DCA2 Network Infrastructure & Architecture Summary
Our DCA2 advanced Data & Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Tyson's Corner, McLean, Virginia is an essential part of our core network. The DCA2 NOC is staffed by highly experienced Systems & Network Administrators 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and features multiple heavy-duty UPS (uninterrupted power) systems, multiple diesel generators, and AC systems. The local network is arranged in four logical segments:
Our network does not use any 10Mb/s or 100Mb/s switches, or any hubs - at all. It is completely 10 Gigabit Ethernet (multiple, redundant 10,000 Mb/s for all network layers) and Gigabit Ethernet (1,000 Mb/s for the individual server access layer) based. Both internal and external network provide multiple, redundant, paths. Each and every piece of the network is fully redundant: there is no single point of failure. The network also includes a number of multi-terabyte tape and RAID-based backup systems. Physical Network Infrastructure Looking Glass Networks, now known as Level 3, one of the most financially healthy fibre carriers, provides some of private fibre-optics through multiple OC-192 SONET rings throughout northern Virginia and DC. In addition, Cox Communications, the nation's third largest cable service provider, and a very financially solid carrier, provides additional private fibre-optics through multiple inter-connected OC-192 SONET rings (DWDM capable) throughout northern Virginia and DC. The multiple, different carrier, OC-192 SONET rings each consist of two redundant OC-192s traversing two separate paths and having two diverse routes to our facilities, thus providing the ultimate in reliability and performance. Even if both of the lines are cut at any point, the OC-192 ring is still operational, with less than 50 ms (0.05 second) self-healing restoration time. The multiple private SONET rings provide us the ultimate in reliability: no downtime even in the case of a major fibre cut in the area (due to separate paths and multiple fibres). A number of other fibre carriers are on site, too: AboveNet (MFN), Verizon, and MCI/Verizon Business just to name a few. Furthermore, we do not only connect within Virginia. The DCA2 site has direct private fiber lines run from it to northern Virginia, DC, and New York, and reaches Illinois, California and Washington state via IAD1. The directly or one-hop connected IAD1, DCA3, NYC1, NYC2, CHI1, PAO1, and SEA2 sites further augment that by additional Virginia, DC, New York, Illinois, California and Washington state based connectivity. This fully redundant physical connectivity -- fibre traversing from us in all directions -- ensures that we will remain up and running even in case of a major disaster in the area.
Logical Network Architecture |
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Run a traceroute from our DCA2 network. Traffic from DCA2 considers all the outgoing routes - be it at the same site or at one of the many other sites - weighted for physical distance, reliability, performance and latency, and picks the most direct, lowest latency route available to the destination. That is, all the packets take the most direct, fastest, way out and have a full BGP selection of all the transit providers and peers at all the sites, not just the transit/peering lines present at that particular site. The network is fully inter-connected and meshed. For more details on our core network, such as a full backbone connectivity and peering diagram and network maps of our transit Tier 1 backbone connectivity providers, please review details on our core network. All customers and independent tests find our network to be better performing than any single competitor. Our industry-leading SLA guarantees that. 
Further Advantages of Our Network The northern Virginia area is an ideal location for a Data Centre. A very large portion of the world's Internet traffic passes through here, and the area is not subject to earthquakes, tornadoes, floods or other natural disasters. We are located at the true heart of the Internet, and in a very safe and secure area. This central location ensures optimal connectivity, speed, and routing, minimizing the number of hops - and thus the chance of any problems. We are located right beside a great number of private and public peering points, in one of the most densely and best connected areas in the world, including directly peering at the Equinix Exchanges (IBX'es) in Ashburn, Virginia and Chicago, Illinois, at the NYIIX in NYC, New York, at PAIX in Palo Alto, CA and Seattle, WA, at the SIX in Seattle, WA, at Any2 in both Los Angeles, CA and San Jose, CA, and at PacketExchange in Ashburn, VA, Chicago, IL, Palo Alto, CA and Seattle, WA. All providers have multiple, redundant routes into the DC/VA area. This is further built upon by our redundant connectivity to multiple Tier 1 providers via separate circuits, terminating at diverse locations in Virginia and the District of Columbia. We are redundantly set-up Internet connectivity wise (multiple backbone connectivity providers), as well as physically. In terms of fibre optics, we have multiple private OC-192 SONET rings with multiple financially-healthy fibre providers, taking different physical paths. We have built our facilities in the best possible area for Internet connectivity, and then further reinforced it with redundancy in all possible forms. We operate three high-capacity UPS systems: one APC system and two Liebert systems, the three UPS systems together being able to power all the DCA2 servers for over 30 minutes in case of a power outage. In case of a more extensive outage, the two (three engines total) diesel power generators - that can run indefinitely, if need be - would kick into effect. Multiple 15 through 30 ton Liebert AC units - over 300 tons all together - are in use, too, maintaining a consistent temperature of 18C and a dust-free environment at our Data Centre. One of the most unique features of our DCA2 DC is its US military / NSA (National Security Agency) standard compliant "tempest room." Any customer servers located in this room (upon request) will be fully secure from eletrical or magnetic interference, as well as safe upon a physical attack on the facilities. The "tempest room" is similar to a bank vault, except that it has been built and designed to be used for physically secure server hosting specifically. To ensure the best routing of our customers' data, we pay for commercial top-priority transit network capacity to our tier 1 backbone providers and have full burst capacity available at all times on all circuits. Thus we receive the highest level of service, including 99.99% or 100% uptime and no packet-loss guarantees, from all our connectivity providers. 90%+ of traffic from us to end users only passes over one or two backbones on its way to reaching the end destination. In addition, we are committed to under 50% network capacity utilization at all times; we ensure that our network always has double the capacity it needs, even at peak hours. Our network design and operations ensure the very best connectivity, speed, and reliability possible: 100% network uptime, no packet loss, and under 3 ms low latency connection to Tier 1 backbones - guaranteed by our industry-leading SLA. Our DCA2 network & site in summary:
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