Ciena unveils advanced packet-optical platforms for intelligent infrastructures

Ciena Corporation, the network specialist, today announced the strategic evolution of its packet-optical portfolio designed to enable intelligent infrastructures using advanced silicon, software and switching technologies. With these new platform configurations, Ciena’s market-leading intelligent switching, optical control plane and coherent optics combine to provide the most economical way to support existing and emerging services over a network that is efficient, resilient and differentiated. By integrating these innovations across multiple packet-optical products, Ciena provides its customers with a complete, applications-optimized portfolio that offers maximum flexibility for their next-generation core and metro networks.

According to the recent OTN Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey from Infonetics Research, the number of carriers with plans to deploy OTN interfaces on electrical switching equipment will rise from 37 percent to 84 percent between now and 2014, representing a huge shift in the area of optical networking.

As the industry trends toward more mobile and cloud-based applications, the delivery of private line and Ethernet services, which today represent 77 percent of the $91 billion market for telecom business services¹, must become more dynamic and efficient.

In analysis of existing network models, Ciena research shows that 30-60 percent of traffic through a typical core router site is transit traffic that does not need to be routed. Therefore, managing this traffic with a broader mesh of OTN switching and connection oriented Ethernet with integrated wavelength division multiplexing can result in 25-40 percent cost savings versus a pure IP-routed network.

Intelligent Switching – Cost-optimized capacity and configuration flexibility for different customer needs. Ciena is adding OTN switching to the 6500 Series and 5410 Reconfigurable Switching System, and is introducing a 2-slot variant of the 6500 Series for smaller, network edge installations, expanding customers’ solution set options depending on their capability requirements at particular network sites. With more than 20,000 OTN switches deployed, Ciena leads the market in real-world deployment experience and the most scalable portfolio of intelligent switches.

Optical Control Plane – Intelligent software control for instant, automated, highly reliable and reconfigurable bandwidth delivery. Ciena was the first vendor to implement a control plane for the optical layer and now has more than 10 years of research and development and field-proven experience in the largest mesh networks, scaling up to 700 or more switching nodes. Ciena is adding its optical control plane to the 6500 Series for enabling multi-domain (metro and core) automated mesh provisioning and restoration, operated-defined service levels and 99.9999 percent service availability across its large installed base.

Coherent Optics – Intelligent coherent optics for the plug-and-play scaling of bandwidth to maximum capacity. Ciena is adding WaveLogic^™ coherent optical processors to the 5400 Series, also previously announced on the 4200 Series, which now brings the market-leading technology that is driving the “coherent era” of scalable capacity to the company’s flagship packet-optical switch and allows network peering with the 6500 Series. 

Unified Management – A single network and service management layer that spans Ciena’s entire solutions portfolio.  Ciena is introducing OneControl Unified Management System which offers cohesive visibility and control of wavelength, OTN and packet services from the edge access through the network core.

“Our surveys indicate most carriers see OTN transport and switching as the foundation for future networks, with rollouts of this technology coinciding with their plans for large scale 40G and 100G deployments. Service providers of all types like OTN for different reasons; router bypass, efficiently packing 100G wavelengths with 10G traffic, or providing transparent private line connections. As a leader in 40G and 100G transport technology, Ciena is very well positioned to bundle the accompanying OTN switching equipment." – Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst, optical at Infonetics Research.

“As more content and applications are delivered as a service to hyper-connected consumers and business users with multiple devices, it only highlights the value of the optical layer in networks and the critical need for them to be more scalable, dynamic and reconfigurable – and OTN switching is a key centerpiece of enabling that network vision. By offering the industry’s most flexible, comprehensive range of products with proven, industry-leading technology, we enable our customers to build intelligent infrastructures that provide real economic benefits via improved efficiency, resiliency, service differentiation and an enhanced foundation for integrating IT and the network. – Steve Alexander, senior vice president and chief technology officer, at Ciena Corporation.