Verizon to Deploy the Industry's First Eight Terabit Platform in Its Global MPLS Backbone

NEW YORK and SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon plans to deploy the Juniper Networks^® PTX Series in major markets in the U.S. and Europe by the end of this year, giving the company the densest multiprotocol label switching platform available in the industry, with an initial capacity of eight terabits per second.

The initiative is another step in Verizon's network evolution to deliver higher speeds, improved latency, increased capacity and enhanced performance to its customers. This deployment provides an upgrade of the Verizon global IP backbone to 100G Ethernet, supporting customer access speeds of 10G and above and enabling growth for FiOS, wireless and cloud services.

"In a world where customer needs and speeds are steadily increasing, Verizon will be able to improve the scalability and efficiency of its core MPLS network by employing the industry-leading switch density of the Juniper Networks PTX," said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of global IP and transport planning and technology for Verizon. "The PTX provides significant packet processing power, system scale and reduced power consumption – all of which will help Verizon meet its future needs."

Built for high capacity, the Juniper Networks PTX Series provides up to 16 terabits per second of capacity in a single chassis as well as industry-leading density in 10G (gigabit), 40G and 100G Ethernet interfaces. Verizon will initially deploy the PTX5000, which delivers eight terabits per second of capacity, with plans to eventually move toward higher terabit capacity.

"Verizon's reputation as a pioneer in advanced communications and entertainment services was clearly demonstrated in 2010 when the company became the first service provider to commercially deploy 100G Ethernet," said Stefan Dyckerhoff, executive vice president and general manager for Juniper Networks Platform Systems Division. "Today, Verizon makes another landmark decision by selecting the PTX Series, the industry's first converged packet transport switch, to advance its network core and provide future-ready scalability while dramatically simplifying its infrastructure overhead.

"The PTX Series will not only help enable Verizon to provide to its customers additional service options and a superior user experience, but it will also ultimately improve network performance and efficiency," Dyckerhoff said.

This next-generation technology will support private and public IP services, including Ethernet, while offering greater capacity, reduced power consumption per gigabit, increased cost efficiency and a technology roadmap to scale in the future.

"Service providers face significant operational challenges as packet data traffic volume across global wireline and broadband wireless networks is forecast to increase seven-fold by 2015, driven by significant increases in Internet, IP data, video, over-the-top traffic, content distribution networks and mobile data traffic," said Nav Chander, research manager, enterprise telecom at IDC. "Verizon's decision to deploy a next-generation packet optimized core transport solution helps Verizon better prepare and manage this network growth for the diverse packet data applications across its global network infrastructure and portfolio of wireless and wireline services." 

Verizon and Juniper Networks teamed to leverage proven MPLS technology and create a highly scalable, simplified network architecture capable of supporting powerful cloud, video and advanced applications worldwide.

"Verizon's market leadership is founded not only on the delivery of quality services and meeting customers' needs but through collaboration with key industry players such as Juniper Networks," said Tarazi.

Verizon worked closely with Juniper Networks to advance the Junos Express chipset to achieve lowered power requirements, increased performance and reduced cost – all of which help meet the growth challenges of Verizon's customer base.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with 93 million retail customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 192,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) is in the business of network innovation. From devices to data centers, from consumers to cloud providers, Juniper Networks delivers the software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net).

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SOURCE Verizon