Lightower Upgrades Fiber Optic Networks

Lightower Fiber Networks, a digital fiber network and broadband service provider in the northeast United States, has expanded its network with Juniper Networks’ MX Series Ethernet Services Routers. Juniper says that by extending the reach of its network and upgrading legacy infrastructure with the MX Series, Lightower now can flexibly deliver multiple types of services on a single converged infrastructure–leveraging Juniper’s JUNOS software–while at the same time improving operational efficiency, service reliability, and scale.

Lightower provides connectivity services to a wide range of industries, including international and domestic telecom carriers, municipal government, finance, education, health care, media, and high-tech companies. During the past decade, Lightower has constructed over 3,800 route miles of fiber including dark fiber rings, long haul, and building laterals. The Lightower fiber network extends from southern New Hampshire to Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to eastern New York State, western Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, and Manhattan.

Based on lab tests performed in conjunction with Juniper, Lightower estimates that the use of optimized IP/MPLS in its Carrier Ethernet networks will provide transit times measurably faster than other approaches such as pure Layer 2, while also providing superior traffic management, and resiliency, the systems vendor asserts. Fast transit times, recovery and high availability can be crucial for Lightower customers, such as financial institutions, when network downtime or lags can result in significant expense or lost business. By converging its network on Juniper’s MX Series, Lightower can significantly reduce the risk of network downtime, Juniper says.

“As we continue to expand, we needed a platform that could reliably support multiple service types on a single platform, while delivering superior performance, reliability, and restoration times,” said Jason Campbell, senior vice president, Lightower Fiber Networks. “The MX Series enables us to monetize our network, reducing costs while at the same time enabling us to introduce new services quickly and cost-effectively. Having a single network that combines the simplicity and consistency of JUNOS with the powerful MX Series performance provides us with a big advantage.”

Lightower is using the virtualization capabilities of the MX Series to maintain separation between different types of services running on the same router, enabling the convergence of network services and functionality, while maintaining the appropriate levels of administrative separation.

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