Windstream Columbus Expansion Enables SDN-Based Multi-Gig Services
Windstream has expanded its core network in Columbus, Ohio. With this update, the company can now take advantage of its SDN capabilities to efficiently deliver multiple 100G services to a single customer.
“The Columbus deployment demonstrates Windstream’s ability to rapidly provision hyper-scale connectivity solutions efficiently and cost-effectively, enabling our customers’ transformation efforts while increasing their competitive edge in the marketplace,” said Windstream in an email exchange yesterday.
The service provider declined to disclose the capacity of this network prior to the upgrade. And it didn’t respond to our question asking which suppliers provided the hardware and software to enable the expanded capabilities. However, last year, the company was doing multi-vendor service orchestration prototype work with Ciena Blue Planet.
“Columbus has been an established Windstream market for many years so the capacity has been there,” the company told me. “This expansion is unique as it utilizes our programmable network to support intent-based, on-demand automation of wavelength services. This is ideal for enterprises, content providers, large-scale e-commerce houses and more in a fast-growing number of markets.”
The company added that this announcement is about both its core networks and SDN, as they are tightly coupled. “We were able to leverage our SDN technology to quickly respond to a large-scale customer request in Columbus, enabling us to add that market to the core transport network, which is already enabled for SDNow,” the company explained.
SDNow stands for Software Defined Network Orchestrated Wave. Available in 50 markets, this high-speed optical wave service from Windstream is based on software-defined networking technology.
Windstream Wholesale last year launched SDNow Waves for Data Center Cloud applications, which provides customers with on-demand optical wavelength services. That initial SDN Wave product supported 1G and 10G service via SDN provisioning, as Windstream explained at the time.
Around that same time, Windstream announced its membership to the Open Network Automation Platform Project. ONAP was created last year through the merger of the ECOMP and the Open Orchestrator Project organizations.
Edited by Mandi Nowitz
