Windstream Wholesale launches Managed Spectrum optical transport

 Windstream Wholesale announced nationwide availability of Managed Spectrum, a new network architecture solution that provides customers with a dedicated block of photonic capacity measured in GHz. Customers then procure, install, maintain and monitor the service layer equipment, giving them a secure, private connection between two locations within a metropolitan area or across the U.S.

Managed Spectrum, which leverages Windstream Wholesale’s nationwide Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON), provides customers the scalability of a conventional dark fiber offering without the operational overhead that comes with building, managing and maintaining a network.

“Exponential end-user traffic growth is requiring carriers to operate with greater agility, automation, cost-optimization and network flexibility,” said Joe Scattareggia, chief revenue officer for Windstream Wholesale. “The continuing evolution of Windstream Wholesale’s ICON network meets this need by enabling integration of new technologies. ICON’s innovative architecture makes it possible for us to simultaneously support emerging Spectrum services along with our traditional lit solutions, and that’s a huge advance for the high-bandwidth marketplace.”

In March 2021, Windstream Wholesale and Colt Technology Services, a leading provider of high bandwidth and on-demand connectivity, announced a successful trial of Managed Spectrum services. Colt leveraged the Windstream Flex grid open line system between Chicago and Ashburn, Va., using their own coherent transmission system in that trial. Colt leveraged the Windstream-provided Managed Spectrum to deliver multiple 100GE and 400GE services, traversing nearly 1,800 kilometers between the business hubs.

Colt has recently purchased three routes from Windstream Wholesale – Chicago to New York; Secaucus, New Jersey, to Ashburn, and Ashburn to Chicago.

“Since the success of our trial with Windstream Wholesale in March 2021, Colt has continued to invest in its high bandwidth, agile, on-demand network – the Colt IQ Network – in the U.S. and pursue innovation and investment in our partnerships. We are excited to build on our collaboration with Windstream with this next step and leverage Windstream’s spectrum services to scale up our backbone capacity and capability in the region,” said Vivek Gaur, Colt’s vice president of Network Engineering.

Windstream’s ICON provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

Windstream Wholesale launches nationwide 400G routes

Monday, June 06, 2022  400G, Windstream  

 Windstream Wholesale announced the following 400G wave service routes:Ashburn, Va., to Chicago, Denver, San Jose and Los AngelesAtlanta to Dallas, Phoenix, San Jose and Los AngelesSeattle to Portland, San Jose and Los AngelesChicago to Dallas and Atlanta“The bandwidth demands facing large enterprise and hyperscale customers are expanding and evolving rapidly as the transition to cloud services and cloud computing accelerates, and Windstream...

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Windstream Wholesale completes 400G ZR+ trials

Monday, April 18, 2022  400ZR, Silicon  

Windstream Wholesale completed interoperability testing of QSFP-DD form factor ZR+ pluggable modules from II-VI and Acacia, now part of Cisco. The tests established 400 Gigabit links in a production environment over a 1,027-kilometer link. The team also leveraged the Marvell Deneb Coherent DSP within a native 0 dBm II-VI pluggable and the Acacia module using the Greylock DSP. Industry standard oFEC algorithms were also used in the trials.“These...

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Windstream Wholesale and Infinera develop Node-on-a-Blade 

Thursday, March 03, 2022  Infinera, Windstream Wholesale  

Windstream Wholesale will transform its optical network infrastructure using an innovative Node-on-a-Blade jointly pioneered by Infinera and Windstream.The companies describe Node-on-a-Blade as the next evolution of ROADM-based solutions that will provide a more advanced and cost-effective approach to optical networking enabling deployment across a wider variety of network locations. Advanced capabilities include a coherent optical channel monitor...

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Windstream Wholesale connects to DC BLOX data center

Windstream Wholesale connected to its second DC BLOX data center at 433 6th St. South in Birmingham, Alabama, which is the first multi-tenant data center in the state of Alabama to receive Uptime Institute’s Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility (TCCF). 

Windstream Wholesale is now taking orders at the location for diverse Wave Services, Ethernet Solutions, and Dedicated Internet Access.

“We are very excited for an additional DC BLOX facility to join our growing portfolio of on-net data centers,” said Joe Scattareggia, chief revenue officer of Windstream Wholesale. “DC BLOX is an outstanding provider of secure, reliable tier III data centers, and Windstream Wholesale is pleased to support its mission of meeting the local and regional needs of businesses in growing communities. We look forward to expanding this valuable partnership with additional DC BLOX locations in the future.”

 https://www.windstreamwholesale.com

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Windstream Wholesale undertakes new branding

Windstream Wholesale is undertaking a new brand identity to capitalize on its “fast and flexible” approach to technology leadership and service delivery.

The new brand identity now features a graphical element logo that symbolizes fluidity in motion.

“Windstream Wholesale is leading the industry in so many ways that it’s time our brand fully incorporate our commitment to challenging the status quo and relentlessly pursuing excellence in the service of our customers,” said Buddy Bayer, president of Windstream Enterprise and Wholesale. “Whether it’s delivering Terabits of long-haul wave capacity to a customer in less than five business days, taking the lead in ultra-fast optical transmission, or rapidly expanding our connections to in-demand data centers, Windstream Wholesale has positioned itself to capitalize on the market’s burgeoning demand for bandwidth and cloud services for years to come.”

https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/national-network-map.pdf

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Windstream Wholesale completes 1000 km 400G ZR+ field trials

Windstream Wholesale completed 1000 km 400G field trials leveraging pluggable modules from II-VI with QSFP-DD-DCO optics that achieve a high transmit power of 0dBm. The trials demonstrated unprecedented performance with strong working margins over a production network route and traversing up to 24 ROADMs in a lab environment.

During the field trial, Windstream Wholesale closed established a 400G link on a 1,000+ kilometer link between Phoenix and Los Angeles using the 0dBm ZR+ qualification units from II-VI with a strong residual margin k, validating suitability for production use. Notably, this performance was achieved with less than 20 watts of power consumption for each module.

“II-VI’s high transmit power 0dBm 400G QSFP-DD DCO transceivers enable Windstream to deploy greatly simplified network architectures, by optically connecting routers directly to access, metro, and regional transport networks without additional intermediary interfaces, eliminating an entire layer of optical equipment,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “This revolution in IP-over-DWDM network architecture achieves significant savings in upfront costs and ongoing expenses, affording Windstream a highly competitive operational model.”

“Our partnership with Windstream on the joint development of the 0dBm 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD-DCO transceivers has allowed II-VI to accelerate the technology development, as proven by the recent success in the field trials,” said Matthias Berger, vice president, coherent technology, II-VI Incorporated. “Demonstrating inter-operability, low power dissipation and native 0dBm output is a ‘triple-play’ of features that will enable IP-over-DWDM for ROADM based networks.”

http://www.windstreamwholesale.com

II-VI ships 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD-DCO transceivers to Windstream Wholesale

Sunday, February 13, 2022  II-VI  

II‐VI confirmed shipment of its 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD-DCO transceiversto Windstream Wholesale for field qualification.II-VI’s 400G transceivers leverage digital coherent optics and offer optical output power of 0 dBm. The transceivers can plug directly into QSFP-DD transceiver slots on IP routers. II-VI said Windstream can leverage this technology to optically connect routers directly to access, metro, and regional DWDM transport networks without...

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Windstream and II-VI to develop 400G QSFP-DD pluggables

Thursday, October 21, 2021  II-VI, Windstream  

Windstream Wholesale is working with II-VI to co-develop next-generation, 400G transceivers. The companies said their joint work will:Deliver the world’s first high-performance 0 dBm, 400G QSFP-DD coherent pluggable module—making these transceivers compatible with existing and emerging modern ROADM based photonic layers supporting multi-service, multi-layer architectures;Significantly increase 400G transceiver density by drastically reducing the...

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Windstream Wholesale and Infinera develop Node-on-a-Blade

Windstream Wholesale will transform its optical network infrastructure using an innovative Node-on-a-Blade jointly pioneered by Infinera and Windstream.

The companies describe Node-on-a-Blade as the next evolution of ROADM-based solutions that will provide a more advanced and cost-effective approach to optical networking enabling deployment across a wider variety of network locations. Advanced capabilities include a coherent optical channel monitor and a coherent probe.

“Node-on-a-Blade technology will be a powerful tool in the evolution and transformation of optical networks,” said Ron Johnson, general manager, optical systems and network solutions group at Infinera. “Infinera is excited to work with Windstream to usher in a new era of optical networking capabilities and the services this new architecture will enable.”

“Networks and service offerings need to transform to provide better support for hyperscale customers as initiatives like distributed computing evolve,” said Art Nichols, vice president of architecture and technology at Windstream. “Key technologies such as Node-on-a-Blade and innovative partners like Infinera will be instrumental in enabling Windstream’s ICON vision to better support continued edge traffic growth and introduce a new class of hyperscale optimized network services that will provide unique value to our customers.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/windstream-wholesale-partners-with-infinera-to-build-next-generation-optical-infrastructure

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Windstream Wholesale connects at Auburn data center

Windstream Wholesale is connecting its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) to the AUBix LLC data center adjacent to Auburn University. AUBix LLC is a 40,000-square-foot, multi-tenant, mission-critical, and CMMC-compliant data center. It connects to Windstream’s point of presence at 55 Marietta in Atlanta, Georgia.

Windstream Wholesale is now taking orders at the new AUBix location for Wave Services, Ethernet Solutions, and Dedicated Internet Access of all speeds.

“We are excited to provide customers with diverse, high-speed connectivity to the AUBix LLC data center,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “This data center is perfectly positioned to meet the needs of hyperscale, government and research-oriented companies across the Southeast. We couldn’t be happier to add AUBix to our suite of top-flight data center partners.”

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Windstream Wholesale lights new route from LA to Las Vegas

Windstream Wholesale turned up a direct route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas via its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) architecture.

This new route offers a more direct, lower latency path for the Asia PAC (APAC) subsea cables landing in Los Angeles to access the growing Las Vegas data center ecosystem. With this addition, Windstream now has three routes connecting Los Angeles to data center facilities in the Las Vegas area including Databank, Switch, Cyxtera and Flexential, among others.

“As more subsea cables land into Los Angeles, there is a tremendous need for the kind of diverse, low-latency connections to domestic data centers that Windstream Wholesale’s expanding network is intentionally designed to deliver,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “Windstream is APAC’s gateway to North America and our ICON network is built to meet this burgeoning demand.”

Windstream’s ICON architecture provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure for wholesale and enterprise technology customers, that features:

• Flexible design options, alien wave support and multi-vendor interoperability;
• More bandwidth, customer-centric design options, and multi-vendor interop support;
• Layer Zero analytics and Layer One analytics that enable Network Health monitoring through Windstream’s carrier portal as a single pane of glass network management tool; and
• Faster provisioning via SDN orchestration for both design-based and intent-based provisioning of wave and Ethernet solutions.

https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wholesale/interactive-map

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Windstream Wholesale connects with EdgeConneX in Tempe

Windstream Wholesale will connect its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) to the EdgeConneX data center in Tempe, Arizona.

The carrier-neutral PHX01 Data Center is located at 3011 South 52nd St., Suite 107, in Tempe, less than 10 minutes from downtown Phoenix. It connects to Windstream’s point of presence at 1710 East Grant St. in Phoenix and houses approximately 30 clients, including cable and content providers, carriers, enterprise-scale customers and international tenants.

A Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute cloud on-ramp is available at Windstream’s Phoenix facility as well as other multi-cloud hybrid solutions through the company’s technology and solution partners. In addition, EdgeConneX enables customers to access leading CSP’s like AWS, Google, Oracle, and IBM.

Windstream Wholesale also has a presence in these EdgeConneX data centers:

• 1003 Donnelly Ave., Atlanta, GA
• 21005 Lahser Rd., Southfield, MI
• 6327 Northeast Evergreen Parkway, Hillsboro OR
• 282 Corliss St., Pittsburgh, PA
• 8535 Highfields, Englewood, CO (Jan 2022)

Windstream Wholesale cites progress with 400G

Wednesday, November 10, 2021  Windstream Wholesale  

Windstream Wholesale  is expanding its 400 Gigabit wave offerings to meet rapidly growing customer demand for high-bandwidth solutions. The carrier cited several milestones:Windstream and Infinera were the first to successfully demonstrate 400 Gig client-side services in April 2020 with commercially available ultra-efficient 400GbE-LR8 QSFP-DD compact pluggable interfaces.In February 2021, Windstream announced that it had deployed 400 Gbps single-wavelength...

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Windstream Wholesale cites progress with 400G

Windstream Wholesale  is expanding its 400 Gigabit wave offerings to meet rapidly growing customer demand for high-bandwidth solutions. The carrier cited several milestones:

Windstream and Infinera were the first to successfully demonstrate 400 Gig client-side services in April 2020 with commercially available ultra-efficient 400GbE-LR8 QSFP-DD compact pluggable interfaces.

In February 2021, Windstream announced that it had deployed 400 Gbps single-wavelength transmission across its long-haul network using Acacia Communications’ pluggable modules. These modules will drive high-capacity optical connections to the network edge to deliver ultra-fast speeds to more end-users than ever before.

In October 2021, Windstream announced that it had partnered with II-VI to co-develop next-generation transceivers that will streamline deployment of 400 gigabit services while significantly reducing costs, power consumption and network complexity.

“Windstream Wholesale has a robust nationwide network with 400 Gigabit waves available to more than 30 sites already in service and more coming online by year’s end,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “Large wholesale and hyperscale customers are looking to deploy high-bandwidth solutions at a lower cost per bit, and our multi-layer open network architecture enables us to deliver these solutions in a way that is fast and flexible and meets their needs.”

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Windstream Wholesale brings DWDM to U.S. military bases

Windstream Wholesale Federal will bring diverse, high-bandwidth DWDM services to a number of U.S. military installations. The builds will be lit by the company’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON).

The new fiber connections include pathways to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, completed earlier this year, as well as to the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard, both of which are scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. Windstream Wholesale Federal currently provides fiber network connections to a number of U.S military installations, including Scott Air Force Base, Mechanicsburg Naval Depot, Fort Knox, and Fort Campbell.

“The Windstream Wholesale network continues to expand to meet the growing data transport needs of our government customers,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “These new fiber builds to U.S. military bases will provide the federal government with vendor diversity, more competitive bids, and customized solutions featuring significantly greater bandwidth, including our market-leading 400 Gigabit services. We are bringing the Windstream Wholesale Fast and Flexible approach to our government agencies.”

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Windstream joins Open ROADM Forum

Windstream has joined Open ROADM, a multi-source agreement forum that defines compatibility standards for optical networking gear. 

Windstream said it continues to be a strong advocate for open standards as demonstrated with its own Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) architecture, which leverages the advantages of a disaggregated network architecture with multi-vendor open line system scalability and alien wave support. Windstream is focused on driving innovation in the disaggregated L0/L1 solutions at the very edge of carrier networks; contributing to transceiver interoperability, in both greenfield and brownfield environments; managing tradeoffs between proprietary performance/efficiency and openness/interoperability; and developing software solutions for managing open networks.

“Windstream is honored to be joining the distinguished group of service providers and vendors that make up Open ROADM,” said Art Nichols, vice president of network architecture and technology. “We share the belief that the best way network providers can drive faster innovation is to introduce openness and programmability into all areas of the network, including the optical arena. Much has already been accomplished by Open ROADM to reduce vendor lock-in and drive multi-vendor efficiencies in the optical domain, but there’s still a great deal of work to do and we look forward to contributing to that important effort.”

“We will continue to demonstrate our leadership position in optical networking, and joining a Forum like Open ROADM will enhance that path forward,” said Buddy Bayer, Windstream’s chief network officer.

http://www.windstreamwholesale.com

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Windstream Wholesale announces 3 new fiber routes

Windstream Wholesale has begun the initial work to add fiber to three routes on its rapidly expanding transport network: New York City to Albany to Montreal; Jacksonville, Florida, to Savannah, Georgia, to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Raleigh, North Carolina; and Tulsa to Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Windstream said these three new routes are part of its initiative to expand its fiber infrastructure and provide a rich set of high-bandwidth WAN advantages including low-latency transport to major data and international hubs across the U.S., including in Miami, New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Jose. The project will pull high-count fibers through existing conduits on some spans as well as construction of some new paths on other segments. Diverse routing options protect networks against outages, while delivering coast-to-coast transport, as well as connectivity to thousands of Windstream-lit buildings across the U.S.

Windstream’s recently announced offerings include:

• Dark fiber and lit transport services from the Hillsboro, Oregon, ecosystem to Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and points beyond. Diversity options include multiple routes from Hillsboro to Portland to include or avoid the Pittock Block data centers.
• Access from the Jacksonville and Boca Raton international cable landing stations to all major U.S. data centers.
• Wave services up to 400G, with the first commercial deployment turned up in 2020.

Windstream Wholesale continues to leverage its new Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) with efficiency, speed, and diversity in mind, providing a high-bandwidth infrastructure that will enable the digital transformation and innovation needed for today’s rapidly evolving businesses. 

https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/national-network-map.pdf

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Windstream launches Intelligent Converged Optical Network

Windstream Wholesale launched its Intelligent Converged Optical Network, which consists of open and disaggregated infrastructure, allowing wholesale and enterprise customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.

ICON stands for:

• Intelligent – network intelligence customer portal and API provide Layer 0-3 network insights
• Converged – disaggregated network architecture enables best of breed open line system, scalability and alien wave support
• Optical – Flexgrid and C+L band support enable extreme bandwidth growth
• Network - efficient architecture between local and long-haul networks

As part of its network enhancement, Windstream Wholesale has also bolstered its commitment to the West Coast of the U.S. The new ICON includes new routes from Hillsboro and Portland to Sacramento, and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The two new West Coast ICON routes are powered by Ciena.

“Windstream is deploying ICON in a holistic way so that businesses can leverage additional bandwidth with a low latency, cohesive infrastructure,” said Buddy Bayer, Windstream’s chief network officer. “We took time to be intentional about our network planning so we can ride the technology curve and won’t have to overbuild line systems every time there’s a stair-step advance in technology.”

“With Ciena, Windstream adds the industry’s highest level of capacity built on an open and automation-ready architecture, ensuring the ICON network can adapt to dynamic and new requirements from customers,” added Kevin Sheehan, chief technology officer of the Americas at Ciena. “Our high-performance coherent optics ensures Windstream can continue to be very successful in their fastest growing markets.”

https://investor.windstream.com/

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Windstream carries 400G wavelength over 1,027 km with Acacia

Windstream Wholesale successfully carried a 400 Gbps single-wavelength transmission over 1,027 kilometers across its long-haul network between Phoenix and Los Angeles. 

The live network trial used Acacia Communications’ digital coherent optics technology. 

“This record-setting accomplishment by Windstream Wholesale is a gamechanger for optical networks going forward,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “Windstream is executing a well-crafted architectural strategy that embraces fundamental design principles of disaggregation, openness and flexibility. Windstream continues as an early adopter of coherent optical technologies to drive efficient growth and scale of our network and services for our customers. We expect to begin deploying ZR+ coherent pluggable modules in the second half of 2021, a technology that has applicability in as many as 80% of our existing links.”

“Windstream has demonstrated that 400G pluggable coherent modules can support not only metro, but also regional and long-haul network applications,” said Benny Mikkelsen, founder and chief technology officer of Acacia Communications. “Built on highly scalable technology that offers benefits in cost, size and power, we are excited about the opportunities for these pluggables in service provider networks.”

https://news.windstream.com/news/news-details/2021/Windstream-Wholesale-Sets-400G-ZR-Record-with-Acacia-Coherent-Pluggable-Module-Reaching-over-1000-km-in-Live-Network/default.aspx

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Windstream Wholesale completes PNW fiber route

Windstream Wholesale completed a new high-capacity fiber route from Salt Lake City to Portland and Seattle.

The route from Portland to Seattle sets the foundation for Windstream Wholesale’s expansion into the Hillsboro, Ore., landing station, expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021. 

Windstream Wholesale said this network expansion is part of an overall project to increase capacity to several major long haul routes which leverages flexible grid compliant open optical line systems featuring C+L band support and colorless, directionless, contentionless (CDC) ROADMs.

“This new high-capacity route to Portland and Seattle was built in response to booming customer demand for bandwidth,” said Joe Scattareggia, executive vice president of Windstream Wholesale. “Along with the network overlay, it will help ensure that Windstream Wholesale is positioned to meet our customers’ needs for high-quality, low-latency services across our most popular routes for years to come.”

"Our Data Gravity Index suggests the Pacific Northwest, and Seattle in particular, is expected to experience sustained growth in data gravity intensity through 2024,” said Tony Bishop, Digital Realty senior vice president of platform, growth and marketing. “The Westin Building Exchange is ideally placed to remove data gravity barriers, serving as the strategic regional interconnection hub linking the U.S. and Canada with Asia on PlatformDIGITAL®. We are excited by the new possibilities that the combination of Windstream Wholesale’s Network Hub deployment with us in Seattle and the new routes announced today will open up for customers looking to scale their digital business.”

https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/wholesale/interactive-map

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