Network Diagramming Channel Feature

Cox Communications Spreads the Word about OPNET Network Diagramming Solutions

By Carrie Schmelkin
TMCnet Web Editor

OPNETWORK – the annual conference held by OPNET Technologies (News - Alert) this past fall to provide customers with a one-stop shop for hands-on training, seminars and networking opportunities – had many high points. From OPNET officials on the floor chatting with customers about the benefits of the conference to the training sessions that provided clients with hands-on demonstrations of every single application in the OPNET suite of solutions, OPNETWORK was a smashing success, according to company officials.

One company that was eager to do some talking of its own at OPNETWORK was Cox (News - Alert) Communications. While at the show, Mazen Khaddam, principal network architect for Cox, centered his keynote presentation on how network diagramming solutions provider OPNET has played a monumental role in optimizing Cox’s MPLS traffic engineering process. Cox recently enlisted the help of OPNET’s SP Guru Network Planner, a solution that automates analysis and design of large-scale multi-vendor IP/MPLS networks, supporting cost-effective and risk-mitigated decision making.

Since MPLS is a key enabler of Cox’s strategy to evolve to a single IP network for residential and commercial voice, video, and data services, by leveraging MPLS traffic engineering, Cox gains full control of the utilization of available bandwidth to deliver better-optimized triple- and quad-play services with diverse QoS requirements, according to OPNET officials. The MPLS traffic engineering process also minimizes the impact of possible network failures on end-user services.

Cox enlisted the help of SP Guru Network Planner’s best-in-class MPLS traffic engineering capabilities on its national IP backbone network. The outcome was a set of optimally designed label switched paths (LSPs) that maximized network performance and guaranteed that the network was designed resilient to failures, officials explained.

“Cox significantly benefited from OPNET’s unique tactical design capabilities that significantly improve network utilization with minimal modifications to the existing network—reducing the associated risks of broader network design changes,” OPNET officials explained in a customer case study. “Using this incremental traffic engineering approach, Cox significantly reduced maximum link utilization while only rerouting 27 LSPs in their massive network, providing substantial future cost savings.”

Like Cox, service providers rely on SP Guru Network Planner’s predictive capabilities to support key initiatives such as: next-generation network migration; converged service deployments; roll out of L2 and L3 VPN services; MPLS Traffic Engineering; and transitioning to IPv6.

For more on OPNET’s network diagramming products, click here.