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Broadband stimulus awardee Bluebird Network is deploying the ADVA FSP 3000 in the Missouri Ultra-High Capacity Middle Mile Project, according to ADVA Optical Networking. The project aims to add 1,500 miles to Bluebird’s existing 4,500-mile network that spans Missouri and Illinois.

The carrier formed via the integration of Bluebird Media, Missouri Network Alliance (MNA), and Illinois Network Alliance (INA) in 2011. A $45 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and a $10.5 million in-kind contribution from the state of Missouri, as well as private investors, are funding its new fiber-optic infrastructure, which should be in place by this fall.

The network will support 10-Gbps services for local last-mile providers of residential and business services and over 100 community anchor institutions. Bluebird expects to support video on demand, telemedicine, remote education and testing, IPTV and HDTV, video conferencing with multiple users, remote computing, real-time medical-image consulting, and transfer of electronic medical records, among other applications and services.
 
“Introducing high-speed Internet services in rural areas can be a daunting challenge because they often are limited to bandwidth-constrained infrastructure and legacy technologies,” said Michael Morey, president and CEO with Bluebird Network. “In Missouri and Illinois we’ve created a robust, 6,000-mile network that relieves fiber exhaust, upgrades on SONET infrastructure, and brings sometimes unprecedented services to the 59 counties funded by the grant. ADVA Optical Networking’s DWDM system and management software provide our network with the scalable optical transport and simple flexibility to match capabilities with data demands across both legacy and new infrastructure.”

The ADVA FSP 3000 supports up to forty 100-Gbps wavelengths. The platform’s ROADM capability and RAYcontrol GMPLS control plane enable Bluebird to use a combination of hardware pre-provisioning, point-and-click configuration, and flexible provisioning.

Net Insight has expanded its Nimbra 600 series of multiservice routers (MSRs) with the introduction of the Nimbra 640, a scalable media access gateway for media transport over IP networks. The announcement was made Friday at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam.

Net Insight’s latest addition to its Nimbra 600 platform enables management of quality of service (QoS) of bi-directional video and Ethernet transport. This ability, coupled with integrated support for high quality, low-latency JPEG2000 video compression, makes the Nimbra 640 ideal for live event contribution and remote production, the company claims.

Other applications for the Nimbra 640 Media Access gateway includes primary DTT-distribution, IPTV/cable-TV distribution, and studio interconnect.

Per Lindgren, vice president, business development and co-founder of Net Insight, said, “Introducing the Nimbra 640 to our established range of Nimbra MSR’s is great news for operators and broadcasters that really want to simplify live event contribution and remote production.”

The Nimbra 640 is built on the existing Nimbra 600 platform for QoS-enhanced media transport. It shares such features as lossless routing, QoS-enhanced links, and service-centric network management. The new product is the company’s first Nimbra 600-based gateway specifically designed for access applications.

Net Insight has also unveiled a new smart form-factor pluggable transceiver-based (SFP) Video Access Module for the Nimbra 600 series. Equipped with intelligent SFPs, Net Insight’s MSRs take another step towards integrating more advanced video processing functionality into the company’s Nimbra 600 video transport platform.

Net Optics, Inc., the leading provider of Intelligent Network Access and Monitoring Architecture, today announces the availability of its boundary-breaking Flex Tap -- the first on the market to pass the 100G milestone. The slender Flex Tap's advanced features, along with ultra-high performance in a compact format, open up new horizons of productivity and cost-effectiveness.

With space at a premium in the data center, the compact Flex Tap's ability to fit up to 24 taps in a 1U panel, along with support for 1G, 10G, 40G and 100G implementations represents a leap forward in value and cost-savings.

"In developing Flex Tap, we were aiming at more than the 100G boundary," said Daniel Aharon, Senior Director of Product Management. "We wanted to bring customers a Tap solution with a spectrum of truly innovative benefits -- high scalability, the versatility to mix-and-match speeds and connectors within a deployment, the highest visibility and compatibility, simplified upgrade and rack mount ability, along with other cost and space saving advantages."

Net Optics Inc.

Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced a strategic agreement with the Russian telecoms operator VimpelCom, for the upgrade and expansion of its national optical network. Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic™ coherent optical processors, will be deployed in network links extending over approximately 10,700 km. This includes the upgrade of the Moscow - Urals and Urals - Siberia connections and the southern part of the Western Russia network (the ‘Big European Ring’), as well as the construction of a 100G network in the far eastern part of the country. “The roll-out of LTE services and increase in broadband usage, coupled with the prospect of new data-heavy enterprise services, dictate that VimpelCom’s core network must be ready. In collaboration with Ciena we developed an optimized architecture for our national network that will provide VimpelCom with operational effectiveness, both in terms of ease of implementation and scalability. Moreover, the network upgrade will cause no disruption to existing services and ensure VimpelCom continues to meet customers’ expectations,” Alexey Sapunov, Transport Network Director at OJCS VimpelCom. VimpelCom Ltd