Network solutions company Ciena corporation, on Tuesday night, announced that FiberLight LLC, a provider of reliable fibre, Ethernet, SONET and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks, and which owns approximately 600,000 miles of fibre network, has deployed Ciena's packet networking solution. This is primarily intended to assist two major US wireless operators support 4G LTE (News - Alert) networks and create a strong mobile backhaul to address growing need for mobile data. The new mobile backhaul networks will bring fibre to nearly 450 cell towers, giving customers 100Mb/s at each tower with the option to scale seamlessly to 1 GB/s. The expansive build network acts as an excellent proof for the new Ciena's packet networking solutions capabilities.

According to Ciena, FiberLight (News - Alert) will leverage on its 5410 and 5150 service aggregation switches as well as 3931, 3960 and 3930 service delivery switches with subtending G.8032 Ethernet rings. All this is in order to provide secure, scalable, reliable and flexible networks. Ciena will also be providing consultation, maintenance and support for these services via Ciena specialist services. The deployment will be conducted in three phases and is set to be completed by the end of 2012.

As Chad Whalen, vice president and general manager, North America Field Operations, Ciena, notes, “Many US networks are now close to full capacity…Ciena's packet networking portfolio helps create scalable networks that are built for speed, agility and assurance. FiberLight was no exception and was quickly able to have its cell sites up and running to provide mobile backhaul support to satisfy customers' needs.”

Ciena's advanced management solution will reportedly provide FiberLight with low-touch service activation that enables network diagnostics, fast service delivery and comprehensive service visualization. Additionally, Ciena’s new cloud-based portal allows providers to validate end-to-end SLA (Service Level Agreement) parameters, improving end customer satisfaction and retention. The new software capabilities align with Opn framework principles which enable mobile backhaul to benefit from simplified architecture with minimal router locations. The benefits of New Packet Software are huge, as Andrew Stravelli, vice president of engineering, FiberLight, noted, "By deploying Ciena's packet networking infrastructure at the vast majority of towers we serve, we are enabling our customers to quickly scale from 100Mb/s to 1Gb/s per tower, eliminate bandwidth restrictions and reduce the potential for data bottlenecks. Additionally, the automation, remote provisioning and reporting features provided by Ciena's management solution allows us to pro-actively monitor, maintain and troubleshoot our customers' networks. Our end customers can then use the secure, cloud-based portal to confirm that we are meeting SLA requirements."