[WCG] WILLIAMS COMM AND CORVIS ANNOUNCE BREAKTHROUGH FIELD TRIAL OF TERABIT OPTICAL NTWK
TULSA, Okla., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A field trial that pushes the boundaries of optical technology to an
unprecedented 2.4 terabits per second within a commercial fiber-optic network was announced today as part of
an alliance between Corvis Corporation and Williams Communications Group, Inc. (NYSE: WCG - news).
The trial, to commence early next year, will pair the Corvis CorWave(TM) suite of all-optical products with the
Williams Multi-Service Broadband Network(TM). The trial will occur on the Williams fiber-optic route from
Houston through Atlanta to Herndon, Va. Additional routes are expected to be announced in the first quarter of
2000, with commercial deployment of the new technology on the Williams network occurring as early as the
second half of 2000.
``This trial is about efficient, high-capacity service, speed of provisioning and, ultimately, about getting our
customers turned up efficiently with extremely flexible bandwidth,' said Matt Bross, senior vice president and
chief technology officer of Williams Communications. ``It is Williams' best-in-class architecture that allows us to
harvest more bandwidth from our underlying network than anyone else in the industry.'
During the trial, the base system will begin at 400 Gbps and scale seamlessly to 2.4 Tbps (terabits per second)
without time-consuming in-field upgrades. The 2.4 Tbps capacity represents a 30-fold increase over the capacity
of current fiber-optic networks. As demand for capacity grows, additional capacity can be provisioned on
demand, versus the months it often takes other carriers using more traditional network architecture.
Same-day provisioning of high-capacity circuits will allow customers ultimate flexibility in applications such as
disaster recovery, emergency restoral and real-time television coverage of breaking news events, said Bross, who
leads development of network architecture for Williams Communications.
The Corvis system allows the transmission of optical signals up to 3,200 kilometers without electrical regeneration.
By increasing the optical transparency of the network, carriers can significantly decrease network costs while
eliminating the operational complexity and cost of adding regenerators each time an OC-48 or OC-192 circuit is
needed.
``In order to meet the enormous demands of the data-driven economy, carriers require innovative technologies
that provide the flexibility to quickly add terabit capacity while decreasing the overall cost per bit,' said Dr. David
Huber, president and chief executive officer of Corvis. ``Using the Corvis solution, carriers can rapidly allocate
bandwidth across any number of logical architectures, permitting flexibility to support different traffic and
protection requirements while eliminating network congestion.
``Corvis' unique optical signaling is ideal for the Williams network,' Huber said. ``With Williams' state-of-the-art
fiber and optimal amplifier spacing, this means significant improvements in performance and reliability.'
``This is not a step function approach to network implementation. The technologies we deploy must promise an
order of magnitude improvement in scale, return on investment and time to market,' Bross said. ``While other
carriers charge tiered prices based on the quality of service their customers receive, Williams can create a new
pricing model based on how quickly we provision bandwidth and how long you need the service.' |
