Updated: AAPT upgrades network with Ciena

AAPT is upgrading its network infrastructure with Carrier Ethernet capabilities ahead of the National Broadband Network (NBN) to enable "terabit-level capacities".

Specialising in business and wholesale customers, the company currently has 11,000km of fibre with 370 exchanges of which only 180 of those have Ethernet capabilities. AAPT has selected networking vendor, Ciena, for the project.

Ciena’s 5410 and 5150 service aggregation switches will integrate with the ISP’s existing IP/MPLS core network along with the vendor’s Carrier Ethernet Service Delivery solutions to make the network scalable and flexible. Ciena could not disclose the number of switches involved not the timeframe of the rollout.

The upgrade impacts AAPT’s layer 2 data link infrastructure and will give its wholesale customers – or retail service providers – the ability to provide reliable Ethernet private line and wide area LAN services, according to Ciena.

“The new network will form the backbone for IP and Ethernet products AAPT will offer to the market,” Ciena vice-president and general manager of Asia-Pacific, Anthony McLachlan, told ARN. “It will enhance connectivity for AAPT customers as they can have a 1Mbps service all the way to a 10Gbps Ethernet connection to their site.”

This would be beneficial to services which operate best in high-bandwidth, low-latency environments such as video streaming, wireless backhaul and Cloud networking.

As for the terabit-level capacities, this is not hard to achieved through aggregation, according to AAPT CEO, David Yuile.

“We already run 3-400Gbps on the Eastern seaboard between states and in metro networks, we are already switching huge amounts of traffic so this terabit capacity is a natural progression,” he told ARN

Part of the motivation for AAPT to undergo this upgrade was to prepare for a future with the NBN.

The ISP, along with several others, has already flagged intentions to become an independent NBN wholesale aggregator.

“This is an essential part of our independent aggregator play where we will aggregate a lot of traffic on the NBN,” Yuile said. “We are just getting ready for that.”

Work has already begun on the upgrade with the first phase expected to be completed by February 2012.

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