AT&T Upgrades Nationwide IP/MPLS Backbone to 40 Gbps

AT&T lit its first coast-to-coast, 40 Gbps over its IP/MPLS backbone. AT&T has deployed 40 Gbps (or OC-768) on more than 50,000 wavelength miles of its U.S. IP/MPLS backbone network to date, connecting major U.S. cities. The deployment includes 18,000 miles of recently enhanced optical ultralong haul routes capable of eventually carrying customer voice and data traffic at speeds up to 100 Gbps with minimized latency. By year's end, more than 40 percent of the IP traffic carried over the company's backbone network will ride on this new-generation platform.



AT&T said it plans to continue deploying 40 Gbps technology and ultimately connect major IP/MPLS network hubs in 25 major U.S. metropolitan areas in the coming months.



The new-generation AT&T backbone network carries a full range of IP-based services, including wireless data, business video, data and voice services, private line and wavelength traffic, as well as IP-based residential services and Internet access for AT&T's 13.8 million DSL and AT&T U-verse customers.



AT&T is currently carrying more than 13.4 petabytes of data traffic on an average business day.



Additionally, AT&T said its 40 Gbps backbone is designed and managed for maximum resiliency in the event of a natural or man-made disruption, including the ability to continue transport in the event of disruption of any single network link or node. In the coming months, the network will be enhanced with diversely homed edge sites, which provide multiple network paths through each network hub, as well as MPLS Fast Reroute technology, which enables service restoration in less than one second.



To support the current network upgrade in the U.S. and planned future upgrades internationally, AT&T has selected the Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) as the core platform for the backbone expansion.



"As the demand for Internet and IP-based applications continues to explode, IP traffic on the AT&T network has doubled throughout the past two years, and we fully expect this substantial growth to continue in the future," said John Stankey, group president of Telecom Operations at AT&T. "Our industry-leading deployment of 40-Gigabit technology enables us to stay ahead of our customers' growing need for bandwidth and to continually deliver the fast, reliable connectivity our customers need to connect with their world."


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