Telefónica Global Solutions expands SAm-1 submarine and terrestrial network

Telefónica Global Solutions and Ciena® Corporation have deployed Ciena’s 100G coherent optical transport technology on Telefónica´s SAm-1 submarine and terrestrial network, which connects the U.S. to Latin America. With Ciena’s converged packet optical and GeoMesh solution, Telefónica Global Solutions is able to support growing and unpredictable international customer demand for premium bandwidth services like cloud computing, video, and advanced business collaboration services.

The SAm-1 network is the largest fiber optics submarine system connecting the U.S. with Central and South America, with landing stations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the U.S., including Florida and Puerto Rico. The network delivers more than 2 Tbps of data traffic daily at times of peak demand and transports more than 20 billion international voice minutes a year. It provides value added services for multinational and carrier customers, permanently maintaining an activated IP capacity that exceeds a total of 6 Tbps.

Telefónica Global Solutions deployed Ciena’s 5400 Reconfigurable Switching System and 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, powered by WaveLogic 3 100G Coherent Optical Processors, including advanced ROADM features and GeoMesh optical bypass, to support its 25,000 km submarine and terrestrial network. The 5400 equipped with coherent optical processors provides 100G services across multiple network links, including a 6,700 km submarine network link that connects Boca Raton, Florida to Fortaleza in Brazil; and a 2,100 km unregenerated terrestrial network link that connects Buenos Aires in Argentina to Valparaiso in Chile, reducing network latency and complexity. The 5400 improves intelligent traffic management and bandwidth availability with 3.6T of switching capacity in eight of the Telefónica Global Solutions´ Central and South America landing stations, and 7.2T of switching capacity in the U.S. landing stations.

Telefónica is also leveraging Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System that provides multi-layer service management capabilities to enable streamlined service activation, fault management and performance monitoring. Ciena is also providing consulting services, network engineering, project management, NOC contingency service, and First Line Maintenance services via its Specialist Services portfolio.

In addition, by applying Ciena’s OPn architecture approach for creating programmable network infrastructures that deliver much lower cost-at-scale and allow network operators to better monetize their networks, the expanded TGS network has the ability to automatically adapt to changing conditions and network demands. This also makes it possible to safely and easily add 100G services to its existing cables as needs arise.

This deployment builds upon a long-standing relationship between Ciena and Telefónica Global Solutions. Ciena’s converged packet optical technology is leveraged by Telefónica in 14 countries.