SCIENCE

Brocade has announced that SpringNet upgraded and expanded its existing Brocade wide area network (WAN) to offer a broader range of Ethernet services to business customers. Brocade's high density Multiprotocol Label Services (MPLS) and IPv6-ready routers enable SpringNet to maintain business continuity and ultimately attract a larger base of enterprise customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies, major hospitals and city utilities.

"Our customers expect zero network downtime and demand exceptional performance from their services," said Todd Christell, manager of network architecture and support for SpringNet. "We are always striving to improve our performance and measurement capabilities to ensure a high-quality customer experience. Brocade products give us that competitive advantage in the market. Our direct competitors can't offer these services, let alone meet our install or service upgrade times."

Using MPLS routing in their Brocade infrastructure, SpringNet can help ensure a high-quality user experience with performance sensitive applications such as high-definition video and voice. SpringNet can isolate and prioritize specific traffic so that customers' large file transfer and sensitive video applications can be delivered without latency or jitter. Management is further eased and enhanced using the Brocade IronView Network Manager to help administer, configure, and troubleshoot their expansive IP network.

"Our network has hundreds of virtual LANs (VLAN) that can span multiple Brocade nodes. IronView Network Manager makes adding VLANs simple because we do not have to log into every node and manually configure the circuit," said Christell. "IronView Network Manager makes locating and tracing a VLAN through our network very visual and easy to understand."

With a metro WAN that demands finely-tuned operational efficiency, the SpringNet infrastructure spans approximately 400 miles of fiber throughout the Springfield metro area with the ability to reach nearly every business in the region with broadband services. For the last decade, SpringNet has relied on its Brocade networking infrastructure solutions to provide businesses with unique Internet services allowing SpringNet customers to instantly burst to 100 Mbps when additional bandwidth is needed. This is an increasingly frequent occurrence due to the unpredictable nature of bandwidth intensive online video driven by major sporting events, news and video entertainment.

To accommodate the increasing volume of traffic, SpringNet re-evaluated different network platforms to upgrade its existing network to a minimum of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) at the network core. After comparing the technology, feature sets, and price/performance of various platforms, SpringNet selected Brocade NetIron CES 2000 routers, NetIron CER 2000 routers, and Brocade MLX Series routers based on their dramatically low total cost of ownership (TCO) and their exceptional 10 GbE port density, advanced feature set and performance. Their exceptional value enabled SpringNet to not only increase revenue but also realize new revenue streams previously unattainable.

Another driving factor that influenced SpringNet's final decision on Brocade technology was the ability to seamlessly upgrade its current Brocade MLX Series infrastructure to 10 GbE incrementally and support IPv6, an essential requirement in advanced service provider networks. The Brocade routers are also highly scalable, enabling SpringNet to deploy routers with GbE bandwidth in less demanding areas, then easily upgrade to 10 GbE as demand begins to spike.

"Brocade won both the technical evaluation and the total cost of ownership evaluation," says Todd Murren, director for the SpringNet Business Unit. "Brocade was clearly the best choice for our metro network after an exhaustive and multifaceted evaluation process of all the top vendors."