CIENA, TELCORDIA DRIVE COST-EFFECTIVE ETHERNET SERVICES OPPORTUNITIES FOR CARRIERS' EXISTING NETWORKS

Aug.9,2004–CIENA® Corporation, a leading global provider of intelligent service creation and delivery solutions, and Telcordia™ Technologies, Inc., a global provider of telecommunications software and services, are jointly developing and delivering new technology solutions that empower Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) to more efficiently introduce and manage new high-speed, carrier-class Ethernet services over their existing network infrastructures.

The collaboration aims to establish Operations Support Systems (OSS) features to support the cost-effective deployment of advanced Ethernet-over-SONET services, specifically those enabled by CIENA’s CN 2600™ Multiservice Edge Aggregator. Through the Generic Feature Development Services (GFDS) Program, Telcordia and CIENA are co-investing in numerous enhancements for SONET Virtual Concatenation enabling dynamic inventory management, alarm notification and automated flow-through provisioning of capacity for Ethernet services.  With these enhancements, RBOCS can offer high-speed, carrier-class Ethernet services by leveraging their current OSS and SONET infrastructures.

The recent teamwork also demonstrates the individual commitments from Telcordia and CIENA to work in partnership with industry leaders to advance the transformation of the telecommunications sector by introducing open, standards-based technologies that extend the value of carriers' existing network investments and support easy integration with other internally developed or third-party applications.