Romanian Educational Network chooses Ciena, Felix Telecom for 100-Gigabit Ethernet

The Romanian Educational Network (RoEduNet) has upgraded the Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN) 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms and Common Photonic Layer systems in its fiber-optic network to increase capacity to accommodate 100-Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) traffic. Ciena will deploy the upgrade with its BizConnect partner Felix Telecom.

RoEduNet, Romania’s national research and education network, operates more than 4200 km of optical fiber to connect cities and academic campuses. The network is part of GÉANT, the pan-European network that connects academic and research institutions in more than 30 European countries.

The newly deployed 100GbE link connects Bucharest with Iaşi, the country’s second largest city located more than 450 km to the north. Felix Telecom is responsible for the design, installation, deployment, and ongoing service for both RoEduNet’s existing 10G network as well as the new 100G infrastructure. The upgrade involved adding coherent-enable 100-Gbps wavelengths alongside 10-Gbps traffic on the link.

“Ciena’s scalable network architecture is making it possible – and easy – for us to perform a smooth and cost-effective transition from our 10G network to 100G,” said Germin Mihai Dinu, general director of ARNIEC, the agency that manages RoEduNet. “We can increase network bandwidth simply and economically, which allows us to accelerate our work tenfold on complex research projects that require resources from all over the world. The ease of scalability and increased networking speed offered by Ciena’s optical networking technology enhances Romania’s ability to collaborate on cutting-edge science and research projects and enables our scientists to work with their peers at high-performance computing and research centers across the globe. For these reasons we plan to continue installing 100-Gbps links to connect the main nodes in our network.”

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