Bright House Networks, the sixth largest owner and operator of cable systems in the U.S. and the second largest in Florida, recently cast its eyes on increasing its video and mobile backhaul services and has selected Cisco (News - Alert) as its Carrier Ethernet platform.

Bright House Networks announced today that it has deployed the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers as its platform to deliver enhanced video, data, voice and mobile backhaul services throughout its converged network. The impetus behind this decision was for Bright House Networks to grow its network to meet the consumer and business bandwidth requirements while strengthening its ability to add new services such as Whole House Video On Demand, Start Over and Look Back.

“Bright House Networks has been a long time Cisco customer. For the ASR 9000 specifically, Bright House had been evaluating this device since 2009, and began deployment in 4Q 2010,” Craig Cowden, senior vice president of Network Engineering and Operations at Bright Networks, told TMCnet. “Bright House believes that the ASR 9000 is offers a robust service edge platform that facilitates true network and service convergence between network core and edge.”

“Bright House Networks had established a vision for network convergence over three years ago, but needed a linchpin element at the network edge to execute this strategy,” he added. “The ASR 9000 offers the right combination of network bandwidth scale, route processing complexity, and service platform diversity to meet out network convergence vision.”

The Cisco ASR 9000 will allow Bright House Networks to reap significant technological and operational advantages, according to company officials, and also helps Bright House Networks simplify its network operations.

By 2014, global Internet traffic is expected to increase more than fourfold. By using the Cisco ASR platform Bright House Networks will be able to meet its growing bandwidth needs as it continues to add advanced products and services. The platform will also be useful in expanding Bright House Networks’ high-speed Internet “Road Runner Lightning” service, using DOCSIS 3.0 technology, to all of its residential and business customers.

So how specifically will Bright House Network’s customers benefit from this new partnership?

“More bandwidth means more services and faster Internet speeds. Services such as ‘Start Over’ and ‘Look Back’ require massive amounts of unicast traffic, so this will keep the network from getting busy signals as more and more people use Look Back and Start Over,” Marketing Manager, Cisco Service Provider, Greg Smith told TMCnet. “The ASR platform offers a more robust redundancy model, facilitating no single point of failure in the network call path. This includes intra-chassis redundancy (dual route processors, linecard redundancy) as well as active-active configurations across dual ASR 9000 chassis in each edge hub.”

For Cisco, Bright House Networks’ decision to rely on the Cisco platform was well received.

“We were pleased when Bright House Networks chose to build the foundation for its future on Cisco Carrier Routing System for their core, and even more so now that they have chosen to extend the network intelligence benefits possible by deploying the Cisco ASR 9000 technology in their network edge,” said Surya Panditi, vice president and general manager, Service Provider Routing Technology Group, Cisco, in a statement. “Now, with these two industry leading platforms in a more comprehensive architectural approach, they are well-equipped to address the video, mobile and cloud service demands of the zettabyte era.”

A few days ago, Bright House Networks added Zee TV to its international channel line-up in Orlando, Melbourne and Daytona Beach, Fla.Zee has an understanding of South Asian culture and beliefs, which are depicted in its programming.

"Launching Zee TV in Bright House service areas affords an even larger audience for Zee TV's outstanding South Asian line up and viewership," said Sudev Datta, VP-Affiliate Sales for Zee TV in Americas, in a statment. "Zee TV is the leading South Asian television network worldwide. Our belief in entertainment and commitment to our audience is evident in partnerships like this. This widens Zee's coverage and enhancing our leadership position in the U.S. market."