Ciena Launches 5400 Family

LINTHICUM, Md. -- Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced its new 5400 Family of Reconfigurable Switching Systems, a series of performance-optimized, multi-terabit Ethernet, OTN and TDM switching systems with integrated transport functionality that can be flexibly configured to implement a broad range of network elements including a scalable optical cross-connect, feature-rich Carrier Ethernet switch, or a fully converged packet-optical transport and switching system. Establishing a new benchmark for modular networking, Ciena’s 5400 family leverages common service-aware operating software – Ciena OneOS – to enable automated service delivery, dynamic mesh restoration and massive scale. It also provides the ability to operate across network layers to increase the velocity of service creation, reduce network ownership cost, and improve network resiliency.

Mobile broadband, digital video, software as a service, virtualized information environments and other bandwidth-intensive services are accelerating network transition from SONET/SDH to Ethernet and OTN while also requiring transmission speeds to scale from 10G through 40G and to 100G. Facing this situation, operators must deal with the increasingly high cost of scaling pure IP networks, the complexity of converging multiple service-specific networks and the difficulty of automating service provisioning while controlling capital expenditures across disparate data and optical equipment. Consequently, service providers now need more agile, service-driven networks for creating, provisioning and delivering new, differentiated services while driving down operational costs. This transition requires an underlying service-enabling infrastructure that is dynamic, resilient, multiservice, packet-optimized and automated.

To address this demand, Ciena’s 5400 family establishes a new level of flexibility by introducing reconfigurable switching elements that can be used to address immediate service needs, such as in networks today that carry packets across TDM infrastructure, and reconfigured in the future to migrate those networks to leverage Ethernet and OTN. With its modular approach, the 5400 family reduces upfront capital costs and protects network investments over time by enabling service providers to pay only for what they need, when and where they need it in their network – across geographies, market segments or even different parts of one network. The 5400 family integrates its own patent-pending technology with configurable components of the field-proven control plane of CoreDirector®, market-leading OTN and FlexiPort™ technology of the CN 4200® FlexSelect® Advanced Services Platform and the True Carrier Ethernet® functionality of the Carrier Ethernet Services Delivery (CESD) portfolio. Based on this combination, Ciena’s 5400 family can be configured and reconfigured at any time for a variety of high-capacity optical, TDM or packet functions, including optical cross-connect switching, optical transport, Carrier Ethernet switching or converged packet-optical networking.

“Packet-optical networking is at the very beginning of a significant migration – moving from its metro origins and into the core network. With the launch of the 5400, Ciena puts itself at the forefront of this major new market segment,” said Sterling Perrin, senior analyst at Heavy Reading. “Keys to success in the packet-optical core will be efficiently combining optical transport, optical switching, and packet switching in a single device. Ciena’s approach stands out due to its modular hardware and common software architecture that allows operators to use specific functions where they need them and when they need them.”

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)