COLT selects Infinera for pan-European network

June 22, 2009
22 JUNE 2009 -- The first phase of COLT's Infinera network connects major cities in eight countries in the business heart of Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

22 JUNE 2009 -- COLT, a European provider of business communications, has selected an Infinera (search Lightwave for Infinera) Digital Optical Network for its pan-European network to enable it to quickly deliver a broad range of services to customers.

COLT operates a 13-country, 25,000-km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 16,000 buildings and 18 COLT data centres. The first phase of COLT's Infinera network connects major cities in eight countries in the business heart of Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

COLT chose Infinera's network because as a result of the speed and simplicity of Infinera's digital architecture. Each line card enables 100 Gbps of optical capacity, which is automatically configured and available to support services once the line card is installed. With Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization model, the company says, COLT can both achieve rapid provisioning of a range of services as well as full utilization of the optical capacity without complex optical engineering. In traditional DWDM networks, each service is tightly coupled to the wavelength transponder card.

COLT's customers require a range of different services including wavelengths and Ethernet at varying bit rates. Through a combination of Infinera's Just-in-TAM fulfillment program and intelligent GMPLS control plane software, COLT reportedly can rapidly deliver a range of new services over pre-deployed 100-Gbps DWDM increments. With many of Europe's largest financial institutions as customers, COLT is focused on delivering a network with high reliability and low latency.

Other features included the initial three-month deployment of the first phase of the network and the digital performance monitoring capabilities. Based on Infinera's large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs), the Infinera DTN optical system uses fewer line cards and fewer cables, simplifying and speeding up the initial deployment process. The GMPLS-powered IQ network operating system supports rapid deployment with intelligent features like automatic recognition and inventorying of network assets.

"Infinera's next-generation photonic integration technology is helping COLT to achieve its goal of operating the most modern and advanced network in Europe and delivering the highest-quality services to all our customers," says Alireza Mahmoodshahi, COLT's chief technology officer.

"We are thrilled to deliver an Infinera Digital Optical Network to COLT, one of Europe's most respected carriers, and we believe that the Infinera network will give COLT a significant competitive advantage in fulfilling customer needs with speed and flexibility," says Infinera chief executive officer Jagdeep Singh.

The Infinera DTN is a digital reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) for long-haul and metro core networks, combining high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform.


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