CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) on Monday named Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) as one of its latest 100G suppliers with plans to leverage the vendor's 6500 Packet-Optical Network Platform (P-ONP).
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6500 Packet-Optical Platform (Image source: Ciena) |
By deploying the Ciena platform, CenturyLink said that it will be able to deliver a range of optical and Ethernet services, including 1 GigE (gigabit Ethernet), 10 GigE, 100 GigE and similar wavelength speeds to businesses in the United States and in select international cities where it has network facilities already deployed.
This deployment enables CenturyLink to more effectively deliver groomed Ethernet service to its enterprise customers.
Pieter Poll, senior vice president of national and international network planning, engineering and construction for CenturyLink, said in a release that the deployment is designed to "more efficiently scale and packetize its network to support the massive flood of traffic expected from cloud computing, video and other bandwidth hungry services."
This trend was on display in its Q4 2012 revenues where it reported gains in consumer broadband, IPTV, and enterprise services such as Ethernet and data center services.
Ciena is one of three vendors CenturyLink is leveraging for its growing 100G network.
The telco is using Infinera's (Nasdaq: INFN) DTN-X platform, as well as Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) 100 Gbps service interfaces for its 7750 Edge Service Router series and its Ultra Long-Haul optical platform, to transport the 100 Gbps services over its network.
Similar to other telcos, CenturyLink has been selectively upgrading specific routes to 100G. In the United States, the telco added 100G capabilities in over 50 U.S. metro locations in addition to Singapore and London. It plans to make a number of other international city upgrades live this year.
For more:
- see the release
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