Virtual PoPs on GNM Fabric: a practical way to expand the network without CAPEX or colocation

Expanding network presence into new cities traditionally involves significant capital expenses and long technical cycles - hardware procurement, rack space rental, power supply, cross-connects, local and international transport, as well as integration with IXs and peers. Even with streamlined processes, deployment rarely happens fast, and total cost grows proportionally with the number of locations.

To avoid this heavy infrastructure loop, operators need a way to establish presence in new markets quickly - without installing their own hardware or negotiating with data centres. That’s exactly what the Virtual PoP model enables: a full network node deployed on the operator’s existing platform.

GNM provides this capability through a unified VXLAN-EVPN Fabric, allowing rapid presence expansion with no CAPEX and no colocation involvement.

Virtual PoP on VXLAN-EVPN Fabric

GNM operates a dense network of PoPs across Europe - including Amsterdam (AM4/AM6), Frankfurt (FRA15), Stockholm (SK1), and many other nodes interconnected by our DWDM backbone. On top of this infrastructure, a Virtual PoP can be launched: a dedicated port is provisioned on GNM equipment in the selected location and becomes part of the shared VXLAN-EVPN Fabric.

Key components:

🔸Dedicated customer ports on GNM equipment;

🔸Inter-city transport via GNM’s DWDM backbone;

🔸Unified L2 domain based on VXLAN-EVPN (RFC 7432);

🔸Pre-built colocation, power, and cross-connect infrastructure;

🔸Activation time: 2-3 business days.

As a result, the PoP is delivered ready-to-use - no hardware purchase, no colocation, no logistics. This enables presence in new cities within days while reducing the engineering workload.

Technical model

1. VXLAN-EVPN Fabric

All GNM locations are interconnected within a single VXLAN-EVPN overlay (RFC 7432). It provides a predictable L2 domain, supports MAC/IP multihoming, and allows seamless scaling without changing the customer’s architecture.

2. Optical mesh topology

All PoPs are interconnected via GNM’s own DWDM backbone in a scalable mesh design. The optical layer provides multiple redundant paths with controlled latency and deterministic routing between major hubs, while the VXLAN-EVPN Fabric ensures a unified L2 domain across all locations.

3. Rapid deployment

Pre-installed hardware and reserved resources enable Virtual PoP activation in 2–3 business days.

Economic and operational impact

Using Virtual PoP eliminates the entire infrastructure cycle normally required to launch a new site:

🔸Hardware procurement and commissioning;

🔸Rack space rental, power, and cross-connect setup;

🔸Transport provisioning between cities;

🔸Coordination with multiple data centres and contractors.

In practice:

🔸New locations follow a unified deployment pattern - no need to rebuild infrastructure each time;

🔸Costs shift from CAPEX to predictable OPEX;

🔸Access to local IXs and peering connectivity is provided through GNM’s existing infrastructure;

🔸Architecture and operational workflow remain consistent across all sites, simplifying support and scaling.

Case example

A network operator connected to GNM in Frankfurt used GNM-IX and IP Transit as its primary hub. As traffic increased, the company needed to distribute load across regions and shorten paths to networks and content providers located in Northern Europe. Building additional PoPs in Amsterdam and Stockholm through the traditional process would have required hardware procurement, colocation in AM4/AM6 and SK1, local cross-connects, transport between FRA-AMS-STO and several weeks of coordination. 

With Virtual PoP, the expansion took just 3 days.

Ports were provisioned in the required locations, interconnected via GNM’s DWDM backbone and integrated into the shared VXLAN-EVPN Fabric together with the Frankfurt hub. Traffic to networks present in those metros started flowing through the nearest available exchange points within GNM’s infrastructure, optimizing path length and overall performance.

Result

🔸Presence established in Amsterdam and Stockholm within 72 hours;

🔸Optimized routing to regional networks and content ecosystems;

🔸No CAPEX, colocation or separate transport project;

🔸Zero involvement of the customer’s engineering team in infrastructure operations.

As a result, the company gained its own virtual network infrastructure - fully integrated into GNM’s backbone and operationally identical to having physical PoPs in multiple cities, but without any CAPEX or colocation. The entire environment was deployed within days, using GNM’s existing optical and VXLAN-EVPN layers as the foundation.

Virtual PoP on GNM Fabric is a tool for fast, predictable and economically efficient network scaling across Europe. It enables operators and large-scale platforms to expand geographic reach without CAPEX, colocation or complex integration, while maintaining full architectural control and deploying new points of presence in just a few days.

Contact our team via sales@gnm.net to discuss interconnection options.