This morning Everstream and Windstream announced the operational turn-up of a longhaul 400GbE route. So far 400G has mostly been either within the data center, over short distances, or part of a trial. But the time has finally come to put the technology to work between cities.
Windstream Wholesale is providing a 400GbE wavelength between Cleveland and Chicago, leveraging Infinera’s 4th generation coherent optics enabled by scalable routing from Juniper. Windstream Wholesale has been steadily adding both reach and muscle to its national fiber network for some years now. This deal is their first for 400GbE, but the product is ready to roll nationwide.
Meanwhile, Everstream is investing heavily in new fiber infrastructure in metro markets across the Midwest. The most recent such market they’ve talked about is St. Louis. By leveraging Windstream’s longhaul capabilities, they will be able to tie those markets together and better address the bandwidth demand from enterprises across the region. If all goes well, perhaps Everstream will ride Windstream’s 400GbE connections into additional markets, both within the Midwest and outward into other markets.
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Categories: Fiber Networks · Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment
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This article is a little inconsistent. I can assure you there are active 400Gbe services in service today between New York to Ashburn being utilized by some enterprise networks over their IRU leased dark fiber network. I highly recommend building your own enterprise dark fiber network. Large enterprise companies can build their network into strategic collocation partners locations along the route. Service turn up can be same day to two weeks depending on what is needed for the project. You also can cut cost by eliminating last mile charges on one or both ends. This is achieved by having the carrier circuit cross connected to your networks to the closes entry point or meeting the carrier at specific colocation space. You can see a 27% to 48% cut in carrier costs annually. This works well on a Hybrid cloud platform by moving your connectivity closure to the edge and routing accordingly to cloud providers or your DC location. This also allows other cloud providers who server third parties who need to connect to your network by building express routes by simple cross connects in the colocation space.