Genuity Completes All-Optical Network Segment

Genuity Inc. [GENU] has completed the first segment of an advanced network deployment that delivers what it claims to be the longest-reach, highest-speed networking performance available today, while providing significant cost-savings and increased network efficiency.

Genuity has activated a network segment carrying high-speed IP traffic directly over Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM). This use of 10 Gbps IP traffic running directly over fiber uses Juniper Networks routers and the Nortel Networks' OPTera ultra-long-reach optics.

Genuity completed this high-speed networking segment on its next-generation optical backbone between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, GA. The successful implementation demonstrates 10 Gbps (OC-192c) Internet traffic running directly over DWDM using Juniper Networks M160 Internet backbone routers and the Nortel Networks' OPTera LH-4000 Optical Line System. The route was established with no electrical regeneration of the 10 Gbps optical signal along the 1480-kilometer path.

"Moving up to full-line-rate 10 Gbps trunks using the Juniper Networks routers on our AS1 IP backbone, and the ability to support multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths using Nortel's optical platform will make unprecedented Internet bandwidth available to our enterprise and ISP customers," said Steven H. Blumenthal, Genuity senior vice president of engineering and technology. "Our ability to drive traffic nearly 1500 kilometers without optical-to-electrical-to-optical signal regeneration along the route will significantly reduce our operating costs. By deploying this new technology, Genuity will be shifting away from IP/SONET ring-based network architecture to optically protected IP/DWDM mesh network, which will further improve our network cost position."

Edited by Evan Bass
Managing Editor, Fiber Optics Online