Dulles, Va. - America Online is beefing up its Internet support to offer AOL users faster, more reliable 'Net access.
The online service provider has built two Internet hubs, called TeraPOPs, one in Reston, Va., and the other here, with Cisco System's 12000 Giga Switch Routers (GSR).
AOL's 12 million users will now have all of their Internet-bound traffic sent through AOL's two TeraPOPs.
AOL deployed a total of 10 Cisco 12000 GSR devices at its two TeraPOPs, says Joe Barrett, vice president of Internet operations at AOL, also based here. The 12000 GSR is supporting multiple OC-12, 622M bit/sec packet-over-SONET connections to the Internet, he says.
In addition to beefing up the routing support at its Internet points of presence, AOL has also established dedicated peering connections with several national ISPs.
The peering connections are designed to move traffic between AOL users and the Internet faster and with more reliability.
The ISPs connecting at AOL's TeraPOPs include AboveNet Communications, Concentric Network, Exodus Communications, GTE Inter-networking and PSINet.
The TeraPOPs are upgraded POPs that previously were run by AOL's former network operator, ANS Communications, Barrett says.
WorldCom recently acquired ANS Communications in a three-way deal.
RELATED LINKS
Contact Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo
Cisco prepping router for terabit speeds
How Cisco plans to transform the 12000 into a terabit routing switcher. Network World, 5/18/98.
Peering: The inner workings of service providers
A tech update. Network World, 6/8/98.
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