News

23 June 2009

 

COLT selects Infinera to boost pan-European network

European business communications provider COLT has selected a digital optical network from Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), for its pan-European network in order to speed delivery of a broad range of service.  

COLT operates a 13-country, 25,000km network that includes metropolitan-area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fiber connections into 16,000 buildings and 18 COLT data centres. The first phase of COLT’s Infinera network connects major cities in eight countries in the business heart of Europe, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

Infinera says that COLT chose it because they believe that the speed and simplicity of Infinera’s digital architecture will enable quicker and more efficient delivery of services. Each line-card enables 100Gb/s of optical capacity, which is automatically configured and available to support services once installed. also, with Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization model, COLT can both achieve rapid provisioning of a range of services as well as have full utilization of the optical capacity, without complex optical engineering. Infinera claims that this flexibility is not possible with traditional dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks, where each service is tightly coupled to the wavelength transponder card.

Infinera says that its unique digital architecture will also help COLT to meet growing demand. Users require a range of different services, including wavelengths and Ethernet, at varying bit rates. Through a combination of Infinera’s Just-in-TAM fulfillment program and intelligent GMPLS control plane software, COLT can rapidly deliver a broad range of new services over pre-deployed 100Gb/s DWDM increments. With many of Europe’s largest financial institutions as customers, COLT is focused on delivering a network with high reliability and low latency. The use of Infinera’s photonic integration technology also delivers savings in space and energy consumption, it is claimed.

Other Infinera features include rapid initial deployment of the first phase of the network as well as Infinera’s digital performance monitoring capabilities. The first phase was deployed in just three months, which is much faster than the time required by a traditional DWDM network, Infinera claims. Infinera’s DTN optical system is a digital reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) for long-haul and metro core networks, combining high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform. Based on the firm's large-scale PICs, it uses fewer line cards and fewer cables, simplifying and speeding up the initial deployment process. In addition, the GMPLS-powered IQ network operating system supports rapid deployment with intelligent features like automatic recognition and inventorying of network assets, says Infinera.

“Infinera’s next-generation photonic integration technology is helping COLT to achieve its goal of operating the most modern and advanced network in Europe,” says COLT’s chief technology officer Dr Alireza Mahmoodshahi. “The Infinera network will give COLT a significant competitive advantage in fulfilling customer needs with speed and flexibility,” says Infinera’s CEO Jagdeep Singh.

See related item:

Infinera’s 400Gb/s PIC sets record for integration

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