FA-1 North cable supports high-speed, low latency 100GbE and OTN client services along New York to London corridor

Reliance Globalcom, a leading global provider of managed network and communication services for multinational enterprises and carriers, and Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, have upgraded Reliance Globalcom’s FA-1 North submarine cable system with 100G wavelengths. With Ciena’s converged packet optical and GeoMesh solutions, Reliance Globalcom can now deliver high-speed, low latency OTN and 100GbE client services between London and New York with greater capacity to meet soaring bandwidth demand. With an initial total lit capacity of 400Gbs, this upgrade compliments Reliance Globalcom’s deployment of Ciena’s GeoMesh technology on its FA-1 South submarine network that links New York to Paris, allowing the provider to offer additional capacity on two diverse routes across the Atlantic.

Key Facts:

  • Reliance Globalcom owns and operates one of the world’s largest and most advanced private submarine networks spanning more than 73,000 kilometers. When combined with more than 200,000 kilometers of domestic fiber owned by its parent company, Reliance Communications, the global network connects more than 40 key business markets across India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the United States
  • With Ciena’s GeoMesh solution, built on its market-leading 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic coherent optical processors, Reliance Globalcom can now support trans-Atlantic OTN-based client services from 10Gb/s to 100Gb/s across its FA-1 North network link. Additionally, under Reliance Globalcom’s recently launched Optical Wave Service, 100GbE/OTU-4 services can also be provided between continental points of presence (PoPs) in London and New York, where large Internet, financial and data center hubs reside.
  • This deployment is based on Ciena’s OPnarchitecture approach for creating programmable network infrastructures that deliver much lower cost-at-scale and allow network operators to better monetize their networks. Ciena’s GeoMesh features a simplified all-optical design that brings flexibility to Reliance Globalcom’s submarine network architecture.
  • Additionally, this network leverages the programmability of Ciena’s WaveLogic technology to meet differentiated service and latency requirements, carrying traditional SDH/DWDM as well as OTN-based applications over the same platform.
  • Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System is also providing Reliance Globalcom with multi-layer service management capabilities to enable streamlined service activation, fault management and performance monitoring. Ciena is also providing installation, consulting, test and turn-up services via its Specialist Services portfolio.

Executive Comments:

  • “Growing requirements for access speed in broadband Internet, the digitalization of information, and cloud-based applications continue to drive the need for bandwidth demand. By making strategic upgrades with market-leading technologies such as those provided by Ciena, we are ensuring that we meet this demand in a highly-efficient and cost-effective manner, while providing a superior service experience to our customers. This deployment further builds upon a long-standing relationship with Ciena to support Reliance Globalcom’s strategic capacity upgrades on its submarine network.”
    -         Punit Garg, President and CEO, Reliance Globalcom
  • “Reliance Globalcom has experienced first-hand the operational and cost efficiencies of using our GeoMesh solution that allows network operators to view their submarine and terrestrial networks as a single end-to-end optical network from PoP-to-PoP, with wet and dry fiber in between, which yields significant capital and operational benefits. As Reliance Globalcom continues to modernize its network to meet customers’ increasingly intensive bandwidth requirements, our solutions will deliver the capacity, scale and reach to support them.”
    -         Ryan Perera, Country Head for India, Ciena

Technology Leadership:

  • Ciena's      latest generation of WaveLogic coherent optical processors allow network      operators to maximize reach, capacity, flexibility, and reliability of      their submarine networks with an operational focus on ease-of-deployment,      cost efficiency, and protection of network investments. WaveLogic      leverages industry-leading optical networking technology advancements that      together offer network operators several key benefits, over and above      simply moving to 100G line rates.
  • Ciena      is the pioneer and market leader of coherent optical technology with 30,000      coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to over 150 customers across the      globe, with more than 31 million coherent kilometers deployed.
  • Ciena’s      converged packet optical platforms with WaveLogic coherent optical technology      give service providers significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and      network intelligence – all key building blocks of an OPn network architecture.

Supporting Resources:

About Reliance Communications

Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance Group. The Reliance Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 90,000 crore (US$ 17.7 billion), cash flows of Rs. 8,000 crore (US$ 1.6 billion), net profit of Rs. 3,200 crore (US$ 0.6 billion).

Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The  Company, with a customer base of about 130 million including over 2.5 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 6 Telecom companies in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele includes over 35,000 Indian and multinational corporations including small and medium enterprises and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers.

Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 277,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

To find out more, please visit www.relianceglobalcom.com

About Ciena
Ciena 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 OPn, its approach for building open 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 September 11, 2013. 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.