News for and about the Internet2 community

[Ryan Bass <>]

Ciena and Internet2 Partner On New National 100G Network

Field-proven coherent 100G technology from Ciena to support growing bandwidth needs of the research and education community and provide connectivity for more than 200,000 community anchor institutions nationwide 

ANN ARBOR, Mich., and LINTHICUM, Md. – March 9, 2011 – Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, and Internet2 today announced a partnership on a 100G national network in support of the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN) project. Internet2 is significantly upgrading its national backbone network through a federal stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Through its partnership with Ciena, Internet2 will increase its network’s bandwidth from approximately 100 Gigabits per second to 8.8 Terabits per second to provide the necessary capabilities to connect over 200,000 community anchor institutions nationwide as part of the U.S. UCAN project. The new network will also support the exponential growth in capacity needs by the research and the higher education community that Internet2 serves today.

Developed by Internet2 under the auspices of its BTOP grant, U.S. UCAN is a project intended to help connect community anchor institutions including K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges, health centers, hospitals and public safety organizations across the country to next-generation Internet-based applications utilizing the Internet2 Network. The U.S. UCAN project will enable these organizations to serve their constituents with telemedicine, distance learning and other advanced applications that are not currently possible with consumer-grade Internet service.
 
“This new collaboration with Ciena to create a groundbreaking new national backbone scalable to 88 waves of 100G builds on a long standing and successful partnership. After several successful field trials with Ciena, we are confident in their field-proven technology, strong product roadmap and focus on optimizing total costs to support a large scale deployment like this,” said Robert Vietzke, executive director of network services at Internet2. “We are excited about the directionless, colorless ROADM capabilities and the focus on intelligent automation as it reflects the need for flexibility, scalability and resiliency as is required by the anchor institutions, research sites and education campuses we serve.  These capabilities will be critical to supporting the diverse application needs of the users on our network.”

Internet2 will be using Ciena’s ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic™ coherent optical processors for its new network and will leverage its ability to deliver high network capacity while reducing overall operational expenses through automated wavelength provisioning and restoration.

“Our partnership with Internet2 to deliver this leading edge new national network underscores Ciena’s unique ability to meet the advanced networking needs of the research and education and high performance computing communities,” said Mike Aquino, senior vice president of global field operations at Ciena. “This collaboration also demonstrates the work we’ve done to support a variety of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects that are driving broadband connectivity throughout the U.S. to improve education, healthcare, public safety and other critical areas of everyday life.”

For the latest real time updates on the Internet2 Network Upgrade, follow our new "Road to 100G" blog

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About Internet2
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and education community. An exceptional partnership spanning U.S. and international institutions who are leaders in the worlds of research, academia, industry and government, Internet2 is developing breakthrough cyberinfrastructure technologies that support the most exacting applications of today—and spark the most essential innovations of tomorrow. Led by its members and focused on their current and future networking needs since 1996, Internet2 blends its human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy revolutionary Internet technologies. Activating the same partnerships that produced today’s Internet, the Internet2 community is forging the Internet of the future. For more information, see http://www.internet2.edu.

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. With focused innovation, Ciena brings together the reliability and capacity of optical networking with the flexibility and economics of Ethernet, unified by a software suite that delivers the industry’s leading network automation. 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 22, 2010. 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
(877) 857–7377


Lauren Rotman
Internet2
(202) 331-5345

 
Investor Contact:     
Gregg Lampf
Ciena Corporation
(888) 243–6223