Saudi Telecom deploys mesh fiber-optic network with Ciena

Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) has selected Ciena Corp. (NYSE:CIEN) to supply packet-optical transport systems to support its international mesh terrestrial and submarine network. The upgrades beef up STC's ability to provide wholesale and enterprise Carrier Ethernet and Optical Transport Network (OTN) based services.

Ciena will supply its 5430 and 6500 packet-optical platforms. In addition to the WaveLogic 3 Extreme coherent transmission processor, the systems also will feature the company's E-Suite packet switch modules to maximize the number of high-speed Ethernet services the fiber-optic network can support.

The submarine cable portions of the mesh network will benefit from Ciena's GeoMesh submarine offering, which is designed to ensure survivability in the face of multiple network outages or submarine fiber cuts. The GeoMesh system supports restoration within 50 ms. The technology also enables STC to offer faster speeds, reduced latency, and greater scalability, Ciena asserts.

Ciena also will supply its OneControl Unified Management System, OneConnect Intelligent Control Plane, and OnePlanner Unified Design System for network management, provisioning, and control.

"Transforming our network to deliver comprehensive and reliable services demonstrates STC's dedication to its customers. Being a customer-centric operator, STC offers innovative and high-quality services over its leading state-of-the-art network infrastructure," said Dr. Homoud Al Kussayer, vice president for wholesale at STC. "STC ICT regional leadership is emphasized by the deployment of NGN solutions like Ciena's packet-optical and GeoMesh solutions. These give STC the scalability and speed of services deployment, in tandem with lowering operating costs and supporting STC's fierce evolution toward NGN capabilities."

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