Ciena scores Fermi win

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has selected a Ciena platform to enable it to connect to a research facility at Northwestern University.

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will deploy Ciena's Online Metro Multiservice Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) Platform. DWDM is a type of intelligent optical networking technology.

The Online Metro implementation’s 10 gigabit speeds will allow the lab to connect to the Science Technology and Research Light-Illuminated Gigabit High-Performance Transit facility on the Chicago campus of Northwestern University.

The increased bandwidth supports the lab’s high-energy physics research and collaboration among scientists on a global scale, said Al Thomas, an optical network specialist at the lab.

Ciena created a government subsidiary in June to strengthen the company's marketing efforts to federal agencies. The company has recently been connecting facilities to the Energy Department’s UltraScience Network, which is intended to aid in the development and testing of technologies for future advanced networks.