Fastweb Selects Cisco to Ready its Network for the 5G Era

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Press release 28/02/2019

Fastweb and Cisco announced they have partnered on a network modernization project that will enhance the capabilities and performances of Fastweb fiber-based network, positioning the Italy-based operator to meet the growing demands of video over broadband, enterprise VPN and future 5G traffic.

The new project builds on a longstanding relationship between the two partners, and aims to create dynamic, easy to scale and sustainable network architecture with advanced automation features that can meet the demands of different network slices to fully support future 5G applications.

The fundamental building block of the new network is a technology pioonered by Cisco (IP over dense wawelenght-division multiplexing – IPoDWDM) that delivers superior service flexibility bandwidth scalability and automation.

The solution will allow data to be dynamically steered across the network between the users and the service platforms based on the features and need of each specific service, optimizing the network traffic and resources availability. The network will thus be tailored to match the specific needs of different users, making network growth sustainable .in consideration of the complex and increasingly bandwith-intensive applications requested by Fastweb customers.  

The automation and orchestration capabilities needed to create, modify and adapt transport services delivery to match the ever changing network conditions will be available for Fastweb thanks to the Cisco Network Service Orchestrator software. 

"One of the biggest benefits of our new network is that services configuration will be entirely automated," said Andrea Lasagna, CTO at Fastweb. "This will allow us to reduce time to market for new products and services while improving accuracy. The solution will also enable us to scale up our portfolio of wholesale services to other service providers in the Italian market."

"With the new software, Fastweb's network provides a solution able to satisfy the growing bandwidth demand of residential and business customers at the metropolitan and national level.," said Giorgio Pignataro, Sales Director South Europe, Service Provider Media and Broadcaster di Cisco. "The service provider is now in a perfect position to benefit from the opportunities that will be enabled by 5G technology and ultra-high-speed broadband services."