Fiber-optic network services provider Lumos Networks Corp. says it has chosen Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) to supply equipment for the as its exclusive systems supplier for Project Ark, Lumos’s fiber to the cell site (FTTC) network project.
Project Ark, which Lumos unveiled this past February (see “Lumos Networks launches Project Ark for fiber to the cell site”), will provide bandwidth of approximately 1 TB and is designed to accommodate minimum data traffic demand of 1500 FTTC sites via Carrier Ethernet with 400 Mbps of throughput at each site. Lumos says that the amount of FTTC traffic on its network has grown approximately 8X to 10X in the past two years. Project Ark is designed to support another 10X increase.
Lumos says it will deploy ASR 9912 routers in Ashburn and Roanoke, VA, Pittsburgh, PA, Charleston, WV, beginning in the second quarter of this year. Lumos expects to attach newly installed cell sites to the broadband MPLS/IP mobile backhaul fiber network by the fourth quarter of this year and migrate existing mobile backhaul traffic to Project Ark early in 2015.
“I am pleased to announce a deepening of the longstanding relationship between Lumos Networks and Cisco,” said Lumos Networks CEO Timothy Biltz. “Cisco is the unmatched global leader in IP fiber networking and we look forward to leveraging Cisco’s expertise in service delivery, maintenance, testing, and installation. Project Ark will allow us to accelerate our FTTC momentum as we enter 2015. We expect the growth curve for LTE roll-outs in our fiber footprint with the nation’s leading mobile operators to continue for the next two years.”
“By designing the Ark network from the ground up, we were able to create an all-IP fiber network that is fully redundant and utilizes the most highly advanced equipment available,” added Craig Drinkhall, CTO for Lumos Networks. “Cisco is also providing the company with two R&D labs that will be critical in furthering our technical expertise in the FTTC space and will also provide thousands of hours of IP training for our engineering staff. Through our partnership with Cisco, we will also have access to brand new tools for provisioning and monitoring of Project Ark.”
Customers appear to be pleased with the prospect. “As we continue to deploy 4G LTE to our customers, the demand for a highly available and quickly scalable backhaul network is critically important. We believe that Lumos Networks’ Project Ark network can meet these requirements,” said Bobby McAvoy, executive vice president and CTO of nTelos Wireless. “Lumos Networks is constructing one of the most robust fiber networks in the Mid-Atlantic region and we view them as a critical strategic partner. We are looking forward to routing 4G LTE traffic onto Ark by the end of 2014.”
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