Raskom, a provider of international capacity for telecom operators, has announced the commissioning of a new backbone communication route connecting Moscow, Minsk, Warsaw, and Frankfurt. The project was implemented in cooperation with Belarus-based partner NCOT. According to the company, installation and equipment commissioning have been completed at all nodes along the route, with the infrastructure now fully operational.
Technology First, Poetry Later
The backbone has been deployed using DWDM technology, or dense wavelength-division multiplexing, enabling high-capacity data transmission over optical fiber without resorting to engineering miracles. The total throughput of the route is reported to reach 12.8 Tbps.
Raskom provided the following round-trip delay (RTD) figures:
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Moscow (MMTS-9) to Minsk: 10.6 ms
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Moscow to Warsaw: 17.1 ms
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Moscow to Frankfurt (Equinix FR5): 31.4 ms
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Moscow to Frankfurt (Digital Realty FRA13): 31.6 ms
The numbers are consistent, restrained, and leave little room for dramatic interpretation.
Additional Routes, Familiar Demand
With the new backbone in place, Raskom’s clients and partners can order new channels to Minsk and Warsaw. The launch has also enabled a shorter, fully independent route to Frankfurt, supplementing two previously available options. The company notes that this route is currently among the most in-demand for Russian operators accessing international traffic, as well as for foreign customers leasing channels that traverse Russian territory.
Raskom operates its own fiber-optic network and telecom facilities in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Marseille, Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, and other locations. The network is built using equipment from vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, and Extreme Networks — a lineup known less for flashy headlines and more for predictable behavior, which in backbone infrastructure is usually the whole point.