LightBound deploys Infinera ATN

Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN) has claimed another standalone win for its ATN regional/metro platform (see "Infinera debuts ATN metro platform"). The systems house says that Indianapolis-based regional service provider LightBound LLC has deployed ATN systems as part of an extension of its fiber-optic network in Indiana. The deployment is significant in that LightBound plans to upgrade its ATN systems with capabilities recently made available in Release 3.0, according to an Infinera source.

LightBound focuses on serving such customers as educational institutions, government entities, sports franchises, and healthcare institutions. The new network extension provides connectivity to five Indiana cities including Indianapolis and Bloomington over more than 200 miles of fiber. Infinera won the contract for the deployment in competition with other systems houses based at least in part on its ability to handle a variety of services and provide both transport and aggregation, according to Paul Morkel, senior director of product marketing at Infinera.

“Infinera is an ideal fit for our business because the ATN allows us to expand our network efficiently by choosing features in this solution that are relevant to our needs – from 40-channel DWDM scalability to flexible multiservice 10-Gbps muxponders and a network management system that’s easy to use,” said Matt Addison, LightBound senior networking engineer.

Morkel adds that LightBound plans to upgrade its ATNs with Release 3.0 capabilities that Infinera recently has made available. The two most salient enhancements within the release include a native Ethernet add/drop capability and reach extension. The Ethernet add/drop capability obviates previously necessary muxponders and transponders in favor of line cards that enable aggregation and ring-based transport of native Ethernet, based on Gigabit Ethernet clients. Meanwhile, the extended reach capability enables the system to transmit signals in the range of 700 to 800 km without regeneration. The previous version of the system supported a reach of around 500 km, Morkel says.

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