Huber gets to play on Williams glass. This could be quite interesting.
Williams Communications and Corvis Announce Field Trial of Breakthrough Terabit Optical Network
Pioneering Photonic Technology Unleashes the Power of the Network to Provide High-Speed Lightwave Services
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).
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."
"The Corvis system is designed to provide the long reach and high capacity required to deliver new bandwidth and services," said Glenn Falcao, executive vice president of Corvis. "By deploying the CorWave solution, carriers can provide their customers the capacity and speed of service demanded in this competitive marketplace."
Williams Communications' nationwide fiber-optic network has 19,600 route miles in service, 22,600 miles of fiber in the ground and plans to complete more than 33,000 route miles connecting 125 cities by the end of 2000. The Williams Multi-Service Broadband Network(TM) is an integrated fiber-optic network whose architecture couples ATM core switching with advanced optical networking technologies to provide carriers with data, voice, video and Internet services over the platform they choose. Using OC-192 transport systems with Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, the Williams network operates in two directions on a single fiber, delivering up to 80 Gbps in eight waves in each direction.
About Williams Communications Group, Inc.
Williams Communications is North America's only exclusively carrier- focused fiber-optic network and the largest independent source of end-to-end integrated business communications solutions-data, voice or video. Based in Tulsa, Okla., Williams Communications has 9,000 employees primarily in North America, with offices in Europe and Asia and investments in South America and Australia. Approximately 85 percent of WCG stock is held by Williams (NYSE: WMB) which, in 1985, became the first energy company to harness its core competency as a builder of networks to enable competition in the communications industry. Additional information is available at www.williams.com and www.williamscommunications.com.
About Corvis
Corvis Corporation is a privately held fiber optic equipment company founded by Dr. David Huber, one of the leading figures in the field of optical communications and the founder of Ciena Corporation. The company recently unveiled the first transparent all-optical switching, transport and network management solutions that will revolutionize the way traffic is moved in the new Internet-driven economy. The Corvis all-optical mesh network is the next step in the evolution of high-capacity "backbone" telecommunications equipment. Corvis CorWave products and Corvis Network Architecture Services give communication service providers the capability to build a single-layer, transparent all-optical high-capacity network necessary to quickly accommodate the continuing growth of Internet, video, voice, and other data traffic. This flexibility can result in a significant gain in network capacity using existing fiber in the field. For more information, visit the Corvis web site at www.corvis.com. Corvis, CorWave and the Corvis logo are trademarks of Corvis Corporation.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Portions of this document may constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined by federal law. Although the company believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different. Any such statements are made in reliance on the "safe harbor" protections provided under the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Additional information about issues that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in the company's annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This news release is not an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. Any offer will be made only by means of a prospectus registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
