The Challenge
Haefele Connect, a family-owned Internet Service Provider, serves more than 30 towns and municipalities across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York State. The company is rolling out 10G XGS-PON with pure fiber to the home, and its legacy aggregation layer could not carry that build.
Traditionally a Cisco and Juniper shop, the team needed new L3 aggregation routers running in weeks, not years, and they had to interoperate with the currently deployed Juniper system. Port density decided the shortlist: the team required high-density 10G ports and medium-density 100G ports. Long supply-chain lead times ruled the incumbent vendors out on timing alone.
The Solution
RocNet Supply designed and implemented the upgrade, standing up OcNOS on Edgecore hardware in the L3 aggregation role. RocNet opened remote access directly to its own lab, so Haefele Connect finished a hands-on evaluation in a single day. The open networking platform works with the installed Juniper system, and the equipment shipped in weeks.
- OcNOS on Edgecore for L3 aggregation
- Simple licensing on a right-size platform
- Interoperability with the deployed Juniper system
- Remote lab evaluation completed in a single day
Outcomes
Haefele Connect refreshed its legacy aggregation infrastructure on a timeline the XGS-PON build can actually use: availability measured in weeks instead of years, so the fiber programme is no longer waiting on hardware. The network operations team got the port mix it specified, at what IP Infusion describes as a market-leading price.
Because the new routers speak to the currently deployed Juniper system, the upgrade lands inside the existing network rather than replacing it wholesale, and the one-day lab evaluation retired the technical risk before any purchase order went out.
Why OcNOS
“We are rolling out 10G XGS PON with pure fiber to the home and needed aggregation routers,” said Ben Hatton, Director of Network Operations for Haefele Connect. “When making the selection, port density was a key buying criteria. We required high density 10G ports and medium density 100G ports, and the equipment was available within weeks instead of years.” For Haefele Connect, open networking offered a path to refresh the network without the supply-chain delays affecting incumbent vendors, while preserving interoperability with existing Juniper equipment.