Network specialist Ciena Corp (News - Alert). and its BizConnect Gold partner Axians, an independent IT systems integrator, have announced that colocation specialist NewTelco is offering their service provider customers new Ethernet connectivity services based on Ciena’s 5400 and 5305 Service Aggregation Switches.

The 5305 Ethernet/MPLS service aggregation switch is purpose-built for Carrier Ethernet to deliver cost-effective capacity, scalability, and resiliency. According to company officials, the 5400 Family offers a fully modular and reconfigurable switching platform, enabling practical transition to a converged OTN and Ethernet-based service-enabling infrastructure.

John-Paul Hemingway, vice-president and general manager for EMEA at Ciena, said that Axians has worked closely with NewTelco to select the most advanced, feature-rich technology for its future-proof Carrier Ethernet network.

As part of this process, “Ciena proved the excellence of its solution in a lab trial, demonstrating the superior functionality that will enable NewTelco to remain a value-added partner to its customers and stay ahead of the competition,” he said.

Replacing NewTelco’s current exchange network, Ciena's Carrier Ethernet Solutions are expected to enable it to offer transparent and flexible connectivity services to carrier customers as well as support higher service level agreements (SLAs).

Company officials said that their solution offers a secure virtual Ethernet switch architecture, allowing NewTelco to “effectively” support all of its carrier customers on a single platform. NewTelco expects to minimize the number of interfaces required by customers due to support of a wide range of services on a single platform.

Additionally, it’s expected that Ciena’s scalable, flexible and granular solution will enable NewTelco to cost-effectively meet customers’ evolving requirements, reducing CAPEX and OPEX (News - Alert) and enabling it to better compete in the carrier exchange business. Moreover, NewTelco plans to deploy Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System in order to rapidly deploy new services and efficiently manage its network.

“Ciena’s technology is powering NewTelco's position in the Ethernet Exchange industry by enabling us to tailor services to the specific requirements of each carrier customer and support higher, verifiable SLAs,” said Matthias Hartmann, managing director at NewTelco.

Recently, Ciena announced that its technology solutions will be used to drive improvements in the Sunset Digital network, a company that specializes in providing fiber-optic broadband connectivity

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