SC Broadband Steps into the Future with Nokia's Next Gen DWDM Transport
In this case study
About SC Broadband
SC Broadband is a leading provider of high-speed Internet and broadband solutions in Southern Utah and northern Arizona. They began as South Central Utah Telephone back in 1953. Known for having more in-ground fiber than any other company in the region, they offer a wide array of residential and business services, including gig fiber, voice solutions, ethernet transport and public access Wi-Fi.
The Details
SC Broadband has a vast fiber optic infrastructure that supports their existing Cyan Z Series DWDM/ROADM that interfaces with the Cisco NCS 55A2 using CFP2-DCO optics. While they can deliver 100 and 200G, reach is limited, making future growth and expansion difficult and costly.
In addition to scaling challenges, the Cyan Z series is nearing end-of-life. Facing ever-increasing customer demand for more services and bandwidth, SC Broadband undertook the next step of evaluating and deciding on a replacement DWDM/ROADM system that would deliver for years to come.
It would need to be a Flex-Grid Coherent system, seamlessly deliver and accommodate data rates of 400G and above through transponders, and take in alien waves from their Cisco NCS 57C3 using Bright ZR/ZR+ Digital Coherent Optics (DCO). Requirements called for some service demands to be capable of spanning over 700km of mixed fiber types while maintaining no less than 400G@62Gbaud using 16QAM.
Solution
Having the advantage of being a partner to multiple OEMs, WWT brought a mix of vendor solutions to SC Broadband, giving them design options and pricing to fit their needs and budget. By leveraging our internal subject matter experts and working with the OEMs, WWT provided numerous workshop sessions for SC Broadband, including fact gathering, design reviews, fiber analysis, and validation of projected and current service demands.
We also directed SC Broadband to our ATC lab resources and provided live demos. The engagement lasted shy of a year, with Ciena, Cisco and Nokia competing for the business. WWT presented both Cisco and Nokia, while Ciena was external then.
In the end, Nokia's ability to quickly respond to the customer's requests and steadfast commitment to delivering what SC Broadband asked for rather than scaling down the solution because of fiber challenges won them the business.
Nokia's 1830 PSS-16II OADM sits at the crux of the SC Broadband solution. Along with the Integrated Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (iR9/iROADM) and the Passive Splitter/Combiner (PSC1-6), SC Broadband has a state-of-the-art Flex-Grid Colorless system fully capable of taking them well into the future.
Whether they use a 400G DCO pluggable as an alien wave or a Nokia 600G coherent transponder, SC Broadband has complete autonomy to operate as needed to meet their evolving customer demands.
The PSC1-6 Passive Splitter Combiner is an external 1RU shelf incorporating five separate 1:6 Splitter/Combiners. One unit can support up to 30 coherent optical transponders/channels using 100G and above FlexGrid or fixed 50 GHz grid operation. It allows daisy chaining of up to 4 PSC1-6 shelves, thereby supporting 30x4 = 120 possible OT ports.
Nokia's 1830 PSS-16II is available as a DC power only, 8 RU in height, or an AC/DC power supply variant that's 9 RU. It has 22 slots overall and can support up to 8 full-height or 16 half-height universal I/O cards. Two slots are dedicated to Power Filter modules, two for the Integrated Shelf Controllers (EC), one for the Fan, and one for the User Panel.
Managing this solution is WaveSuite Network Operations Center (WS-NOC) that provides common management for end-to-end operations. WS-NOC centralizes multiple Network Management (NM) and operations functions in one unified platform and is used to plan, deploy, and manage the network over the entire product life cycle.
The WebUI is very intuitive and provides a wealth of proactive, historical and actionable data points to help SC Broadband run its operations on a day-to-day basis without any surprises.
In the End
By investing in Nokia's 1830 PSS platform, SC Broadband has taken a bold step toward future-proofing its network infrastructure. The resiliency, proven reliability, robust product performance and Nokia's vast portfolio that complements the 1830 PSS platform provides a roadmap of success for many years to come. The capabilities of WaveSuite Network Operations Center are extensive, giving SC Broadband a powerful tool that will help them see far into this future of success and greatly simplify the management and operation of its new network.
By making this investment, SC Broadband is aligned with its core mission to improve its communities by being the best provider of communications and entertainment services in the areas they serve.
Given its new network and capabilities, SC Broadband's vision of measuring success by exceeding customers' expectations through excellent service should only continue to grow.
Whether 10G, 100G, 600G or beyond, SC Broadband continues to build for its future using advanced communications solutions such as Nokia's 1830 PSS product portfolio. WWT is proud to be SC Broadband's partner and looks forward to a long-lasting relationship.