

Cisco predicts that the number of network-connected devices will be more than 15 billion, twice the world’s population, by 2015. In the fifth annual Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-2015) released June 1, the company also said the total amount of global Internet traffic will quadruple by 2015 and reach 966 exabytes per year.

Aaron Shaver, director of product engineering, US Signal said, “The Cisco ASR 9000 platform has enabled US Signal to rapidly scale out our next-generation network to meet growing customer bandwidth requirements. Our collaboration with Cisco helps us maintain our industry-leading reputation, reduce infrastructure costs and is integral to our continued success.”