LINTHICUM, Md. - January 11, 2012 - Ciena Corporation, the network specialist, today announced it has been selected by Lightower Fiber Networks , the premier metro fiber and bandwidth service provider in the Northeast, to support the delivery of Ethernet services and managed wavelengths at bandwidths up to 100 Gb/s to enterprise and service provider customers throughout Lightower's footprint, beginning immediately. Powered by Ciena's coherent optical technology, Lightower's end-to-end fiber-based solutions include 40-Gigabit and 100-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) services as well as 100G managed wavelengths.
Key Facts
With more than 6,400 route miles of fiber providing access to over 2,800 buildings, Lightower offers state-of-the-art, all-fiber network solutions with unparalleled reliability and density throughout New England, metro New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and the Hudson Valley.
Lightower's new 100G solutions will leverage Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors to enable delivery of 100G managed wavelength services, and 40 GbE and 100 GbE traffic transported over 100G wavelengths. This will allow Lightower customers to seamlessly scale their networking solutions to support growing capacity demands stemming from the use of multimedia and high definition applications across many key industries including media, finance, telecom, healthcare and government.
• Lightower's support of 40 GbE and 100 GbE services will increase the capabilities of Lightower's Ultra-Low Latency Network that links 15 strategic interconnection facilities in the New York and New Jersey financial markets, providing industry-leading low latencies between locations.
• It will also boost the capacity of Lightower's Managed Private Optical Network (M-PON) solutions, which are custom-designed to help large organizations in the government, financial and healthcare industries deliver bandwidth-intensive applications that may also be subject to strict regulations on storage and recovery of sensitive data.
Ciena and Lightower History:
• Lightower was among the first service providers in the Northeast to offer 40G bandwidth services using Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors. In December 2009, the companies worked together on a 100G trial spanning 600 kilometers between New York and Boston.
• Lightower also uses Ciena's 565 Advanced Services Platform, part of Ciena's native video transport solution, to deliver digital video transport for a major broadcast company in New York City. Ciena's solution enables delivery of native, uncompressed high-definition video from multiple studios in real-time, simplifying production of live HDTV content while enhancing video quality.
• Lightower is a Managed Service Provider partner within Ciena's BizConnect global partner program
Executive Comments
• "Higher capacity bandwidth services continue to be a driver for our customer base and a natural progression as we look to advance our services to enable cutting-edge applications such as high-frequency trading, delivery of high-quality HD and 3D video, and collaborative diagnostic and healthcare services. With Ciena's cutting edge Packet-Optical transport solutions, we are easily able to accommodate the changing needs of our customers without network disruption."
- Doug Dalissandro, executive vice president, sales, Lightower
"Lightower's success is driven by its ability to effectively scale to turn-up and transport high-bandwidth, mission critical content. We are pleased to support their aggressive network expansion across the Northeast to strengthen their ability to meet the surging demand for high-speed Ethernet services among service provider and large enterprise customers in the financial services, healthcare and video broadcast industries."
- Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America field organization , Ciena
Technology Leadership
• Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform converges Ethernet, TDM and WDM capabilities in a single solution for cost-effective delivery of emerging and existing services, from the access edge to the backbone core.
• Boasting years of coherent deployment experience, Ciena's 40G/100G solutions equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors scale the capacity and reach of existing networks with operational simplicity. The systems also feature electronic dispersion compensation and comprehensive ROADM functionality, which combine with intelligent automation and OTN/packet switching to maximize both the bandwidth efficiency and flexibility of the overall network.
• With the ability to be deployed over any existing line system, Ciena's 6500 supports both 40G and 100G coherent optical transmission with more than 9 million coherent kilometers deployed worldwide in all operating regions.
