Verizon (News 
- Alert) is laying the foundation to combat the explosive demand created by video, mobile and cloud services. It's planning to upgrade its IP network infrastructure in select U.S. markets and hence improve its network with increased functionality. This will enable the network to seamlessly accommodate growth where traffic demand is the greatest.
It plans to extend its next-generation 100G capabilities by deploying Cisco's (News - Alert) CRS-3 Carrier Routing System platform. This platform is expected to enable content providers and large-enterprise customers to deliver traffic to Verizon customers in a more efficient manner.
More importantly, the CRS platform is also expected to help Verizon evolve its network strategy to IPv6 by supporting such services. This advanced platform is expected to be deployed in the first half of 2012.
“Upgrading the network using Cisco's CRS-3 platform provides better scale and expanded capabilities that support traffic growth areas such as broadband access and content delivery,” said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of global IP and transport planning and technology for Verizon, in a press release.
The CRS-3 platform, apart from providing100G edge access to the IP network will also assist in the upgradation of Verizon's FiOS (News - Alert) core network. Having relied on the CRS-3 platform for more than four years, the company has been able to simplify its network operations, enable redundancy and improve network resilience.
“These routing platforms will seamlessly accommodate the extraordinary future growth of video traffic, mobile devices and new online services, and we are confident these technologies will play a key role in enabling Verizon to continue delivering advanced new FiOS experiences to its customers,” said Surya Panditi, senior vice president and general manager, core technology group for Cisco, in a statement.
In other news, Verizon recently deployed 100G (gigabits per second) technology on an ultra-long-haul optical system on a portion of the company's U.S. backbone network, thereby creating another industry first by becoming the first global service provide to do so.
Mini Swamy is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
