CIENA, Williams Communications Stake Claim as Leaders in New Optical Services Through Network Intelligence
Business Wire - June 08, 2000 08:51
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2000--
Williams Communications Wins SUPERQuest Award For Its CIENA-Built Services Platform, Becomes First Provider To Realize Next-Generation
Optical Services
CIENA Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) today announced at SuperComm 2000 that next-generation dynamic optical services are here, reaffirming its claim as the leader in enabling new services through network intelligence and further extending CIENA's leadership position in intelligent optical networking.
With the successful transition to CIENA's MultiWave CoreDirector(TM) intelligent optical switch as the foundation of its intelligent optical network, Williams Communications becomes the first service provider to offer new optical services.
It was also announced that Williams Communications (NYSE: WCG), an international provider of telecommunications services for the carrier marketplace has won this years SUPERQuest Award for best built core network for its use of CIENA's CoreDirector in building an intelligent optical core for real-time delivery of new optical services. Williams has won the award for the past three consecutive years.
"CIENA is the frontrunner for enabling new, differentiated services with network intelligence, and Williams Communications is proud to be building the first network to maximize optical-layer signaling and routing protocols for rapid service delivery and end-to-end management," said Andy Wright, chief technologist-optical networking for the Williams network. "By simultaneously supporting both mesh and ring restoration capabilities in the optical domain, CoreDirector is enabling Williams to create the richest set of optical service options and classes available."
"CIENA is the first to put in place all the intelligent transport and switching systems in core and metropolitan networks to enable new priorities of optical services and real-time bandwidth delivery. Williams Communications understands the competitive value in taking full advantage of that leadership," said Gary Smith, CIENA's Chief Operating Officer. "True software- and silicon-driven networking intelligence is coming together and is taking the industry into a new era of more customized services delivered over optimally efficient networks."
The Next-Generation of Optical Services Are Here
CIENA's LightWorks(TM) network architecture utilizes embedded network intelligence that enables service providers to design entirely new optical service portfolios. At SuperComm 2000, CIENA is showcasing what these next-generation optical services will look like and how service providers can utilize these new services to offer end-users a richer set of optical service options.
"Carriers are clamoring for new services to help differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market." said Mark Lutkowitz, President of Trans-Formation, Inc. "By using the latest software and custom silicon, CIENA has been offering new tools such as virtual fiber and dialed optical capacity to potentially allow service providers to get an upper hand."
CIENA is enabling OC-48 and OC-192 Wavelength Services today, and with CIENA's Transparent Service Multiplexing technology, OC-3 and OC-12 wave services also are cost-effective through the high-speed transport of SONET/SDH-framed signals, including payload and overhead, on a single wavelength. In this way, service providers are able to offer seamless delivery of virtual dedicated fiber.
Intelligent Optical Services is another CIENA innovation that carriers can market to customers. The service is a dedicated private line that uses network intelligence for differentiation of protection, priorities and pre-emption schemes through CIENA's CoreDirector optical core switch. In the future, the service will be deliverable in OC-"any" increments using CIENA's Flexible Concatenation technology.
With CIENA's leadership in the Internet Engineering Task Force's work toward standardizing the MP(lambda)S communications protocol, Dialed Optical Capacity is a natural extension of Intelligent Optical Services.
With CIENA's CoreDirector and transport systems working in conjunction with high-speed IP routers, Dialed Optical Capacity will enable end users to request capacity from the optical network for real-time bandwidth availability, framing and protection.
Fractional Gigabit Ethernet is a new retail offering for broadband wide-area network services. Leveraging the low cost of Gigabit Ethernet ports on customer premise equipment, service providers will be able to use CIENA's CoreDirector and Metro systems to offer variable rate transport services tailored for customer needs.
In this way, providers can secure new customers at lower bit rates and increase revenues as customers grow.
New services such as these are possible through CIENA's vision of an Intelligent Optical Internet(TM), a seamless, interoperable network of high-speed, high-capacity routers, transport systems, optical switches and software that leverages intelligence for dynamic self-provisioning of optical bandwidth at any time, any size and any priority.
"These service concepts CIENA is showing at SuperComm are only the beginning," said CIENA's Smith. "Williams and CIENA are leading the industry into an era in which service portfolios are limited only by imagination instead of legacy networks." |
