GTT announces 400G upgrade of global IP network

Aiming to meet demand for high-performance and secure internet-enabled services, global cloud networking provider GTT Communications has announced a plan to invest in a 400G upgrade to its global Tier 1 IP network.

The upgrade is designed to address the continued double-digit increase in IP traffic and will result in improved scalability and higher-capacity options for GTT’s suite of enhanced internet and wide area network (WAN) services, including features such as telemetry-based routing, performance optimisation and secure and automated tunnel creation.

The phased roll-out will begin with global metropolitan city locations in the initial phase, eventually spanning GTT’s core IP switching and routing fabric connecting more than 260 cities on six continents. The initial phase of deployment is expected to complete in the second half of 2023.

The network augmentation to 400G will be implemented at multiple network layers that include the core IP backbone and metro extensions, as well as customer service nodes where demand dictates.

GTT is deploying what it describes as state-of-the-art IP networking technology provided by Juniper Networks, which can scale up and down for optimised WAN performance and enhanced efficiency across the core IP backbone. The global IP network upgrade includes telemetry functionality that enables the network to scale higher and converge faster, providing better performance and greater flexibility to run cloud applications.

“The scalability and performance advantages of GTT’s global Tier 1 IP network is a cornerstone to what makes GTT stand out from the other managed network service providers,” said GTT Communications chief operating officer Don MacNeil.

“This comprehensive network upgrade to 400G demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with the most advanced internet networking platform so they can realise maximum business benefits from managed SD-WAN as well as the full array of enhanced internet services that GTT offers, and it is among a number of key initiatives on our transformation roadmap that leverage the latest AI [artificial intelligence] and digital technologies.”

GTT said that according to May 2021 research from the Centre for Applied Internet Data Analysis, its global Tier 1 IP backbone is ranked among the largest in the industry and operates with more than 240Tbps of core capacity. About 70% of GTT customer IP traffic remains on-net from edge to edge, which provides enhanced control and security. The network is designed to route traffic on the shortest path possible, delivering low-latency performance and reliability.

GTT claims it was among the first large-scale Tier 1 internet service providers to implement RPKI, a route validation filtering technique for BGP sessions that ensures superior IP routing security. In August 2021, industry research firm TeleGeography reported that 71% of operators had increased their purchases of IP transit, and estimated that international peak internet traffic nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021.