Force10 Networks has announced that Buckeye TeleSystem has selected its ExaScale E-Series core switch/router and S-Series access switches to power the 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) core of its telecommunications infrastructure, which delivers voice and data services to more than 7,500 businesses in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.

Established in 1994, Buckeye TeleSystem began offering voice and data solutions to mid-to-large size businesses in the metro Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio areas over its fiber-optic network. To accommodate high demand and leveraging the newest technologies, Buckeye expanded its original offerings to include small business services. A longtime Force10 customer that previously deployed several Traverse Multiservice Transport Switches, Buckeye TeleSystem is furthering its telecom architecture investment with Force10 by deploying high-performance switch/routers to ensure the scalable delivery of commercial voice and data services as well as wireless backhaul over their Ethernet infrastructure.  

"As our business grows both in terms of area coverage and customers supported, our network performance and capacity requirements scale exponentially," says Doug Ward, director, network operations, Buckeye TeleSystem. "Force10's ExaScale E-Series offered better density, performance and inherent redundancy and overall cost-competitiveness when compared with our legacy vendor.  Also, our experience with the Traverse product line in our transport network demonstrated that Force10 technology delivers on its promise."

Building Large Capacity, Carrier-Grade Infrastructures

Buckeye TeleSystem is deploying Force10's ExaScale E-Series 1200 and multiple S25 access switches to enable seamless delivery of next-generation data services across their extensive regional network. ExaScale provides support for the industry's leading 10 GbE and GbE densities for a half-rack chassis and a non-blocking, line-rate switching fabric that scales up to 3.5 Tbps capacity. The 40/100 GbE-ready Force10 ExaScale E-Series is designed to deliver the performance, availability, resiliency and flexibility essential to power these new dynamic environments while significantly lowering total operating and management costs.

The energy-efficient architecture of the Force10 ExaScale core switch/router is also proven to offer a significant advantage over competing products. According to recent independent testing from The Tolly Group, the ExaScale consumes less than half the power of the Cisco Nexus 7000 and 23% less power than Juniper in line-rate GbE and 10 GbE configurations, a switching requirement that is common in most core networks.

"Buckeye TeleSystem has a long tradition of embracing best-of-breed technologies and making continuous network upgrades to ensure customer satisfaction and consistent revenue streams," says Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing, Force10 Networks. "By utilizing the ExaScale virtualized core switch/router, Buckeye will now have the true non-blocking, line-rate infrastructure to answer the needs of a growing customer base who also demand a larger telecom feature set. Force10 solutions deliver high-performance switching and routing capabilities at a lower cost than its competitors. Force10 is a valued partner in helping Buckeye transition to the next-generation of high-density Ethernet/IP services."