Ciena^® is bolstering its Packet Networking portfolio with new Adaptive IP capabilities, coherent optics, and purpose-built hardware platforms, arming service providers with the ability to capitalize on 5G, Next-Generation Cable MSO Access associated with Fiber Deep, Business Services, and more. These advancements also simplify access to metro networks allowing providers to evolve toward an adaptive network that can support both new and legacy business services and applications. 

With these new capabilities, Ciena is bringing to market solutions that are open, cost-effective, and disaggregated making them simpler to deploy, manage, and maintain. The new portfolio features also significantly reduce network operators’ power, cost, and footprint requirements. 

Key Facts:

• Many of today’s TDM (SONET/SDH/PDH) and Packet (Ethernet/IP/MPLS) networks are rigid, complex, and costly, resulting in a slower time-to-market and growing inflexibility to address constantly changing customer demands. Networks also continue to lack the agility and ability to rapidly deploy new services, which leads to customer churn and loss of revenue. 

• To help service providers address these challenges once and for all, and to profit from new and high-growth opportunities like the evolution from 4G to 5G, L2/L3/VNF Business Services, and Next-Generation Cable MSO Access, Ciena is introducing a simpler, streamlined approach to building IP-enabled networks, from access to metro. Ciena is investing in several enhancements to its Packet Networking portfolio, including: 
  
  
  • Service-Aware Operating System (SAOS) enhanced with IP capabilities targeted at specific high-growth applications - Based on a streamlined, modular, open, and highly programmable IP architecture, Ciena’s SAOS empowers providers via an “Adaptive IP” approach. This improves service velocity, shortens time-to-revenue, and enables an adaptive network to best address evolving end-user network service requirements for existing, new, and emerging applications with a highly differentiated quality of service. 
  
  
  • Ciena’s new 5162 Service Aggregation Platform as well as the 5170 Service Aggregation Platform will be the first to offer enhanced SAOS, enabling providers to address L3 VPN business services. Additional Adaptive IP features will be developed and integrated across Ciena’s Packet Networking platforms. 
  
  
  • Coherent Optics – This allows for rapid, cost-effective scaling to address ongoing bandwidth growth, specifically toward the network edge. Supporting coherent optics simplifies network designs with notable reductions in power, space, cost, and overall operational complexity. 
  
  
  • 6500 Packet Transport System (PTS) – The 6500 PTS converts legacy TDM business services (SONET/SDH/PDH) into packet flows to be carried over a more efficient and scalable packet network. This allows network operators to continue supporting existing TDM customers while also addressing new, high-growth applications – all over a single, converged packet-based transport network. 
  
  
  • Blue Planet Management Portfolio – Added to Ciena’s existing Blue Planet Management portfolio are new Layer 3-aware Route Optimization & Assurance capabilities obtained from the recent acquisition of Packet Design for improved IP network designs, operation, and management, from end-to-end.

• These new capabilities are supported by Ciena’s broad suite of Professional Services, which allow operators to elegantly transform their networks, regardless of the stage (plan, design, deploy, manage, and maintain) of their journey to a more adaptive network. 

• Attendees at the MEF18 event taking place Oct. 29 – Nov. 2 in Los Angeles will have an opportunity to hear more about these new capabilities in a keynote session led by Kevin Sheehan, Ciena’s CTO for the Americas, taking place Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 11:30 a.m. PST.  Ciena’s booth  will also feature these enhancements in several technical demonstrations. 

Executive Comment: 

“5G, IoT, Next-Generation Cable MSO Access, and L2/L3/VNF Business Services require that operators redefine what they need from their existing packet networks. Ciena’s new Adaptive IP capabilities provide a graceful migration path from legacy TDM (SONET/SDH/PDH) networks and traditional, closed IP-based architectures to more open, disaggregated, and programmable IP-based SDN architecture. This gives our customers greater control of their own destiny and lays the foundation of the ultimate end state – the Adaptive Network, which responds in real-time to changing demands.”-   Scott McFeely, Senior Vice President, Global Products and Services, Ciena