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Comcast to Conduct First Live 100G Network Trial with Nortel Optical Solution


WEBWIRE

Comcast Hosts IETF Meeting Where 100G Test to be Conducted

PHILADELPHIA – Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communications, is testing a 100 Gigabit/sec optical solution from Nortel* (NYSE/TSX: NT). Comcast** is conducting this test at the 71st meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference which it is hosting in Philadelphia.

Comcast’s network trial will be first time real traffic is run over a 100G wavelength on its existing network that is also carrying live 10G and 40G links. The trial will run in parallel over the same optical infrastructure that supports a combination of high definition or HD video, Internet and voice traffic on Comcast’s 40G national backbone network. Nortel’s 100G solution, based on the Nortel 100G Adaptive Optical Engine, is designed to operate with comparable performance to today’s networks, enabling operators to dramatically increase capacity.

“Testing an interoperable multi-vendor 100G solution will help provide us with important information about how new solutions will support a next generation of high-bandwidth services for the digital generation of consumers,” said John Schanz, EVP National Engineering and Technical Operations for Comcast. “As we continue to expand our cross-platform video, voice and data services, we need these types of innovative technologies from vendors like Nortel to support the rapid growth of new applications and services that run over our network.”

“Comcast is testing the very future of networking with this 100G network trial. We can only imagine what new innovations may be sparked by the capabilities made possible with this technology,” said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. “Nortel has developed the most cost-effective 40G solution and is at the vanguard of delivering tomorrow’s 100G networks. This test by Comcast is a first step in the broader adoption of 100G. Built on Nortel’s 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine, the 100G solution requires no expensive network reengineering as it can use existing network elements, including in-ground fiber. More importantly, it sets the stage for the coming era of hyperconnectivity, where every device that should connect to the network will connect to the network.”

The 100G trial will run for the week of March 9th spanning the Comcast infrastructure from Philadelphia, PA to McLean, VA traversing Comcast’s metro and long-haul fibers. More than 1,200 of the world’s top Internet engineers are expected to attend this IETF meeting and make use of this high-speed network to access the Internet.

The 100G solution runs over Comcast’s existing fiber network. The network is comprised of Comcast’s existing Common Photonic Layer DWDM solution with 50GHz enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (eROADM) and photonic components, augmented with prototype 100G interfaces installed in Nortel’s Optical Multiservice Edge 6500. The 100G cards utilize Nortel’s 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine, with integrated dispersion compensation and dual-polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, the same technology used in Nortel’s present 40G solution.



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