Broadcom > Case Studies > SUCCESS STORY: Westman Communications Group

SUCCESS STORY: Westman Communications Group

Company Size

200-1,000

Region

America

Country

Canada

Product

Brocade MLXe Core Routers

Tech Stack

BGP Internet routing
MPLS Layer 2 VPN
Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS)

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence
Process Control & Optimization

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Westman Communications Group is a customer-owned cooperative that provides cable TV, Internet, and phone services to communities throughout western Manitoba, Canada. The company's primary routing equipment is housed at its Brandon headquarters location. A pair of Cisco 7600 Series routers with 10 Gbps supervisor cards carried the majority of the traffic load, while several Cisco Catalyst 3750 switches were deployed in Toronto operating as Layer 2 switches. The company's infrastructure is already IPv4-capable, and it is in the process of rolling out IPv6. The company is planning to deploy additional Brocade MLXe Core Routers in a new Winnipeg data center.

The Challenge

Westman Communications Group, a customer-owned cooperative that provides cable TV, Internet, and phone services to communities throughout western Manitoba, Canada, was facing a challenge. Their subscriber base was growing steadily, but exponential increases in bandwidth consumption across its customer base were straining its network. The company's primary routing equipment was housed at its Brandon headquarters location. A pair of Cisco 7600 Series routers with 10 Gbps supervisor cards carried the majority of the traffic load, while several Cisco Catalyst 3750 switches were deployed in Toronto operating as Layer 2 switches. However, as Internet routing tables had grown substantially, the network's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Internet routing was disrupted, reducing overall network performance. Westman also wanted to add intelligent routing capabilities at the network edge to reduce the burden on the primary routers.

The Solution

Westman Communications Group decided to implement Brocade MLXe Core Routers for core routing between four locations. The routers were built with a state-of-the-art, sixth-generation, network processor-based architecture and terabit-scale switch fabrics. They provided a rich set of high-performance Layer 2/3, IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, wire-speed encryption, and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) features. As a result, these routers were ready to address the diverse needs in environments like Westman’s. The solution’s MPLS Layer 2 VPN capability offers the option to deliver services to places in the network where Layer 3 is less cost-effective. Another feature, Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) connectivity, provides a Layer 2 service over an MPLS infrastructure, providing point-to-multipoint connectivity across the MPLS domain. This capability allows traffic to flow between remotely connected sites as if they are connected by one or more Layer 2 switches.

Operational Impact

Simplified BGP routing architecture to reduce operational complexity and improve scalability.
Achieved exceptional improvements in routing convergence performance and eliminated impact on the network.
Simplified management with the ability to deploy dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocols and scalable Internet route tables for both.
Gained better performance at lower capital and operational costs.