8,600 km long network supports international low-latency and 100GE connectivity services

Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that the Russian carrier RASCOM is deploying its 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to support the 100G upgrade and network expansion of a route connecting Russia to Western Europe. This critical international network provides RASCOM’s wholesale and enterprise customers with a fully redundant ring architecture supporting cross-border traffic and the region’s first 100GE services.

Key Facts:

  • RASCOM is a leading telecommunications operator targeting service providers and large enterprises with a private 8,600 km next-generation international network covering key geographical areas for cross-border traffic. The recently expanded international network is based on Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform and includes WaveLogic 3 coherent processors. It connects Moscow in Russia to Western Europe through St. Petersburg and the Nordic countries and is fully redundant, including a ring topology linking the cities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Copenhagen.
  • The network is believed to be the first 100G route connecting Russia to Western Europe and provides carrier and enterprise customers with low-latency connectivity and the region’s first international 100GE services.
  • The Ciena-based infrastructure supports up to 8.8 Tb/s of traffic and enables RASCOM to run 10, 40, and 100G wavelengths simultaneously and easily scale (sections of) the network to 100G and beyond to support new services and increasing customer demand.
  • Ciena’s Common Photonic Layer supports ROADM functionality in RASCOM’s entire network, which covers a very large and diverse geography, including taxing terrain and underwater links. That means wavelength add/drops can be remotely configured at any node point in the network - providing system simplicity and full agility for the addition and routing of new services.

Executive Quotes:

  • “RASCOM’s extensive network covers the international routes demanded by Russian carriers and connects with key traffic exchange points in Russia and Western Europe. Our long-haul connectivity offerings are in high demand, putting pressure on RASCOM’s infrastructure as capacity requirements grow exponentially. That’s why we decided to scale the capacity on the network to 100G, which was successfully completed in April. RASCOM selected Ciena’s technology due to its flexibility and scalability, and the recent 100G upgrade confirms again that we have made the right choice. We increased the network’s capacity by a factor of 2.5 without any interruption to existing services, allowing RASCOM to continue to meet our customers’ changing bandwidth requirements.”
    -          Vitaly Kireyev, general director, RASCOM
  • “Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 coherent technology enables RASCOM to rapidly respond to new service demands and differentiate from the competition with faster service turn-up, higher speeds and lower latency. The vast distances covered by its international network demonstrate the value of Ciena’s coherent technology, which allows the cost-effective deployment of ultra-long-haul distances without costly regeneration.”-          Sergei Fishkin, managing director Russia, CIS and Baltics, Ciena

Technology Leadership:

  • Ciena is the pioneer and      market leader of coherent optical technology with more than 20,000      coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to over 100 customers across the      globe, for a total deployment of more than 20 million coherent kilometers.
  • Ciena’s converged packet optical technology with WaveLogic 3 Coherent Optical Processors gives service providers significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and network intelligence – all key building blocks of an OPn network architecture.

Supporting Resources:

About RASCOM
ZAO Rascom is the leading provider of international bandwidth services to carriers and owns telecommunications infrastructure for the route Moscow – St Petersburg – Helsinki – Stockholm – Frankfurt – Amsterdam. The company offers wholesale communications services and Internet access as well as various integrated solutions in Moscow, St Petersburg, Tver, Novgorod and other cities in central and north-western regions of Russia.

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. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

Note to Ciena InvestorsForward-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 13, 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.