Optical platform provides software-enabled service provisioning
May 16, 2005 Linthicum, MD -- Ciena has introduced its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform, which the company says is a multiservice transport and service aggregation platform for enabling flexible transition from TDM to service-selectable packet networks. The company says its FlexiPort technology allows the platform to support voice, data, and video services across ports, line cards, and network locations, using software-enabled remote service provisioning and management.
According to the company, the platform eliminates the cost and complexity of deploying and sparing service-specific line cards. With the platform, each port on a line card can be remotely programmed to support transport services including SONET/SDH, ESCON, Fiber Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, digital video, and optical transport unit (OTU) applications at speeds up to 10-Gbits/sec. Ports can also be programmed for transponder, muxponder, ADM, or cross connect functions, and are upgradable to emerging services and standards via software download. The platform also features the company's FlexSelect OS, which provides network automation and provisioning capabilities.
The company says the platform's pluggable or tunable DWDM and CWDM optics address a variety of transport applications. The company says the platform can be deployed anywhere from a single line card and chassis for enterprise locations, up to central office locations with stackable scalability up to 400-Gbit/sec per node. The company says the FlexSelect OS's intelligent control plane detects available network capacity and automatically provisions service, allowing the network to adapt in real-time to changing service requirements.
"The CN 4200 and broader FlexSelect Architecture shift the focus of networking from investing in service-specific equipment and manually provisioning networks, to simply having one network that can be remotely programmed to handle multiple services on-demand," notes Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena.
The platform's management features are enabled by ON-Center, the company's network management system, which provides management automation and service management capabilities, including service level agreements (SLAs), user-defined thresholds, and reporting. Additionally, the company says it plans to extend the platform's current sub-wavelength ROADM capabilities with "Dynamic Wavelength Routing" reconfigurable OADM technology for 10G wavelength services.
According to a press release, the platform, now generally available, is currently being certified for deployment by Swiss telecommunications provider Swisscom, and is in trials with other customers.