Qwest Communications has announced enhancements to its network so that it can deliver speeds of up to 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) to customer edge sites in locations where the company offers its Ethernet-based iQ Networking and QWave data networking services.

The Qwest (News - Alert) national network will now transport and switch data rapidly enabling customers to scale bandwidth easily. The build-out for the upgraded backbone has been initiated on Qwest’s network and will continue through 2010 said reliable sources.

The new architecture which will be deployed by Qwest has been designed specially to reduce latency and add capacity to the core network. This will provide the bandwidth required for video and other applications.

Alcatel-Lucent’s new 100 Gbps Ethernet service routing capability will be deployed by Qwest. The installation encompasses supporting routers and switches throughout the network besides including Alcatel-Lucent’s (News - Alert) optical, ultra long-haul platform for transporting 100 Gbps services.

In a release, Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Qwest said, “This industry-leading upgrade, with the help of our partner Alcatel-Lucent, allows Qwest to meet the very real challenges of responding to data consumption trends. Qwest is satisfying customers’ appetites for increasingly sophisticated applications while honoring the need to be more resource-efficient.”

Qwest has upgraded the network to cater to the needs of large enterprises and governments and it also reduces the pressures on the network backbone as there is a tremendous growth in Internet traffic. The enhanced network requires fewer number of regeneration sites and the power efficiency is augmented on a per-Gigabit basis.

Basil Alwan, head of carrier portfolio strategy at Alcatel-Lucent, pointed out that Qwest is engineering today’s network which is poised for the future by including capabilities needed to handle broadband-intensive services like unified communications, video, multimedia and virtualized applications. Alcatel-Lucent advanced IP and optical technology is helping Qwest create a nationwide backbone critical for its strategic IP transformation, he noted.

With consumers demanding more bandwidth the Qwest network will now offer more speed and capacity so that consumers can use more bandwidth-intensive services, benefit from enhanced network protection capabilities and reduced latency. Qwest’s national network services are available to over 145 markets throughout the United States.