Great Plains Communications Picks Ciena to Upgrade Multi-state Network

Great Plains Communications (GPC), the Midwestern telecommunications provider with a growing, privately owned 16,500+ mile fiber network reaching 13 states, is deploying Ciena' Coherent Routing solution and WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) technology.

This deployment will increase GPC’s network capacity, reliability, and resiliency to adapt to the continually increasing bandwidth needs of business, carrier, and residential customers.

With the enhanced capabilities made possible by the network upgrade, GPC can:

Support 5G and xHaul services for fiber-to-the-tower (FTTT) customers up to 10Gb/s—10 times the previous capacity
Provide high-performance, scalable 400G Data Center Interconnect (DCI) services to large cloud and data center operators

Ensure the utmost resiliency of Layer 2 VPNs with Segment Routing for the protection of packet services

“We strive to continuously improve our network to meet rising bandwidth demands with greater scalability and agility,” said Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer, Great Plains Communications. “GPC is committed to providing a customer experience that meets or exceeds the changing needs and expectations of our customers, whether it’s ultra-fast 5G, cloud computing, or high-bandwidth applications like streaming video and gaming—and Ciena’s coherent routing, switching, and optical technology plays a key role in this.”

“As a leading regional service provider in the Midwest, Great Plains Communications always has an eye to the future—especially when it comes to technology advancements and the growing traffic curve,” remarked Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas, Ciena. “With Ciena’s innovative Coherent Routing solution, GPC can support voracious network demand and shifting traffic patterns, fulfilling the needs of its business and residential customers with new in-demand, high-bandwidth services for 5G, cloud connect, and more.”

Managed by Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) multi-layer domain controller, GPC’s network leverages Ciena’s Coherent Routing solution comprising the 5164 Router and 8110 Coherent Aggregation Router with WL5n 100G–400G coherent pluggables, as well as the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic coherent optics, for optical transport. Installation, turn-up, and test services for the network were provided by Ciena Services to accelerate time to market, and Ciena will perform ongoing maintenance services to ensure the network operates at peak performance.