Customer Success Story
Flattened network for faster connections.
Allegro Networks needed a new IP/MPLS network that could deliver pseudowire services to connect customers’ networks to data centers, exchange points, and peering services across the UK.
Automated
service provisioning allows customers to benefit from a retail-like service experience.
100 Seconds
to deliever automated end-to-end services
30 data centers
with available services
4
Internet exchange points across the UK
Allegro Networks needed a new IP/MPLS network across the UK that could deliver pseudowire services to connect customers’ networks to data centers, exchange points, and peering services such as the London Internet eXchange (LINX), London Network Access Point (LONAP), and IX Leeds. It also needed a network with open and programmable interfaces into all of the network elements involved in service delivery. Allegro Networks was also looking for a high-performance, reliable, and scalable MPLS network platform. This meant choosing an equipment vendor that was rigorous about implementing open standards and offering an API.
“Juniper also has really good programmatic interfaces, as they expose their own API, allowing us to configure their switches directly from our own operations support systems (OSS), and via our API, allow customers to effectively configure their own services. This is really quite transformative—our customers treat Allegro’s network as an extension of their own network. In effect, we have realized an implementation of SDN by using a software-defined OSS. This is an application of SDN that solves a very real problem today.”
Allegro built its network using Juniper’s MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers, connected using the existing fiber-optic infrastructure and transmission systems. Allegro Networks chose a range of MX Series platforms, from the MX960 3D Universal Edge Router to the MX80 3D Universal Edge Router, to cost-effectively address varying port density and throughput requirements at different locations. The MX Series platforms combined provider and provider edge functions in each system, and were configured to create a flat network. Network services are delivered using transparent pseudowire Ethernet, with fast failover mechanisms implemented to rapidly route traffic around any potential fiber failures. Allegro worked closely with Juniper’s local partner, Imtech ICT, to provide support services and to develop a proof-of-concept in its lab prior to full implementation.
Allegro Networks has successfully launched its Snap Platform portal and its portfolio of software provisioned services, with coverage in 30 data centers and 4 Internet exchange points across the UK.Service provisioning is entirely automated, and many of its carrier customers are already connected “on-net,” enabling them to immediately turn on new services at the click of a button, with end-to-end service provisioning achieved in speeds of around 100 seconds.
“Up until now, a service provider would have to negotiate with multiple gatekeeper functions within wholesale providers, initially with sales agents to get a competitive tariff and then operations staff to arrange service delivery. Our platform has enabled Allegro’s customers to win new business that they wouldn’t have been able to win before. Now they have a transparent and consistent view of pricing, and they know they can order services for immediate delivery, reducing their time-to-revenue. We’ve turned wholesale telecom procurement into a retail-like experience,” Davidson says
Unusual for the industry, Allegro Networks also allows its customers to transfer terminated services to different physical locations under the same contract, all controlled using the same provisioning portal. Despite its complexity, the project went very smoothly. It was also helped by the predictable behavior of the Juniper equipment. “When we moved from the proof-of-concept phase to a live production network, the Juniper equipment worked exactly as we’d been assured it would,” Davidson says
The Products
With a robust portfolio of SDN-enabled routers, the MX Series provides industry-leading system capacity, density, security, and performance with unparalleled longevity.
Junos OS
The Junos operating system runs in Juniper Networks routing, switching, security and whitebox hardware products to create a consistent operational experience over network infrastructure end to end.
Published December 2013