Cox Communications has deployed Ciena’s CoreDirector Multiservice Optical Switches in the superheadend of its San Diego system.

In so doing, Cox became the first MSO to employ Ciena’s CoreDirector. Cox has been a customer for Ciena optical Ethernet equipment in the past.

Ciena explained its equipment represented the easiest and least expensive way for Cox to connect two of its metro rings, each transporting multiple 10 Gbps circuits over DWDM. Cox’s alternative, Ciena said, was installing multiple switching and cross-connect products, as well as an expansion of its superheadend building to accommodate the new equipment.

Using Ciena’s CoreDirector further allowed Cox to remove several bays of legacy cross-connect equipment and associated patch cables, eliminated the need to expand the building, and reduced power consumption, while creating room for subsequent expansion.

“Our growing capacity requirements made the ring interconnection a natural decision point for our core metro infrastructure. After evaluating the options, CoreDirector clearly delivered the best solution from all perspectives – cost, functionality, performance and operational simplicity,” said David Vaughn, engineering manager for Cox San Diego. “More importantly, CoreDirector provides SONET and Ethernet services flexibility and intelligent automation for load balancing, provisioning and cross-connecting traffic between the two rings.”