Chile's National Research and Education Network Taps Coriant to Modernize DWDM Backbone

Coriant, a supplier of packet optical, IP, and SDN solutions to Tier 1 global service providers and web-scale Internet operators, has announced that the National Research and Education Network in Chile (REUNA), has selected the Coriant® hiT 7300 Multi-Haul Transport Platform equipped with Coriant CloudWave™ Optics to modernize its nationwide DWDM backbone network.

The Coriant solution, delivered in collaboration with Coriant’s education solutions partner Grupo Binário and local telecommunications systems integrator Raylex, will enable REUNA to scale transmission up to multiples of 200G optical channels to support the increasing capacity demands of research and education applications and ensure the efficient, low latency transfer of massive quantities of data between network locations.

As the National Research and Education Network (NREN) in Chile, REUNA is dedicated to the research, education, and scientific communities throughout the country, and interconnecting them with its partners around the world.

The REUNA backbone network today serves as many as 35 institutions including, among others, universities, research centers of excellence, and international astronomical groups. REUNA’s strategic collaborations include connectivity projects for the AURA Observatory, with whom they have partnered to implement a photonic superhighway which will transport the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) data, one of the most advanced infrastructures for science and education in Chile that enables high-speed communications between research facilities located near La Serena and the Chilean capital of Santiago.

"We continue to advance the capabilities of our network infrastructure to support the high-bandwidth communication needs of today’s national science, research, and higher education applications,” said Sandra Jaque, Head of Technology, REUNA. “We chose Coriant not only for the superior performance of its coherent optical transport system, but also the proven scalability and flexibility of the solution that will enable us to easily and cost-efficiently adapt to the evolving capacity demands of our end-users while delivering a superior customer experience."

Leveraging state-of-the-art advances in optical networking, including power-efficient coherent interface technology, flexi-rate transmission, and flexi-grid ROADM capabilities, the new DWDM network upgrade will provide REUNA the ability to deliver more flexible and resilient high-speed services while optimizing its optical backbone network for best-in-class spectral efficiency, terabit-level scalability, and programmable and automated end-to-end service activation. The network upgrade project, which is in its deployment phase, will further advance REUNA’s ability to facilitate the development of the research and education among REUNA member institutions, as well as between their peers, both nationally and internationally.

"The interconnection of NRENs is fundamental to boosting the quality and velocity of research from universities and scientific communities," said Cleber Calegari, Director for Education Vertical, Grupo Binário. "REUNA is taking an important step toward interconnection of NRENs in Latin America through a scalable and high capacity optical network."

"The big data applications driving cutting-edge advances in research and education are placing unprecedented demand on underlying high-speed infrastructure networks," said Alberto Barriento, Managing Director, Caribbean and Latin America, Coriant. "We are pleased to partner with Raylex and Grupo Binário to take REUNA's DWDM network to a new level of performance and scalability with best-in-class optical transmission technology optimized for robust computing, simulation, visualization, and other high-speed e-science applications."

Proven in the most demanding optical networks around the world, the hiT 7300 is an industry-leading coherent optical communications system designed to support up to 25.6 Tbps when using advanced flexi-rate, flexi-grid, and super-channel capabilities powered by Coriant CloudWave™ Optics, a key photonic layer technology that combines a leading signal processing engine, optimized integrated photonics, and embedded software intelligence.

With fast and efficient resiliency options and best-in-class optical link control, the hiT 7300 solution delivers optimized optical reach and performance in diverse transmission applications, even under the most challenging fiber optic conditions.

Management of REUNA's DWDM network will be supported by the Coriant® Transport Network Management System (TNMS), an end-to-end management solution that will enable REUNA to accelerate provisioning of high-speed services while reducing operating expenses.