Ciena® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Verizon Business is delivering its first highly-resilient mesh network based on Ciena CoreDirector® Multiservice Optical Switches across its terrestrial and undersea cable network to offer unsurpassed reliability to multinational business and government customers. The intelligent trans-Atlantic network features the most advanced service protection technology available, enabling Verizon Business to maximize service availability and ensure delivery of customers’ mission-critical voice and data traffic between Europe and the U.S.

Unlike in legacy SONET/SDH networks, protection in an intelligent CoreDirector mesh network is shared across multiple “working” routes using Ciena’s unique FastMesh™ restoration technology that can dynamically reroute services around failures using available bandwidth anywhere in the network. In addition, CoreDirector supports multiple classes of service that map service levels to network resources by combining protection and restoration with routing and signaling intelligence so services can be delivered over the route with the appropriate level of protection and lowest cost. This combination of fully-automated restoration and resiliency provides Verizon Business with a flexible network foundation to customize services to the requirements of specific customers and drive incremental revenue opportunities.

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a leading provider of advanced communications and information technology (IT) solutions to large business and government customers worldwide. It owns and operates one of the most expansive IP backbone networks in the world, spanning six continents and more than 446,000 route miles. The Atlantic network is one of the largest and most route-diverse based on its six-way mesh design, which Verizon Business plans to expand in 2007 with a seventh trans-Atlantic path and additional terrestrial nodes. The Atlantic mesh network went live last summer and is supporting revenue-generating customers.

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