Asia Netcom, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Netcom (CN), is working with Lucent Technologies (LU) to supply a next-generation optical communications platform needed to upgrade its pan-Asian submarine cable network, known as EAC.
Lucent will replace EAC's existing platform with the Lucent LambdaUnite Multi-Service Switch (MSS).
The new platform will dramatically enhance Asia Netcom's ability to deliver next-generation bandwidth services with a variety of advanced transport and connectivity services in the Asia Pacific region, enabling Asia Netcom to differentiate its offerings from those of competitors.
"The telecommunications business continues to evolve at an accelerating pace with the increased adoption of broadband in the region, and the emergence of applications such as IPTV, online gaming, third-generation (3G) and other broadband wireless access technologies entering the mainstream," said Wilfred Kwan, Asia Netcom's Chief Technology Officer. "Many of these new applications and services require real-time, high-performance bandwidth that traditional service providers can't deliver — a new generation of service providers, with new capabilities and service features is required."
Kwan added: "That is why we launched this network upgrade initiative following a thorough evaluation process. The new platform will not only enable us to meet the changing bandwidth requirements in the market place, but also dramatically improve service provisioning and operational efficiency."
With the LambdaUnite MSS platform and its support for ASON (Automatically Switched Optical Networks)/GMPLS (Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) technology, Asia Netcom will be able to adopt a meshed, network architecture on the optical layer, and offer a wide variety of "Class-of-Service" options as part of its optical transport services. At the same time, the LambdaUnite MSS platform's enhanced management system gives Asia Netcom full control of all network elements, resulting in seamless service provisioning and network management of EAC.