Korean service provider taps Lucent for network expansion project

9 July 2003 Seoul, Korea Lightwave -- Lucent Technologies has been awarded a contract to supply optical line systems to KT, South Korea's largest communications service provider, to power KORNET, KT's Internet network. Lucent is a major provider of DWDM technology for KT's long-haul optical network.

Per the contract, Lucent will deliver and deploy WaveStar OLS 1.6T systems with the capacity of 800 Gbits/sec in the major cities of Seoul, Busan, and Suwon by the end of August. By expanding KORNET's backbone network and adding capacity, KT will be able to efficiently manage broadband traffic growth and provide high-quality data services to its customers.

"KORNET provides high-speed Internet service through the nation's largest backbone network," explains Yong-soo Kim, director of transmission network planning, Core Network Group, KT. "We believe that Lucent's technological expertise has helped us ensure that KORNET meets our customers' high expectations for quality."

Developed by Bell Labs, Lucent's R&D arm, the WaveStar OLS 1.6T system is an ultra-high-capacity DWDM system that offers up to 160 10-Gbit/sec wavelengths for a total capacity of 1.6 Tbits/sec on one fiber--the equivalent of transmitting 320 million one-page e-mails per second. It is based on an open architecture that enables it to operate in multi-vendor environments and helps carriers deliver high-bandwidth services to their customers while maximizing fiber performance and improving the return on the existing network investment, claim Lucent representatives. The product architecture supports Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10GbE, SONET/SDH, and any mix of signals from 100 Mbits/sec to 2.5 Gbits/sec and 10 Gbits/sec in the same system.