Alcatel-Lucent and Spirit Bring Terabit Network Performance to the Southeast U.S.

PARIS — Alcatel-Lucent, an IP networking, ultra-broadband access and cloud technology specialist, is enabling Spirit Communications to meet ever-increasing enterprise and government demands for ultra-broadband Internet access in the southeast United States with its powerful IP core network router. High-speed Internet connectivity is essential for attracting new businesses and supporting advanced applications and services. Spirit, which provides voice, data and Internet services in the south-eastern United States, is addressing this demand with a high-speed Internet supporting 1 gig, 10 gig and 100 gig connectivity.

The deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System) provides Spirit Communications with the terabyte-speed IP core network necessary for the delivery of lightning-fast, highly scalable and reliable Internet services that customers want today and in the future. Spirit will turn up its super high-speed Internet service initially in the cities of Charlotte, N.C.; Columbia, S.C., and across selected areas of the Carolinas and Ga.

The 7950 XRS can handle multiple terabits of data per second: fast enough to forward 10 full-length movies in less than a second. Requiring only a single watt to switch a gigabit per second worth of traffic and delivering up to 16 terabit per second switching capacity in a single 19-inch rack, Alcatel-Lucent’s powerful core router enables Spirit Communications to reduce energy consumption and keep operational costs in check while pushing the limits of its IP network capabilities.

Key Facts

• Spirit Communications is a privately owned communications company providing voice, data and Internet to businesses, carriers and government agencies and wholesale service to rural providers in North and South Carolina and Georgia.
• To meet the explosive demand for ultra-broadband Internet capacity, Spirit Communications is providing lightning fast, highly scalable and reliable access services to business, state, education and backhaul customers.
• Alcatel-Lucent is providing its 7950 Extensible Routing System (XRS) — to be managed by Alcatel-Lucent’s 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) which is already being used by Spirit Communications as a single management platform to streamline day-to-day IP and business operations.
  The 7950 XRS addresses the needs of any size of network operator through a complete and robust set of Layer 2 and Layer 3 service features, and cost-efficient scaling from 6.4 to 32 terabit per second in a single system.
• The 7950 XRS supports extensive IP/optical integration capabilities to reduce overhead costs and provide the agility and programmability needed for Software Defined Networking (SDN).

“The 7950 XRS platform from Alcatel-Lucent will provide Spirit Communications the capacity and scalability needed for our explosive Internet bandwidth demands,” said Larry Sims, EVP engineering and operations, Spirit Communications. “The high density 10GE XMAs, along with new chipsets supporting 400GE, ensure that Spirit is implementing a solution that is efficient today and scalable well into the future for IP peering applications. In addition, the inherent knowledge of SROS from our 7750 MPLS core allows for reduced OPEX as we transition our internet core to the 7950 XRS platform.”