Tuesday Bytes: LightRiver, Infinera, Spectrum, Arelion, Liquid

Some pluggables news, a federal contracts partnership, a network upgrade, and some new metro fiber in Africa:

LightRiver and Infinera have teamed up for a multi-vendor interoperability demo of coherent pluggables. They have paired Infinera’s ICE-X technology and supporting software for pluggables with LightRiver’s netFLEX network software platform, demonstrating use of those pluggables across a range of third party devices. Those devices included Juniper routers operating over a Smartoptics open ROADM system and also a leading FTTX PON solution.

Spectrum Enterprise has a new partner lined up that will help it target more federal contracts. They have entered into a strategic partner agreement with AOC Connect LLC, while simultaneously also selling its own minority investment in Core Technologies to AOC. AOC Connect specializes in supporting the communications needs of federal agencies, and Spectrum hopes to leverage those capabilities to find new opportunities for its infrastructure.

Arelion is upgrading its global IP backbone with some new Cisco technology. They have deployed Cisco’s 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules, increasing capacity while cutting energy consumption and costs. The first example is over 675km between Stockholm and Copenhagen over a third party line system. Arelion is looking to further converge its IP and optical layers over time.

And over in Africa, Liquid Intelligent Technologies continues to invest in infrastructure in emerging markets. This week they have launched a metro fiber ring in Gaberone, the capital of and largest city in Botswana. The launch is phase one, and phase 2 will naturally be about adding additional connectivity. High speed fiber connectivity is one aspect of a broader strategic development plan in the country of 2.4M people.

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Categories: Federal contracts · Internet Backbones · Metro fiber · Telecom Equipment