Oct. 19, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Ciena^® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Cable & Wireless Panama has upgraded its nationwide backbone network using the family of CN 4200^® FlexSelect^® Advanced Services Platforms. The new network provides efficient transport for a variety of TDM and transparent Ethernet services using advanced Optical Transport Network (OTN) and software-programmable port technologies that maximize the operator’s flexibility for offering multiple services to its residential and enterprise customers.

Cable & Wireless Panama is the leading provider of mobile, broadband and fixed line services in Panama and a subsidiary of CWI Group, the London-based owner of telecommunications businesses in 38 countries. After a competitive review, Cable & Wireless Panama initially selected the CN 4200 for a specific application – a transport network that connects Ethernet-based security cameras mounted in streets and public areas throughout the metropolitan area for the Panama City police department. Based on the CN 4200’s multiservice capabilities, performance and operational flexibility in that initial application, Cable & Wireless Panama quickly realized the benefits could be leveraged across a broader set of backbone networking requirements throughout Panama.

“From video surveillance to IP services and submarine cable interconnection, our service portfolio goes well beyond the basic voice and data offerings of our competitors so we wanted a backbone network that had the flexibility to support a variety of customers and services,” said Jose R. Quintero, CTO at Cable & Wireless Panama. “After deploying the CN 4200 platforms for the video surveillance network and realizing the benefits of its advanced features, we quickly moved to expand the deployment to ensure an agile transport network throughout our serving area.”

Featuring multiple chassis sizes for deployment from the customer premises to the core of long haul regional networks, Ciena’s CN 4200 family of platforms feature full service transparency (bits going in equal bits coming out), performance monitoring for Ethernet and SONET/SDH services, industry-first software-programmable ports and scalability to true, single wavelength 100G capacity. Used in a variety of applications, the CN 4200 platforms have been deployed by service provider, government and enterprise customers worldwide.