Telstra has extended its new global Software Defined Networking (SDN) Platform into the optical layer, enabling high-bandwidth provisioning up to 100G and automated fault restoration across its global Points of Presence (PoPs).
The announcement follows Telstra’s recent acquisition of Pacnet, a provider of connectivity, managed services and data centre services to carriers, multinational corporations and governments in the Asia-Pacific region. The Pacnet Enabled Network (PEN)an SDN-based service delivery platform with automated provisioning capabilities.
Telstra now operates 25 PEN Points of Presence across eight countries – including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and the UK. Additional connectivity options into public Cloud services to bridge hybrid Cloud deployments are available too.
Jim Clarke, Telstra’s Director of Marketing, Product and Pricing – International, said the extension of SDN and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) capabilities into Layer 1 followed the announcement last month that Telstra had added nine Telstra PEN PoPs to Pacnet’s existing footprint of sixteen PoPs across Asia, creating a globally connected on-demand networking Platform.
“Extending our global PEN platform into the optical layer is the natural next step in our SDN strategy and by providing this infrastructure on demand, we’re able to significantly shorten the provisioning cycle times and better meet our customers’ growing high-bandwidth needs.
“This is an exciting milestone in Telstra’s SDN journey and by leveraging our high quality infrastructure assets and Pacnet’s leadership in early adoption of SDN technology, we will continue to innovate and deliver cost-efficient virtualised network resources to our customers,” Mr Clarke said.
“We believe it’s time for global networks to evolve. The applications of tomorrow require a different kind of network and this latest enhancement to the PEN Platform means we now have the unique capability to provide customers with on-demand provisioning of their network services up to 100G, whenever they want it and wherever they are based.
“Furthermore, Telstra plans to extend virtualisation to its suite of Managed Services offerings which means we can now, more than ever, deliver the choice and flexibility our customers require, in an age of bandwidth hungry applications, fuelled by distributed computing, big data and mobility,” Mr Clarke concluded.
In March 2015,
In March 2015, Infinera announced that Pacnet, which operates submarine cable systems connecting 15 cities in the Asia-Pacific region, has deployed the new Infinera Open Transport Switch (OTS) software to extend virtualization into the optical layer of its network. Pacnet’s existing Intelligent Transport Network is based on the Infinera DTN-X packet optical transport networking platform.
Infinera’s OTS is now deployed within the Pacnet Enabled Network (PEN), which is an SDN-based service delivery platform that offers Layer 2 Ethernet services on-demand from 1 megabit per second to 10 Gbps. PEN delivers scalable bandwidth and software-enabled intelligence, allowing customers to dynamically provision bandwidth in minutes through a custom portal based on their business needs.
The combination of Infinera’s DTN-X platform with the new Open Transport Switch allows PEN to offer a Layer 1 transport bandwidth on-demand service in increments of N x 10 Gbps. It is designed to allow services in increments of N x 100 Gbps for high-capacity customers in the future. The deployment runs in Hybrid Control mode, with new services leveraging bandwidth under SDN control, while existing production services continue to operate using their Infinera DNA network management system.
