The implementation uses Juniper Networks routers and Ciena’s 100G Ethernet optical transport solution on the company’s European backbone segment between Paris and Frankfurt, a distance of about 555 miles. 

Use of the technology allows [...]]]>

Verizon (www.verizon.com) has turned up standard-based 100 gigabit Ethernet on a portion of its European IP long-haul network.

The implementation uses Juniper Networks routers and Ciena’s 100G Ethernet optical transport solution on the company’s European backbone segment between Paris and Frankfurt, a distance of about 555 miles. 

Use of the technology allows consolidation of traffic onto a single 100G channel rather than a bunch of 10G channels, so you get better efficiency and ultimately a more cost-effective solution.  The upgrade can be performed “quickly and easily” without having to change fiber.

Going into effect on September 18 (Saturday? Why Saturday?), getting a DS1 will (should) take seven days, while a Ds3 will take 8 days.

Verizon says [...]]]>

Verizon Global Wholesale (www.verizon.com) has announced it is standardizing its provisioning intervals for D1 and D3 circuits the company offers in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

Going into effect on September 18 (Saturday? Why Saturday?), getting a DS1 will (should) take seven days, while a Ds3 will take 8 days.

Verizon says that the new ordering will help wholesale customers with greater uniformity with their own service offerings annnnnd that most intervals have been reduced up to 33 percent.

Needless to say, Verizon says that the new provisioning intervals mean that customers won’t have to order expedites, thereby reducing costs for expedites, etc etc…

The trial used Alcatel-Lucent gear deployed in Verizon’s switched Ethernet services (SES) network in Dallas, with data successfully transmitting data over 12.7 kilometers (7.9 miles) over field fiber.

Verizon SES is a next-generation switched Ethernet service allowing customers [...]]]>

Verizon recently completed a field trial with 100 gigabit-per-second Ethernet (100GE) on a metro Ethernet infrastructure.

The trial used Alcatel-Lucent gear deployed in Verizon’s switched Ethernet services (SES) network in Dallas, with data successfully transmitting data over 12.7 kilometers (7.9 miles) over field fiber.

Verizon SES is a next-generation switched Ethernet service allowing customers to easily interconnect locations within a metrowide network as well as access both private and public WANs using optical fiber-based access.

The trial was run from June 14 to 18 and used existing Alcatel-Lucent 7450 switching equipment with new plug-in cards to place native 100GE traffic on a single fiber for the high-speed links.

Alcatel-Lucent’s 74540 ESS nodes used 100GE service interfaces with 100GBASE-LR10 optics, providing low-cost, high-bandwidth transport over distances of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

The use of 100GE in a metro application dovetails quite nicely with Verizon’s testing of live 100G hardware over the past three years in longer-haul applications with different vendors. Verizon worked with Alcatel-Lucent to do a 100G optical transmission on a fiber route between Tampa, Florida and Miami, while Verizon worked with Nortel and Nokia Siemens for other 100G demonstrations.

New VoIP enhancements and features planned this year include the development of “more robust” VoIP network interfaces in Europe, caller-provided CLI and greater integration into customer portals.

The OWS to SONET ring services enable the simple provisioning of OWS circuits without having to add nodes.

The new 10G OWS Facilities with multiplex wave [...]]]>

Verizon Global Wholesale (www.verizon.com) is adding a bunch of enhancements to its Optical Wave Service, including OWS to SONET ring services and 40Gbps on OC768C point-to-point links

The OWS to SONET ring services enable the simple provisioning of OWS circuits without having to add nodes.

The new 10G OWS Facilities with multiplex wave services on one end allows customers to aggregate lower speed services at a Verizon switching center onto a 10G wave service or to deliver OWS from a customer location into a collocation space.

Finally, for the “I feel the need, the need for speed” crowd, carriers can now get 40Gbps on an OC768c link in a point-to-point connection.

According to Verizon, it is the only “major provider” offering IPSec, adding an additional layer of standardized security goodness without requiring vendor-specific security [...]]]>

Verizon (www.verizon.com) Global Wholesale has added IPsec tunneling to its SIP Gateway Service, toll free IP termination, and carrier IP termination transport.  All three services can share a single IPsec connection.

According to Verizon, it is the only “major provider” offering IPSec, adding an additional layer of standardized security goodness without requiring vendor-specific security protocols.

Verizon says its SIP Gateway service carriers billions of minutes of use per quarter.

Verizon Computing as a Service (CaaS) now supports server cloning for rapid deployment of [...]]]>

Verizon Business (www.verizonbusiness.com) announced enhancements to its cloud computing offering and dedicated delivery pipes for large content providers; Verizon is bragging about “flowing” up to half a terabyte per second from Internet and video content owners directly onto its network.

Verizon Computing as a Service (CaaS) now supports server cloning for rapid deployment of multiple services supporting the same app, SUSE Linux is a standard service offering, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has been added as a “click to provision” database server option, and enterprise customers now can use virtual router and virtual private network solutiosn to connect back-end systems to Verizon CaaS and buy metered, burstable bandwidth up to 1 Gbps for surge needs.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s Partner Port Program provides direct connections with content owner servers to the Verizon network at content deliver access points across the country.  The direct links allow big content providers to bypass traditional “peering” systems with multi-hop paths that can cause latency and quality issues for data delivery to end users.

The Partner Port Program is utilized by “a number of “ individual content companies as well as content aggregators that offer content delivery services to end users.  Current “on-ramps” for customer network include 10 GigE and include support for IPv6 throughout the network.

Verizon plans to scale up this offering with a 100 gigabit Ethernet backbone in the “very near” future and the company is also expanding the offering to Verizon IP networks in Europe and Asia.

In the past, Verizon lobbyists have left the option of a metered plan open, prefacing it [...]]]>

No sooner than the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) talked up formalizing Net Neutrality policy than did Verizon CTO Dick Lynch appear a week later and talked smack about metered bandwidth options. Hmm, could these items be related? Hmm…

In the past, Verizon lobbyists have left the option of a metered plan open, prefacing it with the thought of “We don’t need it since FiOS just slays cable company infrastructure.”    The party line out of Verizon last week was “We can’t continue to grow the internet without passing along the cost to someone” and the idea floated about at the Fiber-to-The-Home conference was a tiered approach with people paying more for the amount of bandwidth they consume per month.

Currently, Verizon DSL and FiOS customers pay a flat rate per month for the speed they get delivered to their home, paying much more for the very highest tier of service than the entry level and mid-range speeds.

For those of us with gray hair, this isn’t the first time Verizon has invoked the idea of paying per byte.  It has come up with dial-up and mobile broadband, so this not really “new.  But the current crazy talk is Verizon’s way of signaling its discomfort with the FCC’s latest proposals.

One also might wash to consider the potential for anti-trust considerations if Verizon and the cable companies introduced tiered pricing at the same time net neutrality legislation came into the fore.

1)  [...]]]>

This week, word came out that Verizon is pulling the plug on its Hub media phone and VoIP service — all the more ironic given a report out this week saying media phones will be big business in the future. In retrospect, Verizon’s Hub product was doomed from its launch for three reasons.

1)  Hub was neither fish nor fowl — it was a broadband service being sold through Verizon Wireless stores/outlets because Verizon (wireline) had no consumer outlets.  There was no real champion for the concept and you didn’t see it get the (advertising) airwaves that the stock Verizon Wireless service did week after week.

Sure, it had some whistles that allowed it to access Verizon Wireless services, but you could get those through any vanilla web browser.

2) Priced to fail – You needed a two year contract for the Verizon Hub AND pay for the hardware. Oh yes, let me run to the store, pay $35 per month for an (overpriced) VoIP service and then shell out another $200 bucks for the hardware.

It’s the same sort of “Let’s charge more” strategy that has kept femtocells on the backburner at wireless carriers. Which leads me to the final point..

3) It wasn’t anything Really Special.  People will pay more for better service, but Hub was a glorified cheap tablet PC with a vanilla VoIP contract anchoring it.  I could be catty and say it would have been better with HD voice, but that’s an apples and oranges comparison — HD would have been a superior service to vanilla VoIP.