• Home
  • Customer Success
  • Vienna Universities Modernize Optical Network and Unlock High-capacity Connectivity For Research and Education
  1. Home
    Item seperator
  3. Item seperator
    Vienna Universities Modernize Optical Network and Unlock High-capacity Connectivity For Research and Education

Customer success stories

Europe

Vienna universities modernize optical network and unlock high-capacity connectivity for research and education

Group

Overview

The University of Vienna, TU Wien, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) partnered with Nokia to modernize their research networking infrastructure. Together they deployed a new optical metro data center interconnect (DCI) network that provides 100G services today and is ready for future 400G connectivity across multiple university sites in Vienna.

The project replaced an existing passive CWDM network with a state-of-the-art optical transport network based on Nokia's 1830 PSI-L/M platform and WaveSuite NOC management system. The new network connects more than ten sites and was successfully implemented and migrated during the first half of 2026.

Key challenge

The existing network infrastructure offered limited flexibility and scalability to support growing research and academic networking requirements. The universities required a modern platform capable of supporting high-capacity services, simplified operations, future growth and centralized management across multiple locations.

Solution

Nokia deployed its 1830 PSI-L/M optical transport solution together with WaveSuite NOC network management. The neutral flex-grid architecture provides a highly scalable optical foundation, while centralized management and integrated OTDR monitoring capabilities enable efficient service provisioning and network operations.

“Nokia’s solution has transformed our network foundation, simplifying operations while enabling the rapid rollout of new services across an academic community of more than 130,000 students, researchers, and staff spanning the University of Vienna, TU Wien, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.”
Johann Kainrath
Head of Communications, Campus IT, TU Wien

Measurable results and benefits

  • Successful migration from the legacy passive CWDM network to a modern optical transport platform.
  • Delivery of 100G DWDM services with readiness for future 400G services.
  • Connectivity across more than 10 locations in Vienna.
  • Greater flexibility, performance and network stability for research and academic applications.
  • Faster deployment of new services through remote provisioning using WaveSuite NOC.
  • Enhanced operational visibility through centralized monitoring and OTDR capabilities.
  • Improved scalability supporting future networking requirements and potential quantum-safe networking applications.
  • High availability and performance for researchers, students and academic institutions relying on the network.
“Inter-site data connectivity is a critical enabler of collaborative research, education, and the operations of scientific institutions. By creating a scalable and highly adaptable transport network that connects universities, research organizations, and high-performance computing resources such as the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC) (now operating under Austrian Scientific Computing (ASC)), the initiative strengthens Vienna's research ecosystem and enhances its international competitiveness. Building on a long-standing history of collaboration, the project partners are leveraging local expertise and resources to maximize synergies and accelerate innovation.”
Daniel Schirmer
Deputy Head Computing and Network Infrastructure, University of Vienna
“The transport network significantly increases our operational agility. Services and data paths for new research groups can now be delivered within days and at a consistently high level of quality, whereas similar deployments previously required months of coordination, planning, and procurement. In short, IT infrastructure has evolved to a strategic enabler, accelerating scientific discovery and providing the foundation for AI and high-performance computing.”
Gerhard Bauer
Network and Security Engineer, Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)

Solution components

Discover more customer stories

Back to customer success home