MCI selected CIENA and Siemens as key suppliers for a new Ultra Long Haul (ULH) DWDM optical network that will become the foundation by which all MCI services will be delivered. MCI is already carrying traffic on its first ULH network route deployment in the western U.S. and expects to complete its domestic network build-out over a three to five year period. Financial terms were not disclosed.
CIENA confirmed that MCI will use its CoreStream platform for optical ULH backbone that leverages software-configurable wavelength switching. CoreStream's ultra long-haul capabilities eliminates costly electrical signal regenerations. It uses high-performance amplifiers with dynamic gain flattening for ULH applications, allowing un-regenerated signal propagation of 3,200 km and beyond. The automated wavelength switching will allow MCI to remotely provision wavelengths. The CoreStream platform provides both 25GHz and 50GHz channel spacing, allowing MCI to optimize its network for both capacity and distance all within the C-band. http://www.mci.comhttp://www.ciena.com
- Earlier this month, MCI announced an expansion of its MPLS backbone using Cisco System's equipment. In the first stage of its network expansion, which is currently underway, MCI is working with Cisco on a multi-phased, edge-router deployment in 48 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pac. Specifically, MCI is deploying the Cisco 10000 Series Router as its IP/MPLS Edge Label Switch Router for its Private IP service platform. Completion is expected by year-end 2004. In the U.S. alone, MCI plans to extend its Private IP network two-fold. MCI's MPLS-based service now has the Cisco Powered Network designation.
- Also in February 2004, MCI awarded a multi-year Global Master Purchase Agreement to Movaz Networks covering the rapid deployment of its next generation optical transport solutions across its global network. Financial terms were not disclosed. MCI began field deployment of the Movaz RAY product suite in 2002 and is already carrying live traffic in major metropolitan regions for a variety of applications including carrier-to-carrier, enterprise and core infrastructure applications.
- In November 2003, Siemens announced that AT&T Labs was testing its next-generation optical transport solution for use on high-capacity routes in the AT&T network. The test marks the first Siemens deployment in the AT&T transport network. AT&T has expressed its intent to evolve to one global network using MPLS on an optical backbone. The Siemens SURPASS hiT 7500 offers full-channel optical add/drop multiplexer capabilities, enabling remote configuration of a path without the need to touch the network while staying all-optical through multiple add/drop nodes. The Siemens system also features transponders that are tunable over the full 80 channels of light, resulting in quicker wavelength provisioning.
