SSE Telecoms, a strategic business unit of SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy)– the UK’s second largest energy supplier and one of the FTSE 100 companies – is deploying Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors to connect its key data centre locations across Britain. The high-capacity links, already deployed and operational, connect SSE Telecoms’ sites in Manchester and Hampshire to the Global Switch 2 data centre located in London’s Docklands.

The 100 Gb/s deployment is an extension of SSE Telecoms’ existing Ciena-powered network backbone, based on the 6500 platform. The newly-deployed 100 Gb/s channels add to the existing mix of 10G and 40G channels and run alongside them, ensuring optimal use of the optical spectrum for SSE Telecoms.

By introducing 100 Gb/s technology into its network, SSE Telecoms continues to push the boundaries of network reach and performance, enabling customers to achieve high-capacity optical networking. The 100 Gb/s network enables SSE Telecoms to offer both 10G and 100G services to its customers, while ensuring low latency, guaranteeing high availability, reducing power consumption by 46 percent and footprint by 70 percent when compared to a traditional architecture based on 10G technology.

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)