Virgin Media has joined forces with Nortel (News - Alert) and Juniper Networks to prepare to meet ongoing network demands from its customers for increasing speed and bandwidth.

 

According to Virgin Media, the 40G North-South trial, on Virgin Media's existing 10G network, demonstrates how the company is ready to respond to the burgeoning customer demand for bandwidth-hungry entertainment services such as TV, video-on-demand, advanced multimedia communications and high speed Internet with up to 20Mb and 50Mb.

 

Conducted over a 217 mile span of Virgin Media’s current UK 10G network, the successful 40G trial demonstrates the economic feasibility of optimizing existing optical network assets and scaling the network to achieve market-leading transmission rates.

 

Nortel provided 40G Adaptive Optical Engine DWDM transponder cards for the trial. These cards interconnected with Juniper Networks (News - Alert) T-series routers with 40G interfaces located at sites in Manchester and London.

 

The live field trial carried 40G traffic generated by Virgin Media and delivered over its long-haul optical network between Manchester and London.

 

Daniel Hennessy, director of Technical Architecture, Virgin Media explained that their aim for this trial was to ensure they continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services they deliver and provide a quality experience for Virgin Media customers.

 

The company’s optical network will provide a solid foundation for growth as it takes advantage of technology designed to avoid electrical regeneration and where possible reduces the incremental cost of scaling transport capacity.

 

Philippe Morin president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel noted that the success of this trial for Virgin Media proves just how simple it is to meet the rising bandwidth and service needs being placed on today's networks by making the most of existing optical assets with adaptive 40G optical technology from Nortel that is unlike anything else currently on the market.