Ekinops touts first OTN switch contract win

May 12, 2020

The sale is the company’s first for the Ekinops Transport Switch following acquisition of OTN switch platform assets from Padtec.

Stephen Hardy

Ekinops (Euronext Paris: EKI) (ISIN: FR0011466069) says it has closed a deal to provide its Ekinops Transport Switch to a customer the company did not name but identified as “a major provider of telecommunication and digital solutions in EMEA.” The sale is the company’s first for the Ekinops Transport Switch following acquisition of OTN switch platform assets from Padtec last year (see “Ekinops entering OTN field via Padtec technology acquisition”).

The customer will use the OTN switch as part of a fiber network upgrade to 100-Gbps capabilities. The fiber-optic network runs from the Chinese border to Russia and Europe via diverse routes. The operator currently uses the infrastructure to transport sub-1-Gbps to 10-Gbps services between Europe and Asia, primarily connecting global financial centers.

The two-phased project will begin with the simplification of current 10-Gbps service provision before adding 100-Gbps transmission capabilities. The first phase will see automation of an operational model that had relied primarily on manual reconfiguration of circuits and fiber connections, which Ekinops says resulted in significant stranded bandwidth. This initial phase will see construction of a mesh network architecture that leverages the automation capabilities of the metro/core Ekinops Transport Switch.

The second phase will entail the enablement of the 100G interfaces available on the OTN switch’s multi-rate line cards.

Ekinops says it won the business in competition with two other transport vendors. "This is a significant win and represents a major milestone in the evolution of Ekinops as a company," said Francois Xavier Ollivier, Ekinops' co-founder and chief operating officer for optical transport. "It demonstrates our ability to bring new technologies to market quickly as well as the value we add for our customers through acquisitions."

For related articles, visit the Network Design Topic Center.

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and providers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.

To stay abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.

About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.