UK service provider SSE Telecoms is adding 100-Gbps capability to its network backbone via its Ciena 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms, according to Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN). The 100-Gbps links connect SSE Telecoms’ sites in Manchester and Hampshire to the Global Switch 2 data center located in London’s Docklands.

SSE Telecoms, a strategic business unit of SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy), specializes in high-capacity Ethernet, optical wavelength, and custom dark fiber offerings. It had already installed the 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms in its national backbone to support 10-Gbps and 40-Gbps traffic. The 100-Gbps channels, powered via Ciena’s WaveLogic processor, will run alongside this existing traffic, according to the systems company.

The upgraded network enables SSE Telecoms to offer both 10-Gbps and 100-Gbps services while ensuring low latency, guaranteeing high availability, and reducing power consumption by 46 percent and footprint by 70 percent versus traditional 10-Gbps architectures, Ciena asserts.

“SSE Telecoms’ customers expect the most reliable, innovative, and flexible connectivity solutions, and so we are always striving to develop a network that reflects these expectations,” states Mark Corney, director of sales and development at SSE Telecoms. “We have identified Ciena’s platform as industry-leading in terms of quality and service delivery, a quality that is vital for SSE Telecoms market requirements. This network enhancement will develop our existing product capability and allow customers to develop specific network requirements that are to the best quality available. Our strategy to specialise and drive high capacity network requirements means that with the Ciena platform we are able to provide customers with an exciting proposition.”

Ciena says it has now shipped more than 14,000 coherent 40G/100G line interfaces to more than 120 customers across the globe, accounting for nearly 13 million coherent kilometers deployed worldwide.