Sprint and Ciena announced two milestones in speed and capacity on Sprint’s network:
- Sprint has deployed one of the longest 100 Gbps circuits in the United States with a live transmission that required no signal regeneration over a distance of 2,100 km, or 1,304 miles, between Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. The 100Gbps link uses Ciena WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors on the 6500 Packet Optical Platform
- Last month, the companies successfully completed a live 400Gbps trial on Sprint’s network in the Silicon Valley area using existing Sprint fiber infrastructure and Ciena’s 6500 with WaveLogic 3 cards. The high-capacity link operated without error. The companies said this demonstrated the viability of using 400Gbps channels alongside existing channels carrying live customer traffic.
“Customers have expressed their hunger for higher speed networks to support their substantial data needs, which we project will only continue to grow exponentially,” said Wayne Ward, vice president-Business and Product Development, Sprint. “The 400Gbps trial demonstrates our ability to offer higher speeds with our existing fiber, which means that our customers can feel assured that our network is future-proofed to meet their needs as they evolve. The delivery of 100Gbps and 400Gbps speeds will be critical as we launch our Ethernet Wave Services and support a growing wireless infrastructure.”
As announced in 2012, Sprint is upgrading its optical backbone network with Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform as part of its Network Vision initiative.
- Ciena has been a strategic supplier to Sprint since 1998.