REANNZ capacity boosted to 20Gbps

Research and education network operator, REANNZ, says it has completed a network upgrade to 20Gbps of bandwidth along the length of the country, from Auckland to Dunedin – doubling network capacity for its members.

It says the upgrade was undertaken in partnership with Fujitsu over 18 months from procurement to final installation and involved the replacement of ten Brocade MLX routers and switches with Juniper Networks MX Series 3D universal edge routers, which improved service agility, and increased network performance and capacity.

“Another key benefit of the upgrade has been the broader deployment of the Junos OS, Juniper Networks’ operating system, which spans routing, switching, security and service elements,” REANNZ said.

According to REANNZ Junos offers “stellar automation capabilities to streamline networking operations … [and] supports the flexible development of new applications, creating a strong platform for future innovation and expansion of REANNZ’s operations.”

REANNZ CEO, Nicole Ferguson, said the upgrade had been necessary to meet increasing bandwidth demands from users.

“The decision to implement the upgrade primarily came down to the benefits it would have for our members,” she said “Our network must be ready to support emerging research and education traffic needs before they happen, so that we stay ahead of the curve.”

In 2013 REANNZ announced a partnership with FX Networks (acquired by Vocus Communications in 2014) to deploy an Intelligent Transport Network from US-based equipment vendor Infinera, saying: “It will allow FX Networks and REANNZ to deliver a national network capable of 8Tbps.”