Optical network integrator LightRiver Technologies designs, engineers, commissions and supports next-generation solutions for mission-critical clients that require the highest capacity, reliability and resiliency that today’s optical communications technology can deliver.
The Client
Headquartered in Albany, New York, FirstLight Fiber is a leading provider of high-speed data, internet, data center and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont over the company’s own fiber optic network. FirstLight’s clientele includes national cellular providers and wireline carriers and enterprises spanning high-tech manufacturing and research, hospitals and health care, banking and financial, secondary education, colleges and universities, and local and state governments.
The Challenge
For more than 15 years, FirstLight has been building and operating its own fiber optic network. With the acquisition of Lebanon, New Hampshire-based segTEL in 2011, and the assets of Vermont-based TelJet in 2013 and G4 Communications in 2014, the company’s 275,000 fiber-mile network today connects more than 2,000 carrier and enterprise customers in five states, with connectivity to Canada.
While each of the acquired companies was good at moving network traffic around their respective regional networks, their networks were disparate, with multiple equipment types and software versions. Simply linking them would have created a complicated system with high latency, due to the number of nodes data would have to traverse to reach its final destination. FirstLight needed to combine the networks in a unified platform that leveraged best-in-breed technology to “future-proof” the network, while at the same time enable ubiquitous 100 Gbps connectivity and eventually scale to 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps capabilities. 
FirstLight needed the unified platform to interconnect its key markets, allow the company to continue the organic growth of its native network and take advantage of potential strategic network-expansion opportunities in the future.
Read about the solution in the Channel Partners’ featured case study.
