PalmettoNet deploys Ciena ROADM for bandwidth provisioning and dynamic wavelength routing

JANUARY 13, 2010 -- PalmettoNet, a provider of point-to-point, metro access, and collocation services across digital fiber-optic networks in the Carolinas and Georgia, has deployed Ciena's CN 4200 RS FlexSelect advanced services platform with reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) functionality, along with other products in Ciena's CN 4200 family. PalmettoNet is using the CN 4200 platform to increase its network capacity and create a more agile optical service infrastructure featuring remotely programmable wavelengths and service ports, multiservice flexibility, and intelligent service provisioning to reduce operational costs.

A carrier's carrier with more than 3,100 fiber route-miles, PalmettoNet leases capacity to telecommunications carriers providing interstate, intrastate, and interchange services in the Carolinas and Georgia. In the wholesale market, where customer demands for bandwidth can change quickly, reducing provisioning time is critical. To address that effectively, PalmettoNet says it selected Ciena's CN 4200 ROADM because it delivers true multidegree optical switching functionality combined with granular subwavelength grooming to maximize bandwidth utilization while increasing service flexibility. The platform also automatically adjusts optical power levels at each node to simplify the process and decrease the cost of adding new wavelengths into service.

"PalmettoNet's reputation is built on a foundation of fast, reliable service delivery. Increasingly our focus is ensuring our network has the intelligent platforms and automation tools to help us mitigate the uncertainty of capacity planning and reduce the manual operations previously required for network design and service activation," explains Grey Humphrey, president of PalmettoNet. "Ciena's CN 4200 ROADM gives us unique flexibility at the service and optical layers to accelerate our service delivery time while reducing our operational costs through remote provisioning and end-to-end service-level management."

The CN 4200 RS with ROADM functionality is deployed in multiple nodes to handle the dynamic wavelength routing and bandwidth provisioning across PalmettoNet's network. The carrier is also deploying other CN 4200 family products, including the CN 4200 MC at smaller network or amplification sites and the CN 4200 in locations for adding point-to-point wavelength services.

"As a carrier's carrier, PalmettoNet needs to quickly deliver a wide variety of transport services -- from full wavelengths to Gigabit Ethernet or OC-3 connections -- between multiple points on its network, and the CN 4200 allows them to do so over a common network infrastructure with complete service transparency and unmatched resource efficiency," says Mike Aquino, senior vice president, global field operations at Ciena. "This is an ideal environment for our hybrid ROADM solution and further demonstrates the value of driving intelligent software automation across our products so our customers can easily reconfigure network capacity and service type remotely from their operations center."

As part of its ongoing effort to automate many of its service provisioning and network management tasks with point-and-click simplicity, PalmettoNet also purchased Ciena's ON-Center network and service management suite. ON-Center includes tools such as auto discovery of the network topology and deployed elements, service setup and teardown, statistics collection and analysis, configuration backup and restoration, and node-level diagnostics and configuration control.


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