March 25, 2010

Neutral Tandem Deploys Cisco ASR 9000

By Madhubanti Rudra
TMCnet Contributor

The Ethernet market has recently witnessed an agreement between networking leader Cisco (News - Alert) and Neutral Tandem – a leading provider of tandem interconnection services to wireless, wireline, cable and broadband telephony companies. The latter has selected Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers to support its new Ethernet eXchange service.

It is not Neutral Tandem (News - Alert) alone that will be benefited by this agreement; the deal between the two industry giants is going to strengthen the entire Ethernet market as well.

With the proliferation of rich video contents, there has been significant surge in the traffic and as a consequence there emerged a strong Ethernet market.

However, this has dramatically increased the demands for Internetwork connectivity among service providers. In the absence of sufficient internetwork connectivity solutions, Ethernet service providers are often forced to work through complex and time-consuming customized interconnection agreements. This comes into the way of delivering quality services to the end udders.

Through its Ethernet eXchange service, Neutral Tandem seeks to overcome this challenge.  Ethernet eXchange service aims at providing Ethernet service providers a more efficient and simplified method of interconnecting on a many-to-many basis.

In recent times, there has been a significant surge in the demand from service providers offering Ethernet services to enterprises, as well as wireless carriers using Ethernet for mobile backhaul to address the dramatic increase in data traffic on mobile broadband networks. Neutral Tandem has been rapidly deploying its Ethernet eXchange offering in key markets across the United State to meet with the increased demands.

Cisco ASR 9000 platform is designed to improve and enhance Neutral Tandem’s Ethernet eXchange service.

The Cisco ASR 9000 platform, capable of 6.4 terabytes per second, utilizes the modular Cisco IOS XR software operating system, simplifying network operations for Neutral Tandem while enabling comprehensive system redundancy and network resiliency.

According to Neutral Tandem, the company is going to earn a competitive edge by deploying Active Network Abstraction, or “ANA.” The deployment will enable a simple self-service portal to facilitate customer provisioning of Ethernet exchange services and lowering Mean Time to Repair, or “MTTR,” through ANA’s end-to-end monitoring and correlation capabilities.

It is also expected that Cisco’s multiservice and multi-technology network management system would enhance Neutral Tandem’s operational efficiency and drive Operations Support Systems, or “OSS,” automation.

The Cisco Visual Networking Index, or “VNI,” Forecast and Methodology, 2008-2013 projects that consumer broadband usage and global IP Next-Generation Network traffic will continue to climb significantly due to the new forms and expanded usage of interactive media, and the explosion of video content across multiple devices. Global IP traffic is expected to increase fivefold from 2008 to 2013, approaching 56 exabytes per month in 2013, up from approximately 10 exabytes per month in 2008.

“We anticipate that our new Ethernet eXchange platform will help service providers accelerate revenue in the rapidly growing Ethernet market. The Cisco ASR 9000, with its high resiliency and the capability to scale to 100GE, is the ideal foundation of our new service infrastructure. This platform -- together with our proven experience in interconnecting carriers, IP next-generation backbone network, technical resources and footprint in key metropolitan markets -- will form a winning combination,” said Rian Wren, president and CEO, Neutral Tandem.

Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Kelly McGuire