News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

Internet2 and Ciena Partner to Deploy CoreDirector Multiservice Switch on
Advanced Nationwide Research and Education Network

Technology to Enable Dynamic Ethernet Lightpaths Between Internet2 Member
Institutions

ANN ARBOR, Mich. and LINTHICUM, Md. - October 23, 2006 - Internet2 and
CienaR Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) today announced a partnership to deploy
Ciena's CoreDirector(R) Multiservice Switch in the new Internet2 nationwide
advanced research and education network. Ciena also becomes an Internet2
Corporate Partner, the highest level partnership offered, enhancing its
relationship with Internet2 to further advance the exploration and
development of next-generation optical switching technology.

Ciena's CoreDirector platform will support the next-generation of Internet
applications and resources used regularly by Internet2 member institutions.
The platform offers a robust feature set including support for optical and
Ethernet switching services as well as use of a standards-based intelligent
control plane that enable Internet2 to provide dynamic bandwidth on demand
for its members via automated lightpath provisioning capabilities. 

"The research and education community today requires networking solutions
that create a truly dynamic environment to support the most demanding
applications and research our members can imagine," said Steve Cotter,
Internet2's director of network services. "By partnering with Ciena, we are
deploying a cost-effective infrastructure that will provide our members
instant network capacity and scalability plus more dynamic control over
their networking resources." 

CoreDirector also will serve as a grooming switch, enabling multiple
Ethernet and SONET/SDH sub-wavelength data paths to be delivered with
maximum efficiency across Internet2's new infrastructure. In doing so,
CoreDirector provides more available bandwidth to Internet2 member
organizations and a more efficient allocation of network capacity. 

"Ciena's unique multiservice capabilities will allow connector organizations
like the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads to better match bandwidth resources to the
diverse and often changing requirements of the individual institutions we
connect to the Internet2 infrastructure," said Jerry Sobieski, director of
research initiatives for Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) and project manager
of the DRAGON (Dynamic Resource Allocation via GMPLS Optical Networks)
project. "In addition, our organization's collaboration with Ciena via the
DRAGON project, which is investigating the use of optical control plane
capabilities across administrative boundaries, will play a key role in
enabling the dynamic, on-demand optical services that the Internet2
community has envisioned."

CoreDirector creates a highly-dependable and highly-resilient network for
Internet2 providing carrier-class reliability and supporting both automatic
protection switching and mesh-based network restoration for greater
survivability in catastrophic failures. This capability ensures
uninterrupted capacity to the research and education community's critical
global experiments and collaborations. Further, with its inherent
flexibility and scalability, the platform will provide Internet2 the ability
to perform in-service enhancements and upgrades without disrupting network
traffic. As a result, the Internet2 community will benefit from lower
network equipment costs as well as greater operational savings.

"By deploying CoreDirector, Internet2 is taking advantage of Ciena's
highly-adaptable FlexSelect Architecture, which uses advanced software to
drive network flexibility, manageability and reliability, and as a result,
is expanding the horizons of what researchers can accomplish." said Steve
Alexander, chief technology officer at Ciena. "We will leverage our expanded
relationship with Internet2 to continue our pursuit of innovation to support
ubiquitous and dynamic research network connectivity worldwide."

Through this agreement, Ciena builds on its longtime Internet2 membership
and close collaboration with the research and education community to become
an Internet2 Corporate Partner. Furthermore, Ciena recently began
participation in Internet2's Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI)
project, a national scale network test bed developed in 2004 by a group of
collaborators, which includes corporate members, network researchers, and
network engineers, to investigate next-generation scalable architectures.
The HOPI project has served as a model for Internet2's new network
infrastructure and deployment. 

Cotter added, "Internet2 provides Ciena a live network environment as a
leading-edge test bed to experiment with new technologies and to develop the
best methods for deployment and use of these emerging applications and
technologies. We look forward to a long engagement with Ciena within the
Internet2 community as we pioneer the advancements in Internet development
that will unlock new frontiers for research, academia, and the commercial
marketplace."

In June 2006, Internet2 announced in a joint release with Level 3
Communications, its aggressive plan to develop and deploy a powerful and
flexible advanced nationwide research network to provide enhanced IP
services as well as leading-edge optical services to its members. The new
network is currently under deployment, with full operation scheduled for
mid-2007. When operational, Internet2 members will have access to 100
gigabits per second (Gbps) of capacity, more than 10 times that of its
current network.

# # #

About Internet2
Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the
research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions
of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and
unique partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development,
deployment and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings
the U.S. research and academic community together with technology leaders
from industry, government and the international community to undertake
collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet.
For more information: http://www.internet2.edu/.

About Ciena
Ciena Corporation is the network specialist, focused on expanding the
possibilities for its customers' networks while reducing their cost of
ownership. The company's systems, software and services target and cure
specific network pain points so that telcos, cable operators, governments
and enterprises can best exploit the new applications that are driving their
businesses forward. For more information, visit www.ciena.com. 

Note to Ciena Investors 
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-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on August 31, 2006. 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.

Press Contacts: 
Nicole Anderson 
Ciena Corporation       
(410) 694-5786   


Lauren Rotman
Internet2
202.331.5345

 

Investor Contact:       
Jessica Towns
Ciena Corporation
(888) 243-6623