SUNET Deploys ADVA Optical Networking’s 100G Technology in National Research and Education Network

ADVA Optical Networking announced today that the Swedish University Network (SUNET) has deployed its 100Gbit/s core technology in a new nationwide optical transport network. The research and education infrastructure, which stretches 8,000km across Sweden and into Norway, will deliver coherent ultra-high bandwidth connectivity to over 100 organizations. The new system features ADVA Optical Networking’s ROADM technology, ensuring SUNET can rapidly respond to growing demand for new services and bandwidth at the touch of a button. The ADVA FSP 3000 provides an open optical line system (OOLS), which works seamlessly with the tunable DWDM router interfaces provided by Juniper Networks MX2000 Universal Edge Routers. The converged multi-vendor solution provides ultimate efficiency, extremely low latency and total scalability for future growth. It was installed by solutions integrator and ADVA Optical Networking partner NetNordic.

“Our work with SUNET is helping to empower the research and education community. This new all-coherent optical network removes limitations and provides the tools that academic institutions need to operate at the cutting edge of discovery,” said Lars Glarborg, MD, NetNordic Communication AB. “Through close cooperation with our key technology partners Juniper Networks and ADVA Optical Networking, we’ve created one of the most powerful networks in Sweden. The new infrastructure delivers enhanced security. It also greatly improves redundancy so that SUNET’s users have a phenomenally low risk of downtime and data loss. Now that the system is up and running, every organization served has access to 100Gbit/s. And, with the network’s innate scalability, further upgrades will be simple. Sweden’s universities and research institutions could require terabit speeds in the near future and SUNET is ready to deliver.” 

The deployment represents a 10-fold increase in the capacity of SUNET’s transport infrastructure, which serves national museums, scientific institutions, government agencies and 35 Swedish universities. The newly installed ROADM system transforms the network into a flexible meshed network topology. Links between all sites can be configured instantly through adding and dropping wavelengths on multiple fibers. This improves availability and, combined with ADVA Optical Networking’s Raman amplifier technology, significantly reduces latency. The small footprint and low power consumption of the ADVA FSP 3000 has been optimized using tunable interfaces on Juniper Networks MX2000 routers. The converged packet transport solution, built on ADVA Optical Networking’s OOLS, is also SUNET’s first step towards software-defined networking (SDN), which will further increase transport efficiency and enable new applications in the future.

“100Gbit/s has become a must-have for research and education networks. From experiments in particle physics to multi-media projects, universities now regularly use high-bandwidth application for easier collaboration and faster discovery. And, with our ROADM technology, SUNET is in full control of its network. It now has a versatile, scalable transport system perfect for today’s requirements and ready for the demands of tomorrow,” commented Peter Atterlöf, sales director, Nordics and Baltics, ADVA Optical Networking. “Key to the success of this deployment was the flexibility and interoperability of our platform. Our open technology makes it simple to implement, install and manage a best-of-breed disaggregated architecture like this. What’s more, to take the new transport system to the next level, SUNET is now exploring plans to introduce our FSP Network Hypervisor. This will create a programmable SDN-based network for automation, rapid service provisioning and even better use of resources.”