5 May 2015

MBC deploys Infinera for terabit network upgrade for education, R&D and big-data projects

Wholesale open-access transport provider Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC) has deployed the DTN-X packet optical transport networking platform of Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The Infinera Intelligent Transport Network, featuring the DTN-X platform, enables MBC to increase network scale to several terabits per second of connectivity across Virginia.

MBC has partnered with the Mid-Atlantic Research Infrastructure Alliance (MARIA), which co-invested in the network upgrade to support their 100Gb/s connections to Internet2 and collaborations with R&D institutions. MARIA is a non-profit corporation that brings together Virginia's major research universities to facilitate access to shared technology infrastructure for research (i.e. cyberinfrastructure). MARIA members include the College of William and Mary, George Mason University, James Madison University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech. Internet2 is currently the USA's largest and fastest, globally connected Research and Education network.

Infinera says that the design of its DTN-X platform enables MBC's core transport network backbone to grow by tenfold, meeting the rapidly advancing needs of high-performance, data-intensive research and collaboration for biotech and big-data applications now and in the future. The network enhancement positions MBC and the Southern Virginia region as among the best-connected in the country, it is reckoned.

The DTN-X platform enables MBC to deliver capacity of 100Gb/s coherent transmission today via 500Gb/s super-channels, with a forward-scale design to support terabit super-channels in the future. The high-capacity super-channels are enabled by 500Gb/s photonic integrated circuits developed and fabricated by Infinera, which claims to be the only supplier delivering 500Gb/s of transmission capacity from a single line-card. PICs enable the DTN-X platform to integrate dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) super-channel transmission with the potential to expand up to 12Tb/s of non-blocking optical transport network switching, providing seamless expansion as traffic requirements grow in the future.

"Infinera's innovative optical transport solutions have been the foundation of MBC's open-access transport network since our inception," comments MBC's president & CEO Tad Deriso. "The upgraded MBC network continues to be operationally simple and will deliver initial capacity of 4Tb/s while greatly improving our non-profit mission of promoting economic development and bridging the digital divide," he adds. 

Tags: Infinera PIC InP

Visit: www.mbc-va.com

Visit: www.infinera.com