O2 beefs up its UK backbone with 100G plaform from Ciena

Ciena has notched up another customer win for its 6500 packet-optical platform: O2, the commercial brand of Telefónica UK Limited, which plans to build a new high-speed nationwide network throughout the United Kingdom.

This new backbone network will connect major UK cities, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Liverpool, and enable O2 to deliver web-scale services to support massive growth in data centre and network virtualisation demands.

With this scalable 100G network, O2 will have more flexibility in how the network is controlled and configured and can satisfy growing yet unpredictable demands for high-bandwidth mobile, video and cloud services.

Brendan O’Reilly, CTO, O2, said: “By selecting Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform and unified management solutions we will ensure that we have a high-speed and scalable network that can meet our customers’ demands and provide the foundation needed for high-bandwidth consuming services.”

This new network will accommodate several terabits of traffic in O2’s backbone and, at the same time, respond dynamically to any changes in demand. The ROADM-based network also provides flexible, low-latency connectivity helping to ensure a superior end-user experience.

Additionally, O2 is deploying the 6500 platform equipped with packet switch modules, which enable seamless integration of packet and optical technologies to reduce total cost of operation and time-to-market for new services.

Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System will provide O2 with comprehensive service visualisation and network diagnostics, resulting in the efficient use of critical network assets and bandwidth optimisation. O2 is also using a range of professional services via Ciena Specialist Services, including network planning, installation and turn-up services.