Australian Internet service provider iiNet has purchased routers from long-term supplier Cisco to assist in the building of its national fiber transmission network.
The routers, which iiNet believes are the most powerful in Australia, will operate the network’s Sydney-based core in terminating its redundant national and global fiber links.
Deployment of the Cisco Systems 12416 and 10008 routers began in April this year and will continue as part of iiNet’s A$1 million (US$754,000) network upgrade strategy. iiNet CTO Greg Bader said the equipment had to be capable of handling the increased network usage which has multiple international links to the US, New Zealand and Japan.
“We required high-end, carrier grade networking equipment to manage the large volumes of data that we are distributing internationally and domestically,” Bader said. “Critically, the solution needed the ability to scale easily and cope with the growth we are seeing now and forecasting for the future.”
The deal will use routers from Cisco’s 6500, 10000 and 12000 series, which iiNet says are similar to those used by Optus and will incorporate the high performance IP/MPLS features of the 10008 router.
Cisco service provider team operational director, Peter Papaioannou said the routers will provide iiNet end users with more uptime, fewer bottlenecks and faster packet processing.
