Infotech Lead America: Ritter Communications, an Arkansas-based communications provider, has deployed Ciena’s packet networking and converged packet optical technologies throughout its regional fiber optic network.
The expanded network serves over 25,000 Internet subscribers in Arkansas and west Tennessee.
The expanded network will provide businesses, community anchors and residents in previously underserved locations with advanced Ethernet service delivery. The combination of packet networking and converged packet optical solutions provide a cost-effective means to transport high-speed data services while also providing carriers with cellular backhaul and business services.
Founded in 1886, Ritter owns and operates two rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) in northeast and north central Arkansas, a local exchange carrier (CLEC) and a fiber optic network in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
In December 2012, Ritter purchased Millington Telephone Company and Millington CATV, which represents approximately 20,000 business and residential customers in parts of Shelby, Tipton, Haywood and Fayette counties in West Tennessee.
Ciena’s packet networking solutions provide Ritter with increased scalability and protection of services needed to meet their growing end-user demands. The platforms support leading Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) standards, and provide Service Level Agreement (SLA) insights. It provides more accurate service management and fault isolation across a greater number of services.
Ritter is also leveraging Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors, to increase capacity and support the mobile backhaul demands of two Tier 1 U.S. wireless carriers and their migration to 4G services.
Ritter will also leverage packet networking capabilities recently made available on the 6500 platform, which enable several Carrier Ethernet functions and provide Ritter with a cost-effective solution to transport optical traffic and Ethernet services without the need to install additional Ethernet switches.
Designed for easy customization, the new packet networking functions on 6500 will give Ritter the ability to dial packet services up or down as needed to meet customer-specific service requirements more efficiently.
Ciena is also providing Ritter with its network management solution and a range of professional services for this deployment via its Ciena Specialist Services portfolio, including installation, turn-up and testing. The 6500 allows Ritter to easily scale capacity and program its network to deliver 10G and 40G wavelength services today, with the ability to scale to 100G in the future.
