How 10Gb Redundancy Protects Rural Iowa Services
ICN is improving its critical infrastructure at local Iowa sites along Highway 18.
Equipment upgrades in Mason City, Garner, Algona, and Estherville were successfully completed by ICN, providing a dedicated 10Gb connection at each of these key (aggregation) sites along Highway 18. This 10Gb upgrade in Mason City and Algona ensures that rural Iowa schools and hospitals have the same high-speed reliability as urban centers.
This upgrade provides a more dependable connection for the essential services our communities count on most including hospitals, 911 dispatchers, and local schools. The new equipment allows Ethernet and IP services to travel over a redundant network.
To implement this project, ICNβs engineering team utilized existing "spare" fiber strands to create a failover daisy-chain link. The enhanced redundancy means that if the fiber is cut, the connection automatically reroutes to keep services running using a daisy-chain link among the rural locations. The hardware upgrade switched 24x1Gb connections to 24x10Gb connections, which is part of a larger Network project that will enhance 156 aggregation sites. When all sites are upgraded, ICN will have a full 10Gb converged aggregation network throughout the State.
Upgrading the network strengthens both the customer experience and the resilience of Iowaβs critical infrastructure. ICN has completed upgrades at 96 locations thus far; work is currently progressing at 15 additional sites. These upgrades, which include the previously completed 100Gb core upgrade, are designed to future-proof the network against the increasing demands of emerging technologies.
To see how these Highway 18 upgrades fit into our state-wide reach, view the ICN Network Map here.