Level 3 Network Connections Into Mexico

If you do business in Mexico or are a multi-national company with a strong presence in Mexico, Level 3 Communications has good news for you. They’ve launched a major initiative to bring high bandwidth packet network services to business locations within Mexico.

Level 3 sees a business opportunity in Mexico that may be missed by carriers other than the incumbent, Telemex. it helps greatly that Level 3 recently acquired international bandwidth competitor Global Crossing, which already had significant network connectivity in Latin America. One of those assets is a 3,484 km fiber optic ring that connects Monterrey, Mexico City, Mazatlan and Guadalajara. From there it connects to the Pan-American Crossing submarine cable that runs from South America and Central America to the United States. There’s another connection at Tijuana, with a landing at Grover Beach near San Luis Obispo to connect to the California backbone and trans-Pacific submarine cables.

The Mexico ring is capable of providing Terabits per second of bandwidth capacity for transporting voice, data and multimedia services. Among the network services that Level 3 is now offering in Mexico are EtherSphere, Managed IP VPN, High Speed IP, Dedicated Internet Access, Wavelength Services and Private Line Service.

EtherSphere is a worldwide Ethernet-based WAN service, connecting Ethernet transport services from 150 locations that support 26 cities around the globe. EtherSphere offers Virtual Private LAN services (VPLS) specifically intended for companies with geographically dispersed business locations. VPLS is a mesh network technology running on the Level 3 MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) core network. It’s also called Transparent LAN Service. The idea is to connect multiple Ethernet LANs together as if they are one bridged network serving all locations.

EtherSphere is a comprehensive VPLS service that supports six Classes of Services to prioritize traffic and enable network convergence on a large scale. You can easily scale bandwidth in various increments between 1 Mbps and 2 Gbps, although the system does support bandwidth above 2 Gbps. You have a choice of service types through the network that include multipoint to multipoint (mesh), point to multipoint (hub and spoke) and point to point connectivity similar to Ethernet private lines.

Level 3’s IP VPN service runs on their converged MPLS backbone rather than the public Internet. This gives you six-level Class of Service (CoS) for high performance voice and video transport as well as data connections. Level 3 owns more than 100,000 fiber miles connecting 450 markets in more than 45 countries. Your last mile connection can be anything from T1 through Gigabit Ethernet.

Level 3 is one of the world’s most connected Internet Service Providers. Their Dedicated Internet Access offers IP port speeds from DS-1 (1.5 Mbps) to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. High bandwidth users can opt for High Speed IP (HSIP), a dedicated wholesale high speed Internet service.

For the ultimate in high bandwidth service, Level 3 Wavelength service offers high performance, low latency fiber optic wavelength services over their high speed DWDM network. Available speeds are GigE, 2.5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 10 GigE and 40 Gbps. You can order both protected and unprotected point to point configurations. Native Fiber Channel and FICON protocols are supported.

Level 3 Private Line services are available worldwide in over 45 countries. These connections are delivered over proven SONET and SDH architectures that are protocol independent. You can transport IP, voice, data and video as Layer 2 or Layer 3 traffic.

Do you have connectivity needs that include service to locations within Mexico or other international destinations from the United States? If so, get prices, features and availability for International fiber optic network services.



Note: Map of Mexico courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Vyvx and Genesis Offer Worldwide Video Transport

If you are involved in video production, distribution, news reporting or TV sportscasting, you have an immediate and ongoing need for video transport services. Satellites have long been used for this purpose, but worldwide fiber optic networks have benefits that include almost unlimited bandwidth, low latency and availability for many popular venues. The merger of Level 3 and Global Crossing has combined their video transport operations into an impressive array of service options.

Level 3’s Emmy Award winning video service is called Vyvx. They offer broadcast fiber services, managed video network services, teleport and satellite services and venue services. Their venue service, called VenueNet, offers dedicated access points at every major league stadium in the US. In addition to accessing the Vyvx fiber optic network, Level 3 provides high quality video encoding, Internet, telephone access and dedicated support for each venue.

The heart of the Vyvx system is a IP MPLS network with extensive reach. What MPLS brings to the table is inherent VPN security, the ability to reroute video connections on the fly if a fault occurs in the network, and rapid set up and tear down of video connections. You can plan ahead to book the service you need or get a connection at the last minute through the Vyvx 24/7 booking center. This is more difficult to do with limited bandwidth satellite services and unheard of with dedicated point to point fiber connections over traditional switched circuit telecom networks.

Within the last year, Level 3 has added uncompressed high definition video transport services between Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New York City at 1.5 and 3.0 Gigabits per second. This offers video producers and broadcasters the opportunity to deliver live video feeds in their native, pristine form without any compression.

Another Vyvx service is Managed Video Network Service (MVNS). This is a fully managed distribution system that provides both fiber optic connectivity and the necessary equipment. With MVNS, you can distribute video feeds to multiple destinations using a web-based booking system. These feeds can be broadcasts or prerecorded content.

With the acquisition of Global Crossing, Level 3 has picked up Global Crossing’s Genesis Solutions, a formerly competing video transport service. Genesis offers global HD video over IP transmission, portable bandwidth that you can book as you need it, and point to multipoint access that can be set up immediately.

Global Crossing’s converged IP network connects 700 cities in 70 countries worldwide. The Genesis Solutions uses that network to offer specialized managed video services with compressed and uncompressed transmission options. Dedicated bandwidth is available in any increment between 2 Mbps and 270 Mbps. MPEG 2/4 compression equipment is available for encoding, decoding transcoding and compression to deliver the desired bit rate and format needed.

As you can see, there is a lot of compatibility between Level 3’s Vyvx and Global Crossing’s Genesis. The combination of the two networks adds capacity and extends the reach of the combined system to every major broadcast market in the world via fiber optic transmission. There are also eleven satellite teleports for those odd locations where fiber still doesn’t go.

Do you need full time or occasional video transport services for broadcast or program distribution? If so, don’t assume that the cost is prohibitive or that there isn’t the capacity available for the locations you have in mind. Level 3 Vyvx Solutions has both the capability and experience to handle whatever you need and whenever you need it. Check prices and options for video transport services now to confirm that your project will meet schedule and budget.

EtherSphere Spans The World With Ethernet

Global Crossing is circling the globe with standards-based Carrier Ethernet services under the umbrella of its EtherSphere solutions portfolio. For multinational corporations and other companies with an international reach, this offers one-stop shopping for a network that unites geographically diverse business locations.

EtherSphere offers a number of Ethernet services that have been established as standards by the MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). These include Point to Point Ethernet Private Line (EPL) or E-Line and multiple private line or Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), Point to Multipoint or E-Tree, and Multipoint to Multipoint Ethernet Private LAN or VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) E-LAN.

This suite of standard Ethernet services accommodates whatever connectivity is needed to interconnect multiple locations. All connections are made using EtherSphere’s Smart Demarcation Network Interface Device (NID). This allows the network to monitor performance end to end, perform traffic management and offer end to end SLAs (Service Level Agreements). Customers have administrative access through the Global Crossing uCommand online portal.

The Smart Demarcation NID supports 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps Ethernet port interfaces. Bandwidth is highly scalable and can be ordered in committed data rates from 1 to 10 Mbps in 1 Mbps increments, 10 to 100 Mbps in 5 Mbps increments, 100 to 1000 Mbps in 25 Mbps increments, 1000 to 2000 Mbps in 100 Mbps increments and greater than 2 Gbps upon request.

There are six classes of services supported on the network that are identified as premium, premium plus, enhanced and enhanced plus, and basic and basic plus. The service level agreements can be POP to POP or end to end with metrics that include frame delivery, frame delay, and delay variation by class of service, plus installation and mean time to repair.

One beauty of Carrier Ethernet is the ability to provide layer 2 switched Ethernet service over wide area networks, including international destinations. VPLS can interconnect data centers and remote locations in a bridged LAN arrangement that includes all of a company’s offices. With simple Ethernet interfaces at every location, connections between LANs are greatly simplified compared to creating worldwide networks using traditional telecom services.

Global Crossing is expanding this popular EtherSphere service to include more than 40 new locations in the United States, Europe and China by the end of 2011. This will expand the carrier and enterprise offers now available in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and Latin America served by 150 locations served by multiservice edge routers. The expansion in China will deploy EtherSphere Layer 2 VPLS to business centers in China through Global Crossing’s extended reach partner, CITIC Telecom CPC.

Is your company multinational in structure or do you simply need to do business worldwide? If so, perhaps a more comprehensive network solution that links all of your business locations through an Ethernet WAN solution can reduce costs and improve performance. Get International Carrier Ethernet pricing and availability to compare with what you have now.

Global Crossing Ups Ante On Network Security

What’s a major expense for organizations that nobody wants to talk about? Security breaches. It seems like every few days there’s another big splash in the news about user accounts and credit card numbers being compromised. There’s the direct cost of having to make up for losses, but there’s the larger cost of concerned customers abandoning or avoiding the company out of fear they’ll be the next victims.

These are the security horror stories we hear about. What generally isn’t reported is the espionage and theft of intellectual property that goes on behind the scenes. Your competitive advantage can be neutralized in minutes when key trade secrets and client lists are downloaded by unethical competitors and professional thieves.

Most companies are more attuned to network security than ever before. But is it enough? Judging from breaking news stories and industry buzz, not hardly. This is why Global Crossing is expanding its portfolio of security solutions for enterprise customers.

Global Crossing is well known as a leading worldwide IP network provider serving 40% of the Fortune 500 and hundreds of carriers, mobile operators and Internet service providers. They have the resources and the reach to deal with threats on an international basis. They also have the need, as their customers are prime targets for nefarious activities.

Global Crossings expanded suite of network security measures now includes a new SIEM or Security Information and Event Management platform. This resides in the Global Crossing Security Operations Center (SOC) where a team of security professionals, analysts and engineers monitor and assess network security issues on a full time basis. The reports and analysis are delivered to the proprietary uCommand portal for each customer.

The suite of security features includes a firewall, intrusion prevention service, web content filtering, antivirus and antispam appliance provided by Fortinet. This is augmented by additional professional services that include security policy review and creation, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, incident response and security assessment and audit.

This is a multi-pronged approach that starts with evaluation and design of policies, procedures and technical measures, continuously monitors for threats, automatically thwarts them in progress and reports the attacks, plus jumps into action to deal with new issues as they arise.

The challenge of network security is that it is a rapidly evolving field with highly motivated and increasingly sophisticated perpetrators pitted against equally motivated security professionals. The more valuable your assets and the more your company depends on network connections and an online presence, the greater the threat to your operations.

Are you feeling the need for improved network security? If you are beyond what out of the box antivirus programs can do for you, a managed security solution may be your most cost effective option. Whether you have a small retail store or a Fortune 500 corporation to secure, get pricing and features of managed network security options new. You’ll likely sleep a lot easier knowing that someone in the security center is watching out for your interests.

The Coming Level 3 Global Crossing Juggernaut

If you believe that the future of business is high bandwidth connections to clouds, customers and suppliers worldwide, then the next step toward this future is the melding of Level 3 Communications and Global Crossing. Combine their assets and you have a network map that spans the world.

Level 3 Communications is actually purchasing Global Crossing for $2 billion. When this merger is complete, their combined fiber optic assets will reach 70 countries on 3 continents.

Level 3 has an extensive long haul network with metro fiber in many US cities. Their transatlantic undersea fiber connects to a European network to link the USA and major European cities with low latency fiber connections. Level 3 is a major player in the high speed financial trading space, as well as providing other high bandwidth fiber services for global business needs.

Another strength of Level 3 is video transport. Their Vyvx service carries both high definition and standard video programming for studios and networks. For the highest in transmission feed quality, Level 3 Vyvx offers uncompressed high definition video transport services between Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New York City at 1.5 and 3.0 Gbps. The Level 3 Content Delivery Network (CDN) has 35 strategically placed cashing locations to keep the content as near the customer as possible.

What Global Crossing does is complement rather than compete with Level 3’s US/Europe network. Global Crossing has over 100,000 route miles of fiber optic cable installed around the world. This includes US and Europe network fiber that overlaps Level 3 to some extent. But it also brings trans-pacific undersea fiber and connections to Japan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Connected to its North America network is an extensive fiber optic networking serving the major cities in South America.

Global Crossing is true to its name. Their fiber really does span the world. Add Global Crossing’s network to the Level 3 network and you have extensive connectivity throughout North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia, with some facilities extending to the Middle East and Africa.

What does this mean for you, the business user? It certainly means more availability of converged IP network services worldwide and specialty services, such as low latency routes and video transport. Both Level 3 and Global Crossing have been serving major enterprise customers and carriers. They’ve got the expertise and facilities to accomplish whatever you will ever need in the way of connectivity.

Level 3, especially, also caters to smaller and medium businesses in the US. Their T1, bonded T1 and Ethernet over Copper solutions offer dedicated bandwidth at very reasonable prices. For companies that need to link multiple locations, Level 3 MPLS can create a company network that spans the country and extends to include offices, factories and warehouses worldwide.

Fiber optic networks are enjoying a new renaissance, as businesses move to cloud processes and automation that increases employee productivity. You see more fiber going into the ground in both major cities and rural areas. If you’ve been affiliated with Level 3 or Global Crossing, your connection capabilities are about to be increased significantly.

If you are looking to increase your connection speeds, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the wide range of services available and the cost reductions that have come about in recent years from these and other competitive carriers. Don’t assume that you can’t get or afford higher bandwidth, even fiber, until you get prices and availability for business bandwidth services appropriate to your facility locations.



Note: Image of Earth from over the Atlantic Ocean courtesy of the U.S. Government on Wikimedia Commons