New Technical Awards of Distinction program recognizes Ciena scientists with a heritage of telecom innovation and a combined 180+ patents

Ciena’s new Technical Awards of Distinction program celebrates the role of Ciena’s technology leaders in the innovation, research and invention that underlie today’s on-demand network architectures around the globe. Kim Roberts, Lyndon Ong and Maurice O’Sullivan were inducted as the company’s inaugural Technical Fellows last month at a ceremony in Ottawa, Ontario—Ciena’s largest research and development (R&D) hub. Ciena also awarded fifteen technical experts the honor of Distinguished Engineer in recognition of their contributions to key engineering and product successes for the company.

Key Facts:

• With a strong pedigree in      telecom invention, from coherent optics and packet networking, to control      plane technology, to software and services, Ciena is home to some of the      industry’s most talented inventors. With this in mind, Ciena launched the Technical      Awards of Distinction program to celebrate the customer-driven ingenuity      of Ciena’s engineering community.

• This program includes two      levels of recognition, with the honor of Distinguished Engineer being      awarded to members of Ciena’s technical staff who have shown exemplary      talent in research, development and invention. The Technical Fellows      distinction is awarded to a select few leading industry experts that are      both a force for innovation inside Ciena, and have influenced the industry      overall. All award recipients are critical to Ciena’s R&D efforts and act      as important mentors and role models for the next generation of telecom      talent.

2014 Technical Fellows:

• Kim Roberts, a pioneer in      electronic signal processing in optical transmission, was instrumental in the development of coherent      optical technology, spurring the next-generation of bandwidth-expanding      technologies. Roberts      is one of Ciena’s most prolific inventors, with more than 120 patents      granted and 25 patent applications pending. He has more than 60 published      papers to his credit, and has presented at more than 50 industry events      since 2006.

• Lyndon Ong is one of the      industry’s foremost experts in control plane technology and optical      communications and routing protocols. With 21 patents to his name, Ong is      often called on to lead strategic industry projects related to emerging      technologies, such as transport SDN, and is active in several influential      industry bodies, including the Optical      Internetworking Forum and the Open      Networking Foundation.

• Maurice O’Sullivan has more      than 25 years of industry experience applied to the understanding and      design of the physical layer for optical communication. This includes      design, manufacture and measurement of optical fiber, as well as      high-capacity transmission and line equipment. Maurice played a critical      role in creating the first commercially available 10G, 40G and 100G      transceivers and supporting line equipment. Maurice has more than 40      patents, with several applications pending. He has more than 40      publications in refereed journals, has co-authored a textbook on optical      measurements and is a returning instructor to the short course learning      program at OFC.

Executive Comments:

• “The telecom industry is better today thanks to the achievements of our Ciena Technical Fellows and Distinguished Engineers. Not only have they contributed key pieces of our market-leading technologies, their vision has helped Ciena push the limits of innovation, increasing bandwidth, performance and customer satisfaction, and laying the groundwork for our modern Internet. Their work has left a lasting mark on our industry and our customer’s networks. They have demonstrated how to make the impossible – possible.”

- Francois Locoh-Donou, Senior Vice President, Global Products Group

About Ciena
Ciena (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 June 11, 2014. 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.