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Concord MLP plans XGS‑PON refresh, 10Gb burstable internet and 100Gb switching to expand town broadband capacity
Summary
Broadband manager Dale Hartling told the Light Board the utility will refresh decade‑old PON equipment to XGS, upgrade internet connections to 10Gb with a burstable 100Gb path, purchase additional IPv4 addresses, and install 100Gb switches to support higher speeds and resiliency.
The Concord Municipal Light Plant told the Light Board it will refresh its aging access equipment to XGS‑PON, upgrade Internet connections and install 100‑gigabit switching to support faster retail broadband and greater resilience.
Dale Hartling, broadband manager, said the town is preparing an equipment refresh from older PON gear to XGS, which will enable residential and business service above 8 Gbps and increase the number of PON ports while reducing the number of devices required. He said the vendor quote looked cost‑effective and the move will reduce equipment complexity and support future services.
Capacity and resiliency upgrades Hartling said CMLP upgraded a Crown Castle link from 5 gigabits to 10 gigabits at no additional cost and has contracted a new connection that provides 10 Gbps burstable to 100 Gbps and an additional 1,000 IPv4 addresses. He said the new link is less expensive than the existing 10 Gbps service and the vendor will allow up to a 5% monthly burst at no charge, giving the utility a buffer for outages on other providers. The new path arrives via a different route (Lexington Road) to improve network diversity versus the existing Lodge Brook Road route.
"So essentially, if we had an outage on another provider that lasted for 36 hours, we could absorb all of that traffic on this new connection and not pay anything extra," Hartling said.
Core network upgrades and security To support the new PON technology, staff purchased 100Gb switches and are installing them to connect the new equipment to the municipal network. Hartling also described plans to host an identity management service (open source) on site to improve security and more granular access controls for both broadband and town network equipment. He said work is underway to identify and eliminate Wi‑Fi coverage gaps in town.
Regional cooperation and limits Hartling briefed the board on the Mass Broadband Institute residential retrofit program and said a facility in nearby Acton was not compatible with the grant terms. He said this raised a wider question about extending CMLP service beyond Concord and asked the board to consider a future agenda item on the pros and cons of serving neighboring communities.
Ending Board members said the upgrades are timely and asked staff to return with cost details if the board considers extending broadband service to neighboring towns. Hartling said the Crown Castle upgrade was already complete and the burstable 10->100 Gb fiber is being routed to the utility now.
