JUNE 10, 2008 -- American Fiber Systems (search for AFS), an optical fiber network provider to carriers and large enterprises, and Ciena Corp. (search for Ciena) today announced a new partnership to deploy Ciena's advanced, multi-service metro/regional WDM platform across multiple AFS networks in Atlanta, Alpharetta, and Marietta, GA.
AFS says it is making significant investments in Ciena's technology to support its evolving bandwidth demands and service requirements throughout the greater Atlanta market. The AFS/Ciena partnership enhances AFS's current services portfolio, providing customers with an even more cost-effective offering for metro transport, say AFS representatives. This equipment upgrade, which brings an additional 400 Gbits/sec of bandwidth to AFS's Atlanta metro backbone, makes it easier for the operator to add new customers while enabling greater bandwidth capabilities at a better value.
"We're continuing to invest in the Atlanta market not just to keep up with the strong demand we're seeing in Atlanta, but also to make it easier for our customers to scale their connectivity and add bandwidth quickly," explains Rich Coyle, senior vice president of operations, American Fiber Systems. "In fact, we believe the Ciena platform provides our customers with a unique business advantage."
AFS selected Ciena's CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform Family for the upgrade of its metro and access networks, deploying the CN 4200 MC for optical services from customer premises, the CN 4200 for high-volume aggregation and transport, and the CN 4200 RS for grooming and routing of traffic at major network points of presence. The partnership also leverages Ciena's ON-Center Network and Service Management Suite, providing AFS with a set of tools for efficient service deployment, proactive network management, and service level management, note Ciena representatives.
"Making the migration to enhanced service-driven networks is not without challenges, and service providers must consider existing fiber limitations, available technology, and practical migration solutions," adds Mike Aquino, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Ciena. "By choosing Ciena, AFS is guaranteeing a reliable and operationally scalable network upgrade strategy, as our CN 4200 family makes convergence strategies practical, profitable, and easy to implement."
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