FiberLight, LLC, a fiber-optic network service provider in the U.S. Southeast, will use packet switches from Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) in new mobile backhaul networks the service provider is building for two major U.S. wireless operators. Ciena says the new mobile backhaul networks will connect more than 450 cell towers with fiber to support 100 Mbps to each tower. FiberLight will have the ability to scale these connections to 1 Gbps, Ciena adds.
FiberLight provides a range of network services via a 500,000 fiber-mile network across Georgia, Texas, Florida, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. In the first of the two expansion projects, FiberLight will build a dedicated fiber-based mobile backhaul network in West Texas for what Ciena described as “a top tier LTE wireless provider.” The 3000 miles of new fiber-optic network infrastructure will feature Ciena’s 3900 family of packet networking systems at the network edge.
The second project, for a different customer, will see new infrastructure that will stretch across Texas, Washington, Maryland, and Florida. The network will connect 200 cell towers with six major aggregation sites.
Ciena will supply its 5410 and 5150 Service Aggregation Switches and 3930, 3931 and 3960 Service Delivery Switches for the deployments. FiberLight plans to use the switches’ subtending G.8032 Ethernet ring support to increase network scalability and reliability. The service provider also will leverage Ciena’s management system to ease service activation and ensure the health of the network. Finally, it also will receive consultation, maintenance, and support via Ciena Specialist Services.
The deployment will have three phases, the last of which should be completed by the end of 2012.
“By deploying Ciena’s packet networking infrastructure at the vast majority of towers we serve, we are enabling our customers to quickly scale from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps per tower, eliminate bandwidth restrictions, and reduce the potential for data bottlenecks,” said Andrew Stravelli, vice president, network engineering at FiberLight, via a Ciena press release. “Additionally, the automation, remote provisioning, and reporting features provided by Ciena’s management solution allows us to proactively 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.”
