US Signal Significantly Upgrades Wisconsin Fiber Network with New Core Router in Madison Data Center

Upgrade Eliminates Need for Chicago Backhauls, Cuts Latency to 4-5ms

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Dec 10, 2013, 09:30 ET

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Dec. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- US Signal, an industry-leading network and cloud hosting provider, today announced the installation of two state-of-the-art Cisco ASR9000 core routers in its Madison, Wis. data center. The upgrade, slated to be completed by January 2014, will create a dynamic network hub in Madison that will greatly improve overall efficiency of regional data traffic over the US Signal network.

The upgrade will reduce the round trip latency – or "lag time" – of data transmissions down to just 4 to 5 milliseconds, compared to typical regional rates of 10 to 15 milliseconds. Data traffic from Madison to other hubs on the US Signal network will also be carried across a new 10-gigabit connection, expanded from a 1-gigabit line.

"This is a major performance advantage for any data-driven enterprise in Wisconsin. By extending our core routing infrastructure into Madison, data traffic from the city and surrounding areas will no longer need to be backhauled to the Chicago hub," said Trevor Bidle, Vice President of Engineering. "Because the transmission distance has been cut literally in half, customers will experience virtually zero delay – even when moving huge data sets across our network."

The new core routers will be directly connected to the US Signal private fiber-optic backbone. And as a true layer 3 extension of the network, the upgrade will significantly enhance the routing of both US Signal Cloud Hosting and Network Services.

As a result, all of Madison business's important applications, storage and virtual resources can be hosted locally and backed up in geographically diverse locations in Illinois and Michigan. Because data traffic between US Signal hubs is unmetered, customers are not charged for transmission across these locations, regardless of frequency or size leading to significant cost savings for data redundancy.

"The Wisconsin market has expressed a growing desire for cloud services, and US Signal will now be able to provide our high-performance Cloud Hosting and related options directly through our Madison data hub," Bidle added.

About US Signal
With over 14,000 miles of lit fiber and metro rings in 23 strategic tier-one, tier-two and tier-three markets, US Signal's infrastructure is one of the largest, fully deployed networks in the Midwest. The network's optical backbone features Cisco Systems latest carrier class architecture and supports all of US Signal's products. US Signal's product portfolio includes a full suite of colocation, security and computing services to complement its network offerings. Delivery of these services over their protected network ensures US Signal customers unparalleled flexibility, resiliency, and scalability to meet their business needs.

To learn more about US Signal, visit www.ussignalcom.com and follow us on twitter.com/ussignalcom.

SOURCE US Signal