FLORIDA'S TURNPIKE ENTERPISE IMPROVES NETWORK PERFORMANCE.Foundry Networks Foundry Networks is a network system vendor selling high-end managed ethernet switches and routers. The company was founded in 1996 by Bobby R. Johnson, Jr. and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA. (r), Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY), a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, has announced that Florida's Turnpike Florida's Turnpike, known as the Ronald Reagan Turnpike since 1998, is a toll road that runs 312 miles (497 km) down the Florida peninsula through 11 counties, from US 1 in Florida City to Interstate 75 at Wildwood. Enterprise, part of the Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida[1]. (FDOT FDOT Florida Department Of Transportation ), has selected Foundry's(tm) NetIron(r) MLX MLX Master Electrician (theatrical terminology) MLX Multiple Listing Exchange (real estate) Series MPLS (1) (MultiProtocol Lambda Switching) The earlier name for GMPLS. See GMPLS. (2) (MultiProtocol Label Switching) A standard from the IETF for including routing information in the packets of an IP network. metro routers and the FastIron(r) Family of Layer 2/3 switches for their extensive network redesign. Florida's Turnpike will leverage the approximately 100 new switches and routers to improve customer service, facilitate the deployment of new toll collection systems and support disaster recovery operations Operations conducted to search for, locate, identify, rescue, and return personnel, sensitive equipment, or items critical to national security. . With approximately 1.8 million motorists traveling across more than 460 miles of toll highways each day, Florida's Turnpike required a massive upgrade to their Toll Operations network infrastructure to save motorists' time, ensure efficient flow of traffic and maintain instantaneous access to multiple geographically distributed internal database systems. The FDOT purchase of NetIron MLX metro routers and FastIron switches supports a statewide network that is being deployed at all Turnpike owned and operated toll facilities within Florida. This network supports all facets of Toll Operations including the highly successful SunPass(r) electronic toll collection Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), an adaptation of military "identification friend or foe" technology, aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads. It is a technological implementation of a road pricing concept. system. In addition to helping provide motorists a better experience, the new NetIron MLX Multiprotocol Label Switching (networking) Multiprotocol Label Switching - (MPLS) A packet switching protocol developed by the IETF. Initially developed to improve switching speed, other benefits are now seen as being more important. (MPLS) based routers allow FDOT to deploy high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. and low latency Low latency allows human-unnoticeable delays between an input being processed and the corresponding output providing real time characteristics. This can be especially important for internet connections utilizing services such as online gaming and VOIP - VOIP is not as important as systems at locations dispersed statewide, something that was not possible with their legacy solution. MPLS is a widely supported method for speeding up data communication over IP, Asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. Tranfser Mode (ATM), and frame relay A high-speed packet switching protocol used in wide area networks (WANs). Providing a granular service of up to DS3 speed (45 Mbps), it has become popular for LAN to LAN connections across remote distances, and services are offered by most major carriers. networks; it improves the speed of packet processing and enhances overall network performance translating to a superior experience. Typically, this technology is used in advanced service provider networks to support the delivery of triple-play services (VoIP, video, data) over a converged infrastructure because of the applications' sensitivity to delay. However, Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is a unique example of a forward-looking organization; the enterprise implemented MPLS technology on their privately owned fiber network to maximize performance levels and provide long-term scalability. Ultimately, this will improve their customers' user experience while allowing for growth and supporting the ever-growing demand on Florida's toll roads. "Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is the second largest revenue generator for the State of Florida so it is vital we have a proven and innovative solution that is completely scalable, has industry-leading performance and allow for network growth for the long road ahead," said Bob Hartmann, director for the Tolls Data Center. "Our extensive legacy network infrastructure is aging and has reached a point where it is not able to perform the tasks needed for us to remain highly efficient and cost-effective. Foundry's NetIron MLX Series meets all our requirements through a sophisticated 10 gigabit Ethernet MPLS network infrastructure designed from the ground up to deliver the highest performance available today. After evaluating all the top router and switching vendors' solutions, it was clear Foundry had the best combination of ultra-high performance, scalability, support and low total cost of ownership." "We are very pleased that Florida's Turnpike Enterprise selected Foundry's leading routers and switches to bring high-performance to their statewide Toll Operations network," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager for Foundry's High-End and Service Provider Systems Business Unit. "As one of the nation's leading toll road operators, they are responsible for providing a world-class network of roads and toll operations for more than 1.8 million motorists daily. Foundry was able to deliver a high-performance, cost effective, scalable and robust 10 gigabit Ethernet MPLS routing and switching solution that allows Florida's Turnpike to provide local and visiting motorists safe and pleasant travels." Designed to enable reliable converged infrastructures and support mission-critical applications for large enterprises and service providers, the NetIron MLX Series of metro routers feature advanced N+1 redundant switch fabric architecture for high availability. The architecture ensures that the system continues to operate at peak performance even in the unlikely event of a switch fabric card failure. The redundant fabric architecture is complemented by comprehensive hardware redundancy for the management modules, power supplies and cooling system. In addition, the Multi-Service IronWare(tm) operating system, powering the NetIron MLX Series, offers hitless management failover with Border Gateway Protocol Border Gateway Protocol - (BGP) An Exterior Gateway Protocol defined in RFC 1267 and RFC 1268. Its design is based on experience gained with Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), as defined in STD 18, RFC 904 and EGP usage in the NSFNet backbone, as described in RFCs 1092 and 1093. (BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) The routing protocol that is used to span autonomous systems on the Internet. It is a robust, sophisticated and scalable protocol that was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). ) and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) A routing protocol that determines the best path for routing IP traffic over a TCP/IP network based on distance between nodes and several quality parameters. graceful restart capabilities, as well as hitless (in-service) software upgrades to further enhance system availability and overall network availability. By leveraging an MPLS infrastructure for their services, Florida's Turnpike can ensure the highest level of Quality of Service (QoS) and build greater resiliency into their network. Additionally, a common infrastructure can be used for the delivery of multiple services, thus lowering operational and capital costs. The ability to do sub-50 millisecond One thousandth of a second. See space/time and ohnosecond. (unit) millisecond - (ms) One thousandth of a second, one thousand microseconds. A long time for a modern computer. failure recovery with MPLS Fast Re-Route (FRR FRR Free Registration Required FRR Flint River Ranch (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) FRR False Rejection Rate (biometrics) FRR Fast Reroute (MPLS protection scheme) ) on the NetIron MLX Series allows minimal disruption to traffic being transported through the network. For more information about Florida's Turnpike, visit http://www.floridasturnpike.com. About Foundry Networks Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro and core routers. Foundry's customers include the world's premier ISPs, metro service providers, and enterprises, including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial and manufacturing companies. For more information, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit http://www.foundrynet.com. About Florida's Turnpike Enterprise An innovative experiment combining the best of both the government and business worlds, Florida's Turnpike Enterprise utilizes the best practices of the private sector while operating in the public interest. Operating as a separate business unit of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Florida's Turnpike has expanded and increased revenue, while continuing to protect bondholders and improve customer service across the board. The results have been improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness and timely project delivery. Over the past 12 years, Florida's Turnpike has made substantial improvements to the existing road system, acquired and assumed responsibility for a project completed by a local expressway authority, delivered six expansion projects, contracted most in-house functions to the private sector, promoted customer service, maintained financial stability and improved bond ratings. Florida's Turnpike is now responsible for all operations on every FDOT-owned and operated toll road and bridge. This represents about 600 miles of roadway and 80 percent of all toll facilities in Florida. Florida's Turnpike strives to ensure every customer who travels these toll roads and bridges receives first class service on every trip. For more information, call 408/207-1332 or 954/934.1289. |
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