Telecom Lead America: Global Caribbean Fiber (GCF), a network services provider across the Eastern Caribbean, has selected Ciena to upgrade its Antilles Crossing submarine network.
Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by WaveLogic coherent optical processors and GeoMesh optical bypass enables GCF to upgrade its submarine network to 40G coherent technology.
Connecting the network between St. Croix, St. Lucia and Barbados, the upgradation will assist to meet customer demands for high-bandwidth services from Internet traffic and applications including video, cloud computing and business continuity/disaster recovery.
The new network will be operational in May 2013 and will enable GCF to increase submarine bandwidth by four times using existing submarine cables, and enable the launch of 10 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) Ethernet services.
GCF will also benefit from Ciena’s GeoMesh optical bypass that offers flexibility to add or drop select wavelengths at intermediate sites. In addition to reducing latency on the route, this gives GCF the ability to quickly react to changing traffic demands and increase network availability.
GCF will also get a range of professional services for this deployment via Ciena Specialist Services for installation, integration, testing and support.
“By leveraging Ciena’s GeoMesh coherent transport and optical bypass technology, we can ensure our customers have the bandwidth needed to innovate and succeed in their respective markets,” said Valéry Bijou, chief operations officer, Global Caribbean Fiber.
Ed McCormack, vice president and general manager, Submarine Systems, Ciena, says GCF can re-use its fiber plant and carry four times the amount of traffic capacity than it had previously, leveraging existing assets and avoiding expensive alternatives.
