Telefónica Deutschland GmbH is upgrading its network into one of the largest alternative broadband infrastructures in the German market. To this end, Telefónica has awarded Siemens Communications a contract to expand its inner-core backbone. Siemens has supplied M- and T-series routers from Juniper Networks and Metro Ethernet switches from Extreme Networks and integrated them in the carrier’s backbone network at the locations Frankfurt, Berlin and Düsseldorf. Siemens will also maintain a service organization to support Telefónica's network operation in ensuring the constant availability of the network. With the expanded network, Telefónica is equipping itself in Germany to serve growing numbers of users with a highly resilient infrastructure, offering internet providers high-quality broadband services such as Voice over IP, and in the future also IPTV and video on demand.

Siemens and Juniper Networks integrated the new components into the network of Telefónica Deutschland GmbH, a specialist for internet-based data and telecommunication services, with Siemens guaranteeing the security and availability of the expanded network through its technical service. The backbone network services have initially been contracted for three years. Juniper supplied the routing platforms and will be a partner to Siemens in the area of service. The new Metro Ethernet switches come from Siemens’ partner Extreme Networks.

With the expanded backbone, Telefónica is equipping itself, among others, to serve growing numbers of broadband service users. The operator plans to supply more than 1,500 cities and towns with the high-speed internet technology ADSL2+ by mid-2007, meaning that the company will reach around 60 percent of all German households. The company's platform is targeted primarily at internet service providers and carriers that do not have a network of their own or lack full coverage in Germany. They can now offer their customers differentiated products in the fields of DSL, data and telephony services, and in the future also triple play or video on demand. As part of the first phase of its network expansion, Telefónica signed cooperation agreements with almost all major internet service providers last year and is also, among others, supporting O2 Germany in its entry into DSL business.

Background Information
As a supplier of carrier-grade products for the areas of NGN and IP, Siemens guarantees through its quality offer for SURPASS Integration Solutions that these products are available on the market as quickly as possible. This involves developing a customer-specific solution in the analysis and design phase. The end-to-end functionality of this solution is then tested and ensured in the subsequent reference integration phase. The network capability of the solution is finally checked in the field integration phase. The Siemens integration portfolio also comprises the offer of solution maintenance, which guarantees the end-to-end functionality of a solution over the long term.

The M- and T-series platforms deliver superior scalability, offering a clear 40 Gbps migration path and, with the modular TX matrix platform, a seamless upgrade to multi-terabit capacity. With advanced high availability features, such as Graceful Restart and Fast Re-route, and sharing the modular JUNOS operating system, the platforms deliver complete fault-tolerance and consistent operations throughout all platforms. The high-performance routing platforms provide high density Ethernet aggregation at the network core, and advanced, fine-grained quality of service (QoS) functionality at the interface level, enabling providers to efficiently introduce new, high-value services over Ethernet while concurrently reducing capital and operational costs.

The metro Ethernet switching platform is based on Extreme Networks revolutionary core-class operating system, ExtremeXOS and includes Summit X450, BlackDiamond 12804R and BlackDiamond 10808 products. Whether deployed at the network core, concentration or as an aggregation device, the products benefit from the highly robust and modular architecture of ExtremeXOS and guarantees high levels of availability, resilience and simplified management of your entire network. As metro Ethernet switches offer an optimum support for triple play, the products provide low latency and high performance on every port. Summit X450 is highly flexible and scalable, making it an ideal aggregation switch for first level aggregation device before the traffic is passed on to Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond® 12804R core switch at the POP.