New private optical network delivers high-capacity connectivity between multiple Washington, D.C.-area locations

As part of its ongoing mission to connect researchers to the data and resources needed to advance environmental science through its N-Wave science network, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is building a private optical network powered by Ciena’s (NYSE: CIEN) converged packet optical platforms. The new 100G network will connect four geographically dispersed facilities in the Washington, D.C. metro area, including McLean, Va. and Suitland, Silver Spring and College Park, Md. It will enable NOAA to support bandwidth-intensive applications and programs such as the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series R (GOES-R), and the next-generation national weather observation satellite program, which is working to advance weather and climate science and services.

Key Facts:

  • NOAA’s      mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans      and coasts. Its N-Wave science network, initially founded via funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment      Act (ARRA), is a national spanning network that provides intra-NOAA      connectivity, including communication and data transfer (5 Petabytes per      month) between NOAA programs, line offices, research facilities and other      scientific centers across CONUS, Alaska and Hawaii.
  • Through a competitive procurement process      and deployment of the Ciena packet-optical platform, NOAA in the D.C.      Metropolitan area can consolidate its network and make it more efficient.      The enhanced network will give researchers greater access to large volumes      of complex climate and weather data, helping scientists collaborate and      transfer information without constraint. It will also allow      the administration to economically and flexibly provide bandwidth to support      new scientific research and applications like next generation satellite      programs that monitor weather data/activity across the globe.
  • Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with      WaveLogic 3 coherent      optical processors and integrated switching capabilities, will help      NOAA address      increased bandwidth demands and provide      high-capacity interconnectivity between locations, giving NOAA researchers      instant access to the weather-related data they need.

Executive Comments:

  • “NOAA is an innovative agency of science, stewardship and service with scope and responsibility ranging from the bottom of the ocean to the surface of the sun. NOAA scientists use cutting-edge research and high-tech instrumentation to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers with reliable information. NOAA’s networks need to be inline with, if not ahead of, the scientific innovation in order to enable NOAA’s mission. The Ciena 6500 platform will help us create a reliable, agile next-generation infrastructure that plays a significant role in our ability to support advanced environmental scientific research and discovery.”
    -     Robert Sears, N-Wave Manager, Chief IT Manager NOAA/OAR/ESRL-DO
  • “With a mission of understanding and predicting changes in climate, it is crucial that NOAA’s research is not limited due to the amount of bandwidth available or their ability to effectively connect researchers. By partnering with NOAA on this network, our platforms will support these important scientific collaborations by allowing them to quickly react to changing network requirements, automatically provision new services when needed, and easily scale to meet future needs.”
    -     David Peed, Vice President and General Manager of CGSI

Supporting Resources:

About NOAANOAA is an agency that enriches life through science. NOAA’s reach goes from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean floor working to keep citizens informed of the changing environment around them.

From daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring to fisheries management, coastal restoration and supporting marine commerce, NOAA’s products and services support economic vitality and affect more than one-third of America’s gross domestic product. NOAA’s dedicated scientists use cutting-edge research and high-tech instrumentation to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers with reliable information they need when they need it.

NOAA's roots date back to 1807, when the Nation’s first scientific agency, the Survey of the Coast, was established. Since then, NOAA has evolved to meet the needs of a changing country. NOAA maintains a presence in every state and has emerged as an international leader on scientific and environmental matters.

NOAA’s mission touches the lives of every American and has established a proud role in protecting life and property and conserving and protecting natural 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.

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