Brocade Dansk Kabel TV Success Story

SUCCESS STORY
Dansk Kabel TV
A Blazing Fast Open-Standards Foundation for
HDTV Delivery
Dansk Kabel TV is chosen across Denmark for residents’ broadband,
Internet access, and home security services. Headquartered in
Copenhagen, Denmark, Dansk Kabel TV has grown rapidly through
acquisition and delivery of new services and is a trusted provider for
multitenant homeowners’ associations.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Challenge
Simultaneously converge, migrate, and
upgrade two networks to deliver rich
TV, streaming video, Internet, and future
services based on open standards
Solution
••Brocade ICX 6610 Switches for
aggregation
••Brocade ICX 7450 Switches for highspeed connection between core and
distribution network
••Brocade ICX 6450 and 6430 Switches
for on-premises deployment
••Brocade NetIron XMR Series routers for
core routing
Results
••Increased network capacity to 40 Gbps
routing and 10 Gbps access capabilities
••Achieved efficient scale-out to handle
rapid growth cost-effectively
••Enhanced customer experience with
high network stability and rapid service
provisioning
••Deployed foundation for SDN-based
services in the future
Dansk Kabel TV’s acquisition in
2013 of ComX, a Danish service
provider, dramatically boosted the
company’s customer base and added
a second network to its infrastructure.
The company’s vision continues
to be delivering leading-edge
telecommunication. Therefore, as Dansk
Kabel TV began to assimilate the ComX
network and services into its existing
portfolio, it was also a good time to plan
for the future.
All Trends are Up
Growth and current media trends
demanded a high-capacity, robust
infrastructure. For example, Dansk Kabel
TV’s traffic volumes increased 100
percent in the past two years. In addition,
High-Definition Television (HDTV) and
streaming video content consume a
growing percentage of overall bandwidth
and show no sign of slowing down. The
new network had to scale easily to handle
these—and future—trends.
“We needed a robust, carrier-grade
network, but it also had to be easy to
manage,” said Thomas Skydt Kristensen,
Network Technician at Dansk Kabel
TV. “Our goal is to accelerate service
provisioning for new customers, simplify
operations as much as possible, and
scale the network when necessary without
adding to our IT team. Efficiency is critical.”
As a service provider, network stability
and Quality of Service (Qos) are essential
to delivering a superior consumer
experience. Dansk Kabel TV needed
to increase capacity and performance
across its peering links, as well as within
its own network. The company decided
to upgrade and future-proof as it
consolidated two networks into one.
WHY BROCADE
Itectra and Brocade have worked with
us from the beginning of our migration,”
said Kristensen. “We have gained a
fast, reliable core network capable of
handling 70,000 end users at once—as
well as an open standards foundation
for innovating services in the future. We
have the best of all worlds.
— Thomas Skydt Kristensen,
Network Technician at Dansk Kabel TV
Figure 1: Dansk Kabel TV Network Core and Distribution Layer.
The Power of a Strong
Relationship
Prior to its acquisition, ComX had chosen
Itectra to help it consolidate and streamline
its network operations. Itectra is a leading
specialized provider of networking and
optical infrastructure solutions. It offers
a range of design, implementation, and
support services designed to meet
customers’ specific needs. Working
together, Itectra and ComX had deployed
Brocade® network solutions.
“We have had a strong relationship with
Dansk Kabel TV that spans several years,”
said Brian Klovborg, Managing Director
at Itectra. “Our objective is always to add
value to each engagement, and for these
projects we take a solutions approach,
conducting workshops for their technical
teams and sharing technical knowledge.”
Now the two network teams began the
task of converging the ComX and Dansk
Kabel TV networks into a single highly
2
efficient and available infrastructure. No
small feat, the entire deployment, testing,
and migration processes had to be
completed with no disruption to customer
services. Together, the Itectra team and
Dansk Kabel TV identified requirements
and planned for the new network.
Speed and Reliability at the Core
To increase capacity, the new network
required 10 Gbps connections at each
Point of Presence (PoP) and the flexibility
to easily deploy either 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps
links without having to re-engineer the
network. The company also needed
Layer 3 routing capabilities for efficient
transport across the network.
Dansk Kabel TV retained Brocade
NetIron XMR Series routers in its core
network for high-speed, 40 Gbps routing.
They also deployed Brocade ICX® 6610
Switches for 10 Gbps aggregation. The
Brocade ICX 6610 Switch delivers smooth
streaming video, crisp audio, and instant
response times with ultra-high reliability.
Its flexible architecture enables Dansk
Kabel TV to easily add performance and
capacity, so the company only purchases
what it needs at any given time. The
Brocade ICX 6610 Switches are stacked
in the main POPs, where they are easily
managed as a single switch.
These versatile switches deliver the
same flexible stacking architecture of the
Brocade ICX 6610, as well as Layer 3
routing capabilities. High performance
with low power requirements and quiet,
fanless operation make the Brocade
ICX 6430 Switches ideal for placing at
homeowner association locations.
“We achieved the network performance
we needed with the ability to scale as
needed,” said Michael Sylvestersen,
Operations Manager at Dansk Kabel TV.
“Brocade offers a great warranty and
delivers superb value overall.”
Dansk Kabel TV also deployed
Brocade ICX 7450 Switches to provide
a 40 Gbps connection between the
core and distribution networks. These
switches provide high performance
with unprecedented scale-out density,
40 Gbps uplinks, and Software-Defined
Networking (SDN) support for future
services.
Power to the PoPs
Brocade ICX 6450 Switches and Brocade
ICX 6430 Switches provide network
access from homeowner associations’
premises locations and deliver traffic
to the Brocade ICX 6610 Switches for
distribution back to the core network.
Dansk Kabel TV also gains feature-rich
solutions with the Brocade ICX Switches.
The Brocade ICX 6610 Switches are
deployed as a top-layer switch in
homeowner community networks,
in addition to providing powerful, highly
economical switching and routing in the
core network. The company can deliver
10 Gbps on all uplink ports, as well as
easily stack the switches and manage
them as a single switch.
Brocade ICX Switches also simplify
testing as Dansk Kabel TV develops new
services and new features. For example,
the Brocade ICX 7450 connects to a
bank of servers, enabling Dansk Kabel
TV to easily test telephony, Wi-Fi,
and voice messaging features on its
production network.
“The Brocade ICX Switches are stable
and reliable,” said Thomas Skydt
Kristensen, Network Technician at Dansk
Kabel TV. “Downtime is not an option,
and the Brocade switches enable us to
configure equipment and combine new
features without downtime or changing
the whole network.”
3
Cost-effective, Convenient
Scalability
Dansk Kabel TV achieved it scalability
goals, thanks to the abilities to stack
switches, bundle ports, and deliver line
rate speeds from all ports.
“Brocade provides comprehensive
capabilities cost-effectively,” said
Kristensen. “With the Brocade Portson-Demand features, we’ve scaled to
10 Gbps and can simply add a license
for advanced features as needed. Costeffective infrastructure helps us maintain
competitive pricing, especially where we
compete for delivering Internet services.”
Easy to Manage
Easy to manage, the new network
minimizes the management resources
needed. Today, Dansk Kabel TV can
provision new service in about five
minutes. Kristensen also praises the
support and assistance he receives from
Brocade and Itectra.
“Brocade and Itectra deliver very high
value,” he said. “We receive excellent
service and have gained a network
that we can easily manage and update
without having to further educate our
network engineers.”
Corporate Headquarters
San Jose, CA USA
T: +1-408-333-8000
[email protected]
Open to the Future
Dansk Kabel TV is enthusiastic about the
OpenFlow 1.3 features on its Brocade
switches and plans to implement new
SDN capabilities in the future. The IT team
expects that open protocols will allow
them to automate management tasks,
combine new features, and tailor services
to customers’ needs more easily.
European Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland
T: +41-22-799-56-40
[email protected]
Asia Pacific Headquarters
Singapore
T: +65-6538-4700
[email protected]
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“Itectra and Brocade have worked with
us from the beginning of our migration,”
said Kristensen. “We have gained a fast,
reliable core network capable of handling
70,000 end users at once—as well as an
open standards foundation for innovating
services in the future. We have the best of
all worlds.”
For more information, visit
www.brocade.com and www.itectra.com.