Ciena boosts 5430 Packet-Optical Platform switch capacity to 15 Tbps

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) has announced a series of upgrades to its 5430 Packet-Optical Platform. Salient among them is an increase to the system's hybrid packet/Optical Transport Network (OTN) switching capacity to 15 Tbps, up from 3.6 Tbps.

Other upgrades include a port density increase of up to 5X (and 4X in terms of 100-Gbps port density) and a 60% reduction of power consumption per switched gigabit-per-second. The system also has new MEF Carrier Ethernet friendly packet transport network features.

The system also can support 400-Gbps transmission via a pair of 200-Gbp wavelengths leveraging 16QAM.

All of these upgrades can be added to fielded units without service interruption, say Fady Masoud, senior advisor, technical marketing, and Rick Dodd, senior vice president, portfolio marketing and strategic markets development. That's because the 30-slot chassis's backplane was engineered with sufficient headroom. A further upgrade of this magnitude in the same chassis might be a challenge, the Ciena sources implied.

The system has proven popular, with approximately 40 customers using the 5430 Packet-Optical Platform for terrestrial or submarine network applications. The upgrades are generally available, and Ciena has announced SK Telecom as a customer who has taken advantage of them. The Korean carrier is rolling out the capabilities as part of a nationwide infrastructure upgrade to support improved wireless services as well as enhanced wireline business and consumer broadband.

“This deployment will ensure that SK Telecom is able to effectively and efficiently support next-generation mobile and business services, preparing the country for the high-bandwidth future and new innovations, such as software defined networking,” said Choi, Seung- Won, senior vice president of the Network Division at SK Telecom.

SK Telecom will use the 5430 platforms alongside the 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms it has installed.

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