ADVA Optical Networking today announced that Belgacom International Carrier Services (ICS), one of the world’s largest wholesale voice carriers and a world leader in data transit services, has deployed the ADVA FSP 3000 to offer competitive 1Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s Ethernet and wholesale STM-1/4/16/64 wavelength services to its customers.

In the competitive marketplace for carrier-to-carrier applications, service providers are under pressure to respond quickly to customers’ requests and offer highly complex wholesale interconnect and storage area networking (SAN) solutions at the lowest possible cost. Because a presence at the most sought-after interconnection points is mandatory, Belgacom ICS relies on its more than 90 global points of presence (POPs) in cities like Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Milan, Paris and Zurich.

In these major locations, the carrier has built metro rings, which span up to 130 km and connect the carrier’s primary local data centers via high-speed, high-capacity WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) links. These rings provide Belgacom ICS a flexible and easily expandable transport infrastructure. The rings depend on the use of reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), which enable Belgacom ICS to automate the provisioning of new services, reach remote locations and decrease complexity in its network.

In planning this city-ring approach, Belgacom ICS considered numerous factors, including the need to deliver a broad spectrum of transmissions speeds (from 100Mbit/s to 40Gbit/s) on the same platform and with a minimum of channel cards. The carrier also considered solutions that would deliver built-in capacity of 40 wavelengths at the optical layer and enable automated deployment of services.

“The increasing competitiveness of today’s market creates a challenge: build the highest degrees of flexibility and scalability into our network, at the lowest possible cost,” said Patrick George, vice president marketing and product management at Belgacom ICS. “The ADVA FSP 3000, with its ROADM-based platform and multi-service cards, was the perfect fit. It enabled us to increase the flexibility and overall quality of our network, while lowering power consumption, provisioning time and overall sparing and OPEX costs. ADVA Optical Networking has proven to be an extremely reliable and flexible partner.”  

“Serving the world’s ‘Best Wholesale Carrier 2008’ is an honor, and this drives us to be even more innovative and quality-focused,” commented Yann Evain, sales director Benelux for ADVA Optical Networking. “By deploying the ADVA FSP 3000 in its city rings and interconnecting them with its long-haul optical network, Belgacom ICS has put in place an ideal ecosystem that decreases operational burden while ensuring scalability and reliability. This solution provides the foundation for new services and increased customer satisfaction.”