Ciena Waveserver: Rockin’ and Redefining Optical Networks

If you attended the OFC Conference in Los Angeles last week, you may have seen Ciena’s band – OTN Speedwagon, as they rocked to the smash hits of today and yesteryear.   But OTN Speedwagon isn’t the only thing rockin’ and rollin’ at Ciena.  Our Waveserver platform has been climbing the charts since its introduction, and has proven to be a hit with ICPs, Data Center Operators, and more. 

Ciena Tops the DCI Charts

In its December 2016 global survey, IHS Markit polled global service providers, and they named Ciena as the #1 supplier for Data Center Interconnect, showing that our customers value Ciena as a trusted partner for DCI solutions. Ciena has been topping the charts in DCI market share as well, with the #1 spot for global DCI (with a 26.6% share) as reported by Dell’Oro in its 4Q 2016 DCI market share report.  Ciena also leads in the DCI metro space with a 22.2% share, the DCI long-haul space with a 38.8% share, and in the DCI ICP segment with a 25.1% share.  All combined, this data points to serious momentum in the DCI space for Ciena.

Waveserver is Ciena’s new DCI star

But what does this momentum mean for Ciena’s products, like the purpose-built DCI platform Waveserver?  Since its introduction, Waveserver has established itself as a new star in the DCI space.  As stated by Ciena’s CEO Gary Smith during the Q1 Fiscal Year 2017 earnings call, “For Waveserver, it was a record quarter in which we added 11 new customers…and since closing the quarter, we’ve won another piece of significant business with a Top 5 web-scale provider, which we expect to result in volume shipments in Q2.” 

But Waveserver’s popularity isn’t limited to a specific customer group, such as the ICPs or MTDC operators.  Much like a pop music star who gains popularity in multiple genres of music, Waveserver has a broad appeal and fits into applications for enterprise customers, financial institutions, government, research and education, , healthcare, gaming, and more. 

Waveserver’s popularity isn’t limited to a specific customer group, such as the ICPs or MTDC operators. Much like a pop music star who gains popularity in multiple genres of music, Waveserver has a broad appeal and fits into applications for Enterprise customers, Government, Research and Education, and more.

Ciena CFO Jim Moylan highlighted this fact with his comments in the Q1 earnings call, stating that “Waveserver now has 36 total customers. Frankly we’re thrilled with the market’s adoption of this relatively new product and its open approach.” 

With its compact size of one rack unit, density of 400G, and ability to carry a mix of 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE client traffic, Waveserver has made its debut in a number of non-ICP networks.  It has been used by operators to transport large amounts of Big Data from monitoring points to the cloud for analysis, and it has enabled distance learning for statewide education networks.

Some customers have used Waveserver to multiplex a mix of short-reach router optics onto high-capacity WDM links to enable migration from 10GE/40GE router ports to higher capacity 100GE ports.  Others have used it as a simple way to pick up traffic at a remote customer premise or spur without needing to extend a full metro ROADM solution out to the remote site – saving time and money.  And of course, it has been used in large-scale network builds, where our customers value Waveserver’s scalability, ease of deployment, and operational simplicity.

More Waveserver hits are coming, including Encryption

The story of Waveserver’s rise to fame doesn’t stop here.  New capabilities that are sure to be a hit will be available on Waveserver with its upcoming release, including wire-speed, transport layer encryption.  Ciena is bringing together the simplicity of Waveserver with the proven in-flight data protection of WaveLogic Encryption, giving customers an easy to deploy, highly secure AES-256 encryption solution that protects up to 400G of in-flight data in just 1RU. 

And with the recent announcement of Waveserver Ai, Ciena has set new benchmarks with single-carrier 400G transmission, unprecedented density up to 2.4T, and ultra-low power consumption, to solidify its standing in the DCI space going forward and to guarantee its spot in the DCI hall of fame.

For more details on Waveserver you can visit the Waveserver or Waveserver Ai product pages, or read the new Waveserver Ai data sheet.