Internet2 selects Ciena’s 800G technology

New open line system and WaveLogic 5 platform will improve network programmability and scalability to create one of the industry’s most advanced and open infrastructures.

Wednesday, 16th October 2019 Posted 4 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Internet2, a nonprofit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions, has selected the latest photonic and coherent optical innovations from Ciena to transform its network to a more scalable, programmable and adaptive architecture.

The upgraded network, which connects several hundred universities, government agencies, and community anchor institutions across the U.S., will help Internet2 increase capacity at reduced operating costs to directly support advanced research efforts such as the IceCube Laboratory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The lab was established to study neutrino physics and multi-messenger astronomy. The network will also support the Open Science Grid that enables high-throughput computing for high energy physics, structural biology and cross-disciplinary science.

The infrastructure will consist of a flexible grid open line system (OLS) which strengthens Internet2 and the wider R&E community’s ability to conduct scientific research, enhance collaboration, and improve operations. This foundational element will provide access to a highly reliable, contiguous coherent optical network that can facilitate wavelength delivery and efficient data transfer throughout the continental United States. The OLS also includes Ciena’s commitment to support wavelengths launched directly from Internet2’s member networks for transport to strategic endpoints beyond their regional footprints.

Internet2 will deploy Ciena’s latest-generation Waveserver – powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme – programmable 200G-800G coherent optics. This will enable Internet2 to deploy 800G wavelengths in metro locations and support efficient 400GE interconnect over native 400G wavelengths between Internet2 points-of-presence system-wide.

The deployment will also reduce the overall space and power footprint of the current optical add-drop locations by as much as two-thirds, contributing to a lower cost and greener network that supports substantially more capacity. In addition, Internet2 will be able to tune, control and dynamically adjust optical capacity across any path using Ciena’s Liquid Spectrum ™ analytics software.

Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan domain controller will also help improve network management and operations.