MAY 9, 2007 -- Ciena Corp. (search for Ciena) says that the Swedish University Network (SUNET) has successfully rolled out its new 10-Gigabit Ethernet network, OptoSUNET, using Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture that includes optical transmission, multiservice transport, Ethernet services, and network management offerings. Ciena's platforms were deployed as part of a turnkey project by Imtech N.V., a pan-European systems integrator and Ciena Platinum partner.
OptoSUNET replaces SUNET's existing leased network, providing greater scalability, reliability, and high-capacity connectivity between 32 Swedish universities to support growing demand for higher bandwidth applications, according to Ciena. OptoSUNET will allow educational institutions to optimize bandwidth usage and share the workload of research projects and simulations that require high processing power and speed. It is also the first optical research and education network in Scandinavia to be based on WDM technology, Ciena says.
The new fiber-based network is fully redundant with two independent optical links connecting Stockholm to each major city, giving universities up to 80 channels of 10 Gbits/sec each and scalability to 40 Gbits/sec per channel for a total of 3.2 Tbits/sec of capacity as demand grows. It will afford universities the ability to connect via Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces using Optical Transport Network (OTN) protocol, which is defined by the ITU as G.709 and is rapidly replacing SONET/SDH as the preferred transport protocol in Ciena's estimation.
The Ciena platforms deployed include CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System, CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform, CN 4350 Ethernet Services Provisioning Switch, and the ON-Center Network and Services Management Suite.
"Research and education networks require a tremendous amount of capacity to facilitate collaboration on bandwidth-intensive applications, and Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture gives SUNET a high-performance solution with the scalability and service flexibility required to share critical resources throughout the university network," said Hans Wallberg, chief of operations for OptoSUNET. "In addition, a key driving force behind this new architecture is to reduce operational costs while moving to a network that is fully redundant and allows us to scale to 40G and beyond as requirements change."
The OptoSUNET network will be utilized to transport traffic between Stockholm (central hub) and major cities or points of presence (POPs) and deliver Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet point-to-point connectivity to each POP and major city. In addition, most university campuses will be equipped with Ciena's VLAN-capable CN 4350 Ethernet Services Provisioning Switch to aggregate and switch traffic throughout the network. All of the components will share network and service management using Ciena's point-and-click network and service management platform, ON-Center.
"SUNET is representative of the increasing need for high-capacity networks and reliable connectivity to meet the unique requirements of the research and education community," said Francois Locoh-Donou, Ciena's vice president and general manager, EMEA. "Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture enables flexibility and efficient scalability as demand and usage increases while simplifying design and optimizing operations to advance the practical implementation of customized research networks such as SUNET."
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