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RAD’s Service Assured Access Delivers Always-On Service with Optimal QoE for Veteran Rural Telco
As you scan the grain elevators that dot the landscape across southwestern Nebraska you will notice how many of them host microwave antennas and small industrial cabinets that house Ethernet demarcation devices (EDDs), which are vital gateways for rural communications services.
ATCjet, a division of ATC Communications, has deployed many of these radios and EDDs over the past 15 years to help bring ATC communications services such as broadband Internet, cable TV, fixed and mobile phones, business Ethernet services, web hosting, and more to the approximately 30 communities that populate the region’s expansive plains. This carries on the role that ATC Communications has served in the area for more than 110 years
In the Midwest, even EDDs must embody rugged individualism. More recently, to gain more efficiency and greater control over the traffic traversing their network, ATCjet sought to deploy a more robust EDD. An EDD that can provide, among other things, advanced traffic management capabilities, support for network resiliency functions like Ethernet ring protection switching and link aggregation, Y.1731 performance monitoring capabilities, and 1588 v2 advanced timing. Also, it needed an aggressively hardened unit capable of enduring the temperature extremes, hot and cold, to which the Nebraskan plains are prone.
Challenge
Gain more efficiency and greater control over the traffic flowing through the network.
Solution
RAD’s SAA solutions based on the ETX-2 family of IP and Carrier Ethernet demarcation devices.
Testimonials
”The ETX’s traffic management capabilities enable us to maintain a much ‘cleaner’ network With the ETX, we are able to maintain strict control of the network ingress, without any of the congestion that affected the previous installation.”
Donnie McCorkle, Information Systems Engineer, ATCjet
”The RAD technical support people that we worked with were very patient, spending a great deal of time with us, and did an excellent job answering any questions that we had. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would rate them a sure-fire 10.”
Donnie McCorkle, Information Systems Engineer, ATCjet
They chose RAD’s CE 2.0-certified ETX-2 Carrier Ethernet demarcation/mobile demarcation devices, part of its Service Assured Access (SAA) solution portfolio. SAA makes it easier to plan, deploy, provision, and maintain existing and new services, allowing operators to offer a resilient, always-on service with predictable quality of service (QoS) and better quality of experience (QoE).
“The ETX’s traffic management capabilities enable us to maintain a much ‘cleaner’ network. With the ETX, we are able to maintain strict control of the network ingress, without any of the congestion that affected the previous installation,” noted Donnie McCorkle, ATCjet’s Information Systems Engineer.
“Overall, it gave us a great deal more control and flexibility than our previous installation,” continued McCorkle. “In fact, even when comparing the current offerings on the market, the ETX had just the right combination of features and capabilities to meet the current and future needs of our network. It was a slam dunk once we recognized the combination of the capabilities and the ultra-rugged environmental hardening.”
Everyone Needs a Good Support System The initial ETX deployments have been in service for nearly a year now, and, according to McCorkle, the installations were “flawless – absolutely flawless!” and he plans to deploy them at approximately 30 sites overall. The RAD technical support team helped ATCjet configure and turn up the devices. Along the way, based on some changing needs, they also helped ATCjet make some configuration modifications.
Enhancing Network Control with CE 2.0
Features
- Advanced traffic management capabilities
- Supports Ethernet ring protection switching and link aggregation, Y.1731 performance monitoring capabilities, and 1588 v2 advanced timing
- Ultra-rugged environmentally hardened
Benefits
- Easy to plan, deploy, provision, and maintain existing and new services
- Maintains strict control of the network ingress without any congestion
- Withstands harsh temperatures
Related Products
The ETX-2 is MEF Carrier Ethernet 3.0-certified for E-Line, E-LAN, E-Tree, and E-Access services, as well as delivering TDM pseudowire over packet networks. Supporting high capacity service provisioning per EVC/EVC.CoS, flexible classification and H-QoS traffic management, ETX-2 offers accurate and scalable service testing as an RFC2544 test device as well as performance monitoring. The ETX-2 is supported by RADview management and enables a variety of protection mechanisms. It also offers NEBS-compliant and environmentally hardened enclosure options.