11:40 AM -- How many transport networks have actually ripped out and replaced their SDH/SONET kit?

The team at Dante (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe), which plans, builds and operates the GÉANT pan-European research network, has done just that.

Talking Wednesday at the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress in Darmstadt, Germany, Dante CTO Michael Enrico noted that the replacement of its SDH network with Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) MX routers has recently been completed and that it was now about to start deploying Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN)'s DTN-X optical gear.

Infinera's selection is well known -- in fact, the vendor's CEO Tom Fallon is pretty pumped about the deal. (See Infinera CEO Campaigns for Growth and Dante Deploys Infinera in Europe.)

The Juniper deployment is not something that's been talked about, until this week that is. It seems the Dante team has plenty of ideas about how it can provide new services and capabilities to the research and education establishments it serves and needed a more flexible platform to achieve that.

A lot of great innovation comes from organizations such as Dante, so, especially as there is plenty of momentum behind network function virtualization currently, it'll be interesting to see what Enrico and his team get up to in the next few years. (See SDN: More Than Just a Tremor and Carriers Collaborate on Network of the Future.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading