HANOVER, Md. -- Today, Vodafone, one of the world's leading telecommunications groups, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, announced that it is deploying Ciena technology to make its transport network more flexible to support the demands of its business customers to be able to more quickly and flexibly access connectivity when needed. Vodafone has demonstrated the world’s first programmable infrastructure based on FlexEthernet, a flexible Ethernet client interface standard defined by the Optical Internetworking Forum, using Vodafone UK’s Red Stream network.

Eva Rossi, Head of Transport Product, Vodafone Group

We are continuously working to make our Transport network more flexible to support the desire of our business customers to be able to more quickly and flexibly access connectivity when needed.

In business, every second, and every euro, counts and in the future we want Vodafone customers to have the ability to instantly increase the amount of capacity they have for as long as they need it. This would be very useful if, for instance, a company is hosting an employee webinar or is launching a new digital product.

Working with Ciena, a telecom networking and software technology company that has been developing adaptive optical network technology, we demonstrated what we believe is the world’s first programmable infrastructure based on FlexEthernet, a flexible Ethernet client interface standard defined by the Optical Internetworking Forum, using Vodafone UK’s Red Stream network.

RedStream is Vodafone UK's IP-based converged core network. Consisting of more than 200 core sites connected by more than 11,000 km of optical fibre and with more than 1,000 Multi-Protocol label switching (MPLS) enabled aggregation nodes, the network provides converged connectivity for Vodafone’s mobile base stations, consumer broadband services and enterprise data and voice customers throughout the UK. Built on the latest photonic technology, it is future-proofed to meet the growing demand for bandwidth.

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN)