$MRVC City of Springfield, Massachusetts Supports
Post# of 94265

Springfield creates a new network with MRV infrastructure that lowers costs and enables delivery of new services with greater bandwidth and more control
MRV Communications™, Inc. (OTCQB: MRVC) (“MRV®”), a leading provider of innovative packet and optical solutions, today announced that the City of Springfield, Mass., is using MRV solutions to create a new high-bandwidth telecommunication network throughout the city and surrounding region. Through the use of fiber rings running 10Gbps wavelengths and intelligent, carrier-class Ethernet demarcation functionality with advanced traffic management, the City of Springfield is empowered to offer advanced services and applications that support city services, regional development and more connected communities.
“Our ability to offer an advanced Carrier Ethernet network provides a solid foundation for the development and progress of our city and region, and MRV made that transition easier,” said Andrew J. Doty, CIO for the City of Springfield. “We use the OptiSwitch® line and Pro-Vision® software to simplify the delivery and management of new services and traffic types, ensure the highest level of performance and SLA compliance, and the support MRV provided through the planning and implementation stages were an instrumental asset in the evolution of our next-generation network.”
The City of Springfield is the largest city and entity in the southwest region of Massachusetts. In order to support the growth in next-generation Carrier Ethernet services, the city deployed multiple 10Gbps fiber rings to create advanced services and connect a larger community of cities, campuses and businesses to their regional hub. This enabled the city to migrate from existing T1, 1.54Mbps connections, which provided limited connectivity, to multiple 10Gbps rings with almost unlimited capacity, using MRV’s packet and optical equipment to provide the basis for this migration. This change resulted in significant cost savings for the city and created opportunities to develop new advanced services. The city converted more than 1,600 analog and digital phones to VoIP phones with many more features for improved communications and cost savings over the existing telecommunications infrastructure. It also enabled regional high-bandwidth connectivity to the recently completed Commonwealth of Massachusetts Data Center in Springfield, which is an active back-up to the Massachusetts Information Technology Center (MITC) in Chelsea. Surrounding cities and towns seeking improved regional connectivity and telecommunications cost reductions are also connecting to the city’s fully-owned fiber network using MRV equipment, and there is even discussion of extending the network to Albany, NY.
To minimize support requirement the City of Springfield also uses Pro-Vision® software, MRV’s provisioning and service management platform. This gives the city and its partners the ability to orchestrate, monitor and troubleshoot the network from end-to-end and from multiple locations, and any organization connecting to the network can monitor their own connection performance. This improves visibility and minimizes the IT support requirements for the city and surrounding communities.
“Support for Carrier Ethernet services is an important element to the economic development and success of any region, as it provides access to the bandwidth-rich applications that enable governments and businesses to become more efficient and communities to improve education and remain connected to the wider region,” said Tim Pillow, senior vice president of global sales and marketing for MRV Communications. “Our relationship with the City of Springfield represents another success in our pursuit of serving municipalities. Now the City of Springfield is able to support high-bandwidth data, voice and video services, as well as offer connectivity at a lower cost. The ability to offer more advanced services to a wider population and at a more affordable rate enables the City of Springfield to increase its contribution to its region.”
About MRV Communications
MRV Communications is a global leader in converged packet and optical solutions that empower the optical edge. For more than two decades, the most demanding service providers, Fortune 1000 companies and governments worldwide have trusted MRV® to provide best-in-class solutions and services for their mission-critical networks. We help our customers overcome the challenge of orchestrating the ever-increasing need for capacity while improving service delivery and lowering network costs for critical applications such as cloud connectivity, high-capacity business services, mobile backhaul and data center connectivity.
For more information please visit www.mrv.com.
Connect2 Communications
Ashley Baster, 919-435-9112
ashley@connect2comm.com

