Cyan moves into wireless backhaul with TowerAware

Cyan has unveiled a variant of its new Service Level Aware Networks (SLAN) portfolio aimed at wireless backhaul applications. Dubbed TowerAware, the offering combines SLAN’s Cy360 planning, management and verification software and SaaS elements with new outside plant friendly hardware. The offering is already in the field and backhauling traffic from such wireless services providers as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, according to Frank Wiener, Cyan’s vice president of marketing and international sales.

Wiener told Lightwave that the bandwidth requirements for 4G/LTE wireless backhaul rapidly approach fiber scale, particularly if multiple operators are sharing the same tower. The TowerAware offering is designed to support both transport and service assurance needs via ring-based architectures that leverage both Cyan’s Z-Series transport platforms and the recently announced SLAN Cy360 portfolio (see "Cyan makes software move with CyPortal, Service Level Aware Network framework"). As the hardware will now have to leave the comfy confines of the central office, Cyan has developed a temperature-hardened version of its Z-33 packet-optical transport platform as well as a pair of new service cards, the PME-216i Ethernet service card and the Z-Series LAD-8i eight-channel DWDM card.

Cyan also now offers a cabinet to house this hardware. The ZR-6 OSP Cabinet is rated -40º to +65ºC and comes in pad, pole-mounted, and wall-mounted versions. In addition to the Cyan system, the cabinet can be configured with an Overture Networks 4324 system for T1 support.

Wiener said the new hardware, combined with the Cy360 package of network planning, service provisioning, service management, and service-level agreement verification functions, provides carriers with the resources necessary to support wireless backhaul applications as well as provide a foundation for future service expansion.

It also should help Cyan with customer expansion. Wiener says that the offering has already paid dividends in terms of more business with existing customers. He says that Cyan also has won five new customers since it announced is SLAN Cy360 capabilities, and that the wireless backhaul potential undoubtedly played a role in sealing at least some of these deals.

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