Cable&Wireless adds 100 Gbps to Hong Kong and Singapore nets/LION2 submarine network consortium uses Ciena switching gear

Cable&Wireless Worldwide, whose addition of 100-Gbps to certain European routes was announced last month (see “Cable&Wireless Worldwide chooses Ciena for 100-Gbps link”), has added similar capabilities to metro networks in Hong Kong and Singapore. As with the European deployment, Cable&Wireless will leverage Ciena Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CIEN) 6500 Packet-Optical Platform.

The live metro networks are based on a mesh architecture. Ciena says its engineering and consultative approach to the project enabled the company to work closely with the carrier to develop a deployment strategy that would meet the timelines required to support Cable&Wireless’s presence and competitive position in Asia. The project included planning for services supported by the carrier’s current metro ring architectures, which are based on Ciena’s 4200 Advanced Services Platform. This approach ensured a smooth upgrade to 100G and seamless transition for existing customers as the carrier evolves toward its next-generation mesh network, Ciena says.

“Hong Kong and Singapore are both dynamic markets experiencing an explosive demand for bandwidth,” commented Gavin Tait, director, network planning and implementation, Asia, at the carrier. “Cable&Wireless Worldwide is committed to being ahead of the curve with the most reliable, flexible, and scalable network infrastructure that will fuel the success of our enterprise customers in those markets. We have partnered with Ciena to allow us to rapidly launch high-capacity services, remaining ahead of the competition and securing key enterprise customers.”

Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) says the consortium behind the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) undersea fiber-optic cable network is using the company’s CoreDirector FS Multiservice Optical Switch for the LION2 network extension project. As part of this recently inaugurated phase, the already deployed and operational CoreDirector FS switches are connecting Kenya and the island of Mayotte in the Mozambique Channel, Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauritius.

LION2 is a 2,700 km-extension of the LION regional cable system. It connects two new submarine stations in Mombasa on the Kenyan coast and on the French island of Mayotte to existing stations in Madgascar, La Réunion, and Mauritius. In addition to upgrading services in the region, the new cable also offers an alternative route for broadband transmissions to Europe and Asia for other African countries.

Delivered in a turnkey deployment project, the CoreDirector FS nodes are meshed together and used as intelligent SDH interconnection equipment to aggregate local traffic into 10-Gbps submarine wavelengths. The nodes leverage the self-healing capabilities enabled via Ciena’s OneConnect Intelligent Optical Control Plane. In the wake of a failure, the control plane will enable the rerouting of services. The consortium will manage the network with Ciena’s management system.

The LION2 consortium includes France Telecom with three partners of the Orange Group – Mauritius Telecom, Orange Madagascar, and Telkom Kenya – as well as the African carrier Emtel Ltd. and Société Réunionnaise du Radiotéléphone, a subsidiary of the French telecommunications group SFR.

“The LION project is a truly pioneering enterprise, literally delivering broadband for the very first time to some of the Indian Ocean islands to connect them with the rest of the world,” said Yves Ruggeri, chairman of the LION 2 Management Committee. “Ciena’s intelligent networking technology, deployed in both phases of the project, is a critical element of the overall solution, offering unmatched resiliency and ensuring maximum network uptime for both the operators involved, and – more importantly – their customers.”

“The expansion of the LION project is excellent news for the population of Mayotte, the Indian Ocean Islands and East Africa,” added Eric Sele, vice president of sales, Southern and Central Europe, Middle East and Africa at Ciena. “The high-capacity services that can now be delivered to these regions will allow both local enterprises and individual consumers to benefit from significantly faster Internet speeds – a service that we have come to take for granted in the western world, but one which will no doubt have substantial economic impact on the region.”