Sprint, Cisco and Ciena to implement 40-Gbps circuits on the Global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network

17 July 2008

Mumbai: American firms, Sprint, Cisco and Ciena today announced that they are implementing 40-gigabits-per-second (Gbps) network capabilities on the Global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network using a technology called Internet Protocol over dense wavelength-division multiplexing, or IPoDWDM for short.

The implementation supports the needs of Sprint customers who are looking to adopt next-generation services, grow their businesses and enable their employees to conduct day-to-day tasks, simply and immediately.

Today's announcement builds upon Sprint's existing deployment of the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, whichthe two had uswed to conduct the first 40-Gbps technology trial with live-production traffic in 2004. Sprint began deploying them in its IP core network in 2006. Today, Sprint CRS-1 routers are deployed in more than 25 US cities, and Sprint is working to ensure this leading-edge infrastructure technology is enabled domestically and internationally.

Sprint is further enhancing its network by deploying 40-Gbps circuits and expanding available capacity for its customers. Earlier this year, Sprint completed final testing of the 40-Gbps IPoDWDM technology and enabled their first production 40-Gbps circuit. This converged solution used the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System with built-in transponders along with Ciena's CoreStream Agility platform to transport the wavelength across the fiber-optic network. To date, several 40-Gbps circuits have been deployed, and those are carrying commercial IP-based services.

"Sprint's network capabilities support the growing use of the Internet, as well as the growth we are seeing with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) services - and our efforts to effectively migrate customers from legacy technologies to SprintLink IP and Global MPLS platforms," said Kathy Walker, chief information and network officer for Sprint. "Deployment of 40-Gbps circuits throughout our IP core enables next-generation data, voice and video applications and allows Sprint to scale its IP network to address customer needs, as IP increasingly becomes the basis of communications services."

As a long-standing customer of multiple Ciena platforms, Sprint began deploying CoreStream, with its 100G-ready scalable capacity and flexible design, in its Tier 1 IP backbone in 2000 and has more than 1,000 nodes deployed across its network today.