Supporting its Metro network serving thousands of customers on Finland's west coast with Triple Play services, Vaasa Telephone Company is relying on Extreme Networks, Inc., the leader in open converged networks, to deliver voice, video and data over a high performance Metro Ethernet ring.

Vaasa has built a high-speed 10 Gigabit network between the cities of Vaasa and Seinajoki using Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 10K switches for the network core and Summit switches at the network edge. Today, the network aggregates more than 30,000 combined Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) and DSL connections, carrying broadband traffic for phone calls, Internet connections and video.

Vaasa selected Extreme Networks for its scalability with 10 Gigabit bandwidth and Extreme Networks' redundant EAPS protocol, enabling a highly available ring topology. EAPS provides 50 millisecond failover on network links if fiber is cut or interrupted. Vaasa also benefits from scalable Layer 2 VPNs supported with Extreme Networks' VLAN and VMAN technology. VMANs support the encapsulation of multiple VLANs, more than 4,000 on every switch, to segment network traffic, make network designs more efficient and scale the network more easily.

"We found Extreme Networks to be above the competition with switches that are more scalable, innovative and reliable," said Johan Kaustinen, responsible for the data backbone at Vaasa Telephone Company. "We are very pleased with the performance and flexibility of the network, allowing us to cost-effectively deliver the most compelling services to our customers."

Vaasa's recent network upgrade ensures that the required levels of bandwidth and traffic prioritization with Quality of Service (QoS) are present along with low latency to support emerging IPTV applications. The simplicity of Extreme Networks' award winning ExtremeWare XOS modular operating system benefits Vaasa by allowing scheduled software updates while the network is in operation.

"Extreme Networks' provides organizations with large-scale networks allowing them to deliver converged services, including voice, video and data, without limitations," said Suresh Gopalakrishnan, vice president of marketing for Extreme Networks. "The Carrier Ethernet features on our switches offer higher availability, traffic prioritization and network scalability. This is critical for the emerging Carrier Ethernet market."