Telstra furthers pact with Ericsson, Ciena to get ready for SDN, NFV

Telstra has tapped Ericsson to be its ongoing supplier of optical transport equipment while providing a foundation to implement software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) functionality in its network.

In addition to Ericsson's optical gear and professional services, the agreement includes Ciena's packet-optical platforms.

David Robertson, Telstra's director of transport and routing engineering, said in a release that this latest agreement "will help us ensure a consistent satisfactory customer experience, despite the demands for high traffic across different parts of the transport network."

He added that the optical-network upgrades will enable it to reduce latency, particularly for its business clients that are adopting cloud-services strategies.

"The continued improvement of Telstra's optical technology will increase bandwidth capacity and also lower latency, which is of growing importance as more and more operations move to the cloud," Robertson said.

Earlier this year, the two vendors established a joint agreement in which Ciena became Ericsson's (Nasdaq: ERIC) preferred partner for packet optical and SDN.

This new agreement with Telstra is one of the first customer examples based on the Ericsson and Ciena partnership that leverages a growing suite of optical networking, professional services, and software.

Ericsson immediately enhances its status with one of its large Tier 1 customers, while Ciena can drive more of its packet-optical-networking capabilities forward, particularly as service providers look for more software and professional services.

For more:
- see the release

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