Deep Dive

Deep Dive

/ by Marek / , , , ,  + .

Planning Our Manchester Network Migration

Over the next three months there are going to be a lot of moving parts in the FAELIX machine. All of these will be choreographed around the establishment of our new presence in Equinix MA5, the connectivity from there to the rest of our network, and beyond.

For the last couple of years our overall network topology in the UK has been relatively stable, looking like this:

UK network map of AS41495 as of December 2020
AS41495 UK as of December 2020

We plan to POP the other half of Equinix MA1, Kilburn House, as one of the steps in our build. This will afford us diverse paths from MA5 to the rest of our network, and into a building with separate power infrastructure from Williams House. From both houses of MA1 we will extend our connectivity towards MA5.

UK network map of AS41495 extending to Equinix MA5
Initial Establishment of Presence in MA5

Then the migration of services will take place during what we hope to be the second half of September and the first half of October, leaving us a contingency in our project plan of another two weeks.

Schematic Diagram of Two-Stage EDFA
Schematic Diagram of Two-Stage EDFA

During that September migration we will assess our progress and serve notice on the remaining connectivity, power and space in MA2 as appropriate. We’ll only do that once we’re confident that the migration will be completed in time for those cancellations — what we are calling the “point of no return”!