April 10, 2006 Linthicum, MD -- Cox Communications has certified Ciena's CN 4200 FlexSelect advanced services platform for deployment in its metro and regional networks. Cox says it will use the platform to support the aggregation and transport of residential voice, video, and data services, as well as for business services.
Based on the agreement, the CN 4200 platform has been deployed in several Cox regions to provide initial support for high-speed data and commercial services.
"Part of our on-going strategy is to shift away from service-specific equipment and evolve to a converged, multi-service network that can adapt to the changing demands from residential and business customers over time," comments Darryl Ladd, director of network architecture for Cox Communications. "With the CN 4200, we can reduce our wavelength utilization and have a single line card delivering SONET, Gigabit Ethernet, and storage services on different re-programmable ports - instead of needing three different line cards or network devices - all of which combine to bring a new level of service flexibility and investment protection to our network."
Ciena calls the CN 4200 "the flagship product" of its standards-based FlexSelect architecture for building network infrastructures. The company says the multiservice transport and aggregation platform is capable of "on-demand" support transport protocols including SONET/SDH, Ethernet/Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)/10-GbE, Fiber Channel, FICON, ESCON, and video protocols. The platform employs a universal line card with individual user-programmable ports.
As a number of Cox regions already use optical Ethernet platforms from Ciena for video on demand (VOD) services, the provider says it is also using Ciena's ON-Center management system to deploy the new services on the CN 4200 platform.
"Based on the diversity of Cox's customer base and service portfolio, this deployment showcases the service flexibility and operational efficiencies that the CN 4200 delivers to customers through its multi-protocol, software-defined ports," remarks Mike Aquino, vice president, Americas, at Ciena.