Reliance Globalcom Upgrades Trans-Atlantic FA-1 South Submarine Network to 100G with Ciena’s GeoMesh

WaveLogic-powered upgrade will serve critical New York to Paris trans-Atlantic corridor, enabling new high-speed, low latency 100GbE and OTN client services

HANOVER, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ciena^® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Reliance Globalcom, a global provider of managed network and communication services for multinational enterprises and carriers, is upgrading its trans-Atlantic FA-1 South submarine network with Ciena’s GeoMesh solution. This upgrade will help Reliance Globalcom to better address growing global bandwidth demand for cloud computing, video and other high-bandwidth services, along the critical trans-Atlantic corridor.

Key Facts:

• Reliance Globalcom owns and operates one of the world’s largest and most advanced private submarine network 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 combined global network connects over 40 key business markets across India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the United States.
• With Ciena’s GeoMesh solution (based on its market-leading 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors and optical bypass), Reliance Globalcom will have what is expected to be one of the first trans-Atlantic submarine networks capable of supporting OTN-based client services from OTU2 (10G) to OTU4 (100G). It will allow Reliance Globalcom to provide 100GbE services between continental points of presence (PoPs) - whether a large data center or a central office.
• The network upgrade will be managed by Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System, that provides multi-layer service management capabilities to enable streamlined service activation, robust fault management, and comprehensive performance monitoring, which results in optimal use of critical network assets, all the way from its New York PoP to its Paris PoP.
• Ciena is also providing Reliance Globalcom with professional services through its Specialist Services portfolio, specifically for installation, integration, testing and support.
• This deployment builds upon a long-standing relationship between Ciena, Reliance Globalcom, and its parent company, Reliance Communications. Over the past year, Ciena solutions have been used in several strategic capacity upgrades to support Reliance Globalcom’s submarine network, including a 100G coherent capacity upgrade to its Hawk network from Marseille to London, and its FEA network from Suez to Aqaba.

Executive Quotes:

• “Ciena’s unique GeoMesh solution enables us to quickly and significantly increase the information carrying capacity across our critical FA-1 submarine cable network while eliminating complexity and latency along the critical corridor serving data centers in New York and Paris. We can also seamlessly merge our submarine and terrestrial networks together, from our New York PoP to our Paris PoP, which was not possible in the past. Our strategic relationship with Ciena continues to grow - largely a result of their deep understanding of advanced networking and their innate ability to introduce creative new ways to design high performance global networks.”
  - Punit Garg, President & CEO at Reliance Globalcom

• “Terrestrial OTN-based networks continue to gain in popularity, primarily due to its numerous benefits over SONET/SDH and its support for optimized Ethernet transport. As terrestrial network adoption of OTN technology continues to increase, submarine networks interconnecting these land-based networks must support seamless handoff of these burgeoning new services. Our GeoMesh solution was developed by leveraging our deep understanding of how terrestrial and submarine networks are designed to create a unique submarine solution that enables our customers to not only streamline and modernize their network, but better monetize it as well.”
  - Ed McCormack, VP and GM of International Accounts and Submarine Systems at 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.
• The industry pioneer in coherent optical technology, Ciena is also the market leader with well over 20 million coherent-miles deployed worldwide, which is the equivalent distance to the moon and back, over 25 times.
• Ciena’s converged packet optical with WaveLogic coherent optical technology gives service providers significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and network intelligence – all key building blocks of an OPⁿ network architecture.

Supporting Resources:

• Chalk Talk Video: WaveLogic 3
• Application Note: Enabling a Bigger and Smarter Network with WaveLogic 3
• Application Note: Submarine Solutions for an Increasingly Competitive Market
• Application Note: Coherent Optical Processing for High-Capacity Networks
• Data Sheet: 6500 Packet-Optical Platform
• White Paper: GeoMesh: Uniting Submarine and Terrestrial Networks
• Video: Ciena’s 100G Technology Increases the Capacity of Major Submarine Networks
• Video: What is Coherent Optical Networking?

About Reliance

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 delivering 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 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-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 21, 2012. 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.