Douglas Fast Net taps LightRiver for its 400G regional backbone
Douglas Fast Net (DFN), a subsidiary of Douglas Electric Cooperative (DEC), collaborated with LightRiver to assess various vendors, technologies and topologies, resulting in the design of a 7-node ROADM network spanning the state of Oregon.
Serving rural and urban areas from the Oregon coast to the cascades, DFN provides services to anchor institutions such as the State of Oregon, Mercy Medical Center, Umpqua Community College, city governments, school districts, countless medical facilities, and your home and business.
Also, DFN selected Arista for its core routed network upgrade, which utilizes 400G ZR+ optics in a ring topology over the Smartoptics DCP-R-9D ROADM network. At its core, the Smartoptics ROADM embraces "Alien Waves," interconnecting the ring with 400G ZR+ optics in Arista routers at regional locations and 400G ZR+ optics in DCP-404 muxponders, particularly in less densely populated areas where 100G connections are needed.
LightRiver employed its Factory Built Network® Process (FBN) for this network to ensure a predictable network deployment. The FBN process builds the network at a LightRiver 'factory' to ensure its functionality in a controlled environment before a team of engineers deploys the equipment in the field. Simultaneously, crews worked to test the fiber, prepare the necessary space and power infrastructure, and provision the ROADMs in LightRiver's Concord, Calif. Network Factory.
"Douglas Fast Net first turned to LightRiver to solve a point-to-point network requirement, and because we were so impressed with its engineering resources, we leaned on the team again to help design a new 500km DWDM transport network that would support the core network upgrade to 400G links to rural communities such as Coquille and Reedsport, Oregon," said Jon Vradenburg, CTO for DFN. "We liked the idea of using 400G coherent optics directly in our new routers, and we were confident that LightRiver could make this happen across our new ROADM system.”
After the successful testing and integration at LightRiver, the DFN team had the opportunity to visit and receive training on its new network in California before it was carefully packaged and shipped for final installation in the field in its home state of Oregon, shortening the ramp to revenue.
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Sean Buckley
Sean is responsible for establishing and executing the editorial strategies of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report across their websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products.