Alaska Communications upgrades networks with Ciena GeoMesh
High-capacity network will support cloud-based services for businesses and better Internet for residents
Alaska Communications has upgraded its terrestrial and AKORN submarine networks with Ciena to improve internet access and provide secure, reliable connectivity. The network upgrades will also support demand for mobile broadband services, serve as a cloud enablement platform for Alaska businesses, and allow Alaska Communications to continue offering reliable Internet to residents.
"Today's web-scale tools have allowed application development to move quickly, driving new innovations and, subsequently, bandwidth demand, which creates new challenges for the network. Alaska Communications' adoption of Ciena's GeoMesh solution provides the expansive bandwidth, efficiency and agility needed to deliver an exceptional customer experience in today's on-demand society," said Ian Clarke, Ciena's VP Global Submarine Systems.
The additional network capacity should reduce the amount of time it takes hospitals to share high-imaging files, provide 24/7 connectivity for public health and safety notification systems, and enable large scale data transfer for higher education institutions.
AKORN, the undersea fibre-optic network between Alaska and Oregon, follows a geographically-diverse secondary path, reducing the potential for service disruption.This upgrade increases network capacity by four times from the Lower 48 to Alaska via Ciena's GeoMesh solution. With the new scalable, OTN-switched network's efficient traffic grooming and aggregation capabilities, Alaska Communications can rapidly turn up new services and deliver low-latency, high-capacity and reliable connectivity, resulting in a superior customer experience.
"Alaska Communications is constantly upgrading our network to improve our customers' experience. Our collaboration with Ciena is one way that we work to improve connectivity for businesses and consumers in Alaska. This upgrade will give our customers more agile capacity to expand services and leverage the power of our network and the cloud as organisations develop new services, providing businesses with new economic opportunities and supporting critical public safety services," said Rick Benken, senior director, Network Engineering, Strategy and Management, Alaska Communications
