Astound Business Solutions, which functions as a nationwide provider of high-capacity and secure connectivity for business customers, launched its 400G Wavelength commercial service. This release specifically leverages Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) 800G and WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) 400G coherent optics, allowing it to deliver the massive capacity that is required by large carriers, enterprises and public sector organizations.
Astound’s nationwide fiber-optic network covers over 41,000 route miles and 100+ data centers across the U.S., extending connectivity to more than 75,000 business customers.
“One of the main drivers of 400G wavelength service adoption is the need for greater connectivity speeds between multiple locations and meeting the demand of these higher-speed requirements in sites like data centers,” said Patrick Knorr, CCO, Astound Business Solutions. “With 400G Wavelength that is powered by Ciena optical technology, we provide dedicated low-latency, point-to-point bandwidth to common carrier points-of-presence and hyperscaler locations.”
“Businesses of all sizes have made it clear that they need faster speeds now more than ever, and this new offering makes 400G service available to Astound Business Solutions’ customers from coast to coast,” said Ciena CTO, Americas, Kevin Sheehan. “While these businesses can benefit from localized capacity upgrades, Astound’s offering also boosts connectivity to 100-plus data centers within its network footprint, providing a direct link to the cloud.”
Astound is also deploying Ciena’s Waveserver 5 interconnect platform, powered by WL5e 800G performance-optimized coherent optics or WL5n 400G coherent pluggables, to deliver 400G connectivity across all network links. The telco also leverages Ciena’s flexible 6500 ROADM photonic layer for resiliency and scalability, as well as its Navigator Network Control Suite (Navigator NCS) for multi-layer visibility and simplified network management. Crucially, Astound is building out its network using Navigator’s PlannerPlus and Emulation Cloud, which provides online network planning and design tools, in addition to an open environment for integration testing with operational support systems.
“This enables us to deploy the right coherent technology for any distance at the lowest power and cost—whether that’s Ciena’s WL5e for longer-reach links or its WL5n for shorter ones,” said Knorr. “Thanks to Navigator NCS, we can do the calculations well before any hardware is deployed.”
For more on Astound partner opportunities, click here. For more on Ciena’s partner network ecosystem, visit here.
