UNSi finishes expanding Midwestern Carrier Ethernet networks, looks to future

Now that it's finished upgrading its Dallas and Denver POPs into full border gateway interconnects (BGI) -not to mention adding a new POP BGI in St. Louis, MO- United Network Services, Inc. is looking to the future of Carrier Ethernet in the Midwestern United States.

UNSi has been expanding all summer. Back in June, in order to strengthen its position in the enterprise and carrier markets, UNSi acquired IPNetZone Communications. That acquisition gives UNSi a total of 18 POPs in the United States, along with more than 150 NNIs and partnerships with almost 2,000 network providers.

UNSi is optimistic about the markets for MPLS and Ethernet services. According to Allan Schwartz, UNSi senior vice president of strategic planning and business development, the company sensed significant opportunity in establishing connection locations throughout the Midwest.

Cell site backhaul has been determined to be a growth market for Carrier Ethernet. Customers have realized how flexible and affordable Ethernet services are, and they're  now demanding Ethernet services starting at 50 Mbps. Most operators are actively rolling out 4G/LTE as fast as they can to keep up with demand.

Mr. Schwartz explained that UNSI's network was built with Carrier Ethernet in mind. Instead of rebuilding TDM networks from scratch, UNSI chose to augment existing networks with next-generation Ethernet and VPLS capabilities.

James Karimi, SVP and CTO, cited future challenges that UNSi would encounter as its networks grew. One of them is simplifying the implementation of OAM (Operations, Administrations, and Maintenance.) The complicated process can be a bother for monitoring services that need to cross carrier networks. And when you're a company like UNSi, who has partnerships with thousands of network operators...

To that end, SVP Karimi was of the opinion that Carrier Ethernet equipment manufacturers should perform RFC 2544 testing all types of switches, be they core switches or premise switches.

Raisecom, Symmetricom synchronize mobile backhaul networks

A partnership between mobile backhaul solutions company Raisecom Technology and precise timekeeping equipment manufacturer Symmetricom successfully tested the interoperability of LTE wireless backhaul networks through the use of synchronization.

As part of their SyncWorld Ecosystem Program, Raisecom and Symmetricom executed a comprehensive interoperability test. Their aim was to use ITU.T G.8261 and the IEEE 1588-2008 synchronization protocol to validate LTE mobile backhaul deployment scenarios over packet networks.

For the test, Raisecom provided its iTN201 Carrier Ethernet Edge device, which was powered by a Symmetricom TimeProvider 5000 IEEE 1588-2008 Grandmaster clock.

The Symmetricom clock is a carrier-grade timing source that boasts of high client capacity, hardware-based packet processing, and redundant hardware. It matches up the synchronization needs of next-generation networks like as Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), IEEE 1588 (PTP), and Network Time Protocol (NTP) timing protocols that operate using the iTN201 Carrier Ethernet Edge.

The successful test with Symmetricom means that Raisecom has achieved the status of a SyncWorld network equipment partner. Network equipment partners are technology vendors that have performed extensive and successful interoperability testing with Symmetricom timekeeping products. Raisecom and its fellow partners will work together in various ways to ensure effective operation of the joint solution in specific scenarios.

By testing its systems' interoperability with mobile backhaul networks, Raisecom will help wireless network carriers and service providers to find cost-effective and future-proof ways to establish new networks or upgrade existing wireless networks.