Bharti Airtel join hands with Ciena to provide super-fast data over 4G, 5G, and FTTH

India's second largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has joined hands with Ciena to deploy the latter's coherent optical and intelligent software platforms to build one of the largest Photonic Control Plane networks in India.

Airtel's new backbone network will serve the exploding demand for high-speed data services, Airtel said adding that it would also enable super-fast broadband experiences over 4G/5G/FTTH architectures, making the most efficient use of available fiber resources.

"This will not only scale our network for massive capacity but also protect traffic and enhance service delivery to all our customers. It will also help Airtel further strengthen its position as a key enabler of digital experiences in an increasingly connected world," Randeep Sekhon, CTO - Bharti Airtel said.

The new backbone architecture creates a solid foundation that can cut across technology generations to seamlessly work with data rates of 400Gbps and higher to create a future proof scalable network.

Photonics combined with advanced software intelligence enables a smart and agile network that allows for simplified provisioning of end-to-end network wavelengths, speed, and capability to handle multiple fiber failures.

Ryan Perera, Vice President, and General Manager, Ciena India said: "Airtel has an established reputation for embracing innovative technology to enrich the lives of its subscribers. The combination of Ciena's coherent optical, advanced software and control plane capabilities gives Bharti a scalable and robust infrastructure that can dynamically adapt to keep up with ever-changing user demands."

The network will also support bandwidth on demand, optical VPNs, latency based routing and dynamic data center interconnect, which will provide a unique value proposition for Airtel's retail and enterprise customers.

The deployment is part of Project Leap - Airtel's network transformation program and will also enable a network that can quickly respond to simultaneous faults by re-computing and re-routing traffic based on available network resources.