Reliance Globalcom picks Ciena for 100G submarine cable upgrade

Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) says global carrier Reliance Globalcom has selected Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent optical 100G networking technology to upgrade its FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA) submarine network. The 100G technology will bring massive capacity increases to existing fiber cables on a route connecting Egypt and Jordan.

As part of the network upgrade, Reliance Globalcom will deploy a 100G DWDM system with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical line interfaces. Using the principles of Ciena’s OPn network architecture, the systems house says the upgrade will enable Reliance Globalcom to support the surge of high-bandwidth applications such as cloud computing, video conferencing, business continuity/disaster recovery, data center connectivity, and storage area networking, in addition to ever increasing Internet traffic.

The network upgrade with 100G technology allows Reliance Globalcom to increase submarine bandwidth on this segment by 10X and enables the launch of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OTU-2 services. The upgrade also enables Reliance Globalcom to provide 100 Gigabit Ethernet for their end customers as required.

Ciena is also providing Reliance Globalcom with its network management software for streamlined service activation, fault management, and performance monitoring. The deployment also includes professional services via Ciena’s Specialist Services portfolio, including engineering, furnishing, and installation.

“Ciena’s proven coherent optical technology gives us the ability to upgrade our existing submarine networks from 10G to 40G and 100G rates, and beyond, so that we can keep pace with our customers’ changing bandwidth requirements while leveraging our investments in fiber assets,” said Punit Garg, president and CEO, Reliance Globalcom. “We are already using Ciena coherent solutions to deliver 40G services on multiple, critical submarine routes, so when we decided to upgrade our FEA route to 100G, we knew Ciena was the right choice.”

This deployment builds on a longstanding relationship between Ciena and Reliance Globalcom and its parent company Reliance Communications. Earlier this year, Reliance announced that it is using Ciena’s 100G platforms to power its European network. In 2011, the companies announced two 40G deployments on the Reliance Globalcom network – one to support a 5,000-km submarine link along two key routes connecting Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, and the other to support a 6,400-km ultra-long haul submarine link connecting the UK, Spain, Italy and Egypt (see “Reliance Globalcom deploys Ciena 40G in ultra long-haul submarine network” and “Reliance Globalcom adds 40-Gbps coherent to FNAL submarine cable network”).

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