Integrated telecommunications company Alaska Communications Systems (News - Alert) (ACS) said that it has selected Nortel to provide a 40G optical network for the terrestrial portion of an undersea fiber-optic cable from Alaska to Oregon.

 

This network allows ACS (News - Alert) to deliver end-to-end communications solutions for enterprise and mass market customers who require connectivity between Alaska and the lower 48 states.

 

Philippe Morin, president of Metro Ethernet Networks at Nortel (News - Alert), said that like consumers all over the world, ACS customers want to run bandwidth-intensive applications like Internet video, social networking sites, and advanced business services.

 

He said that Nortel's 40G/100G solution allows ACS to cost-effectively deliver the capacity to meet these needs in a “unique” geographic environment, over various qualities of fiber and across long distances.

 

Nortel's 40G/100G is a technology platform that enables both 40Gbps and 100Gbps transmission existing infrastructures, increasing capacity 4- and 10-fold respectively, without network re-engineering, according to Nortel.

 

An optical technology, it can deliver both 40G and 100G network capacity through 'plug and play' technology components added to existing 10G networks. Nortel's 40G/100G adaptive optical engine corrects changes in optical signals.

 

Company officials said that this type of technology is valuable for carriers such as ACS because there is no need to replace existing fiber or deploy different platforms depending on distance requirements.

 

“Nortel’s 40G solution allows us to quadruple our unit capacity while making no compromises on network performance, and will be key to helping us grow our business,” said Anand Vadapalli, senior vice president of network and IT at ACS, in a statement.

 

He indicated that with Nortel, his company is furthering the commitment to provide high bandwidth enterprise services, consistent with the plans to have the Alaska-Oregon network up and running by the end of 2008 and available for commercial service very early in 2009.

 

“Nortel's solution is compatible with our array of fiber types and distances, making it simple to add more bandwidth while continuing to offer reliable service to our customers,” said Vadapalli. He also said that this is the first deployment of 40G technology in Alaska.

Morin added that ACS is using their existing 10G network with only minor upgrades from Nortel to deliver a high-bandwidth 40G solution that easily supports the new capabilities customers want.

 

The ACS optical network solution includes the Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 convergence platform and the common photonic layer (CPL) line system. This network solution allows service providers to deliver high-bandwidth broadband services.

 

Nortel optical network manager is expected to provide the required operations administration and management for the network. And, also together with advanced network planning tools, it will provide the ability to build and operate the network and management of services.