Global virtual distributed lab supports development of advanced network-enabled applications

Ciena® (NYSE:CIEN) has joined the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project that supports "at scale" research in networking, distributed systems, cloud services, security, and novel applications. By joining this global virtual distributed laboratory for advanced networking, Ciena will enhance its established SDN testbed to further collaboration with key research and education partners, including the International Center for Advanced Internet Research at Northwestern University (iCAIR), the Renaissance Computing Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill (RENCI), and the University of Amsterdam (UvA). In addition to optical transmission and SDN testing conducted today, Ciena’s testbed will now be able to conduct a full range of agile and computational computer communications research, based on the adaptation of the GENI model, to facilitate the development of more flexible, agile networks.

Key Facts:

  • GENI provides access to      hundreds of widely distributed resources, including virtual machines and      “bare-machines.” By connecting GENI’s multi-site cloud computing resources      with its testbed, Ciena researchers’ gain greater ability to collaborate with      external researchers via a multi-directional interconnected system to test      new applications on a large scale network and give assurance of their real-world      viability. For example, this can be used to test new network function      virtualization (NFV) applications like virtual WAN optimization or network      security.
  • NSF ExoGENI racks installed at UvA in      Amsterdam, Northwestern University in Chicago and Ciena’s labs in Ottawa      and Hanover, will be connected to a high performance research network and      trans-Atlantic network facilities using Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical and 8700      Packetwave platforms. This will support advanced computational,      storage and agile network collaborative demonstrations. It will also      enable future scalability to long reach high-speed network expansion      capable of reaching 1Tb/s bandwidth capacities.
  • These expanded capabilities will      also support connections to other large scale national and international university      facilities to support research related to next generation communication      services and technologies, especially those requiring extremely high      performance “big data” transfers and streaming, such as ultra-high      resolution imagery for health care networks, or bio-medical research,      particle physics and environmental studies.

Executive Comments:

  • “Ciena’s collaboration with      the National Science Foundation’s GENI project will help drive continued      exploration of advanced network enabled applications and support the      creation of more programmable, agile networks that are essential in      today’s web-scale world.”
    -          Rod Wilson, Senior Director of External Research, Ciena
  • “We      at iCAIR are pleased to participate in this exceptional new research      initiative, which is directed at creating innovative communication      services and technologies. Such on-going advances are required for the      development of all sectors of global 21st century economies,      which are increasing based on world-wide data intensive information flows.”
    -          Joe Mambretti, Director, International Center for Advanced Internet Research, Northwestern University
  • “It is exciting to see      partners like Ciena join the GENI community and push the extremely high      speed research infrastructures to new limits with their ability to scale      from a 100 Gbit/s network today to 400G in the near future, and beyond. This      enables prototyping scientific discovery applications using extremely big      data centers distributed on a worldwide scale including Canada, USA and      the Netherlands.”
    -          Cees de Laat, Professor, Systems and Network Engineering Lab, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam
  • “We are happy to be working      with our research partners at iCAIR and UvA to support Ciena with their ExoGENI      racks. The addition of the Ciena to GENI establishes a wider variety of      hardware for the researchers to experiment and advance their diverse      research agendas in this vibrant international research community.”
    -          Ilya Baldin, ExoGENI Principal Investigator and Director, Network Research and Infrastructure Group, RENCI at UNC Chapel Hill

GENI Engineering Conference (March 23-26):

  • At      the 22ndGENI      Engineering Conference (GEC22), hosted by George Washington University,      researchers will meet Ciena’s network researchers to discuss the testbed      infrastructure and how it can be used for future experiments and      demonstrations. Conference participants will learn how to connect to      Ciena’s ExoGENI servers to increase the number of virtual computers being      used in their experiments.

Supporting Resources:

About CienaCiena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPn architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 12, 2015. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.