TDF partners with Ciena

TDF, continental Europe’s biggest owner of broadcast and telecoms masts, and Ciena® have announced TDF has deployed Ciena’s optical solutions to provide 100G capabilities to its customers. This will allow TDF to address the need for increased bandwidth for its customers that are interested in high speed and low latency connectivity.

Already available to customers, the outstanding performances on TDF’s networks have proven to be a commercial success, particularly in Bordeaux where TDF opened its first data center in May 2013. TDF can also leverage Ciena’s converged packet optical platform to expand its network and provide service to new verticals – including IT, healthcare, telecom and government industries – and further strengthen its position in the media space, by fully addressing its specific demand in capacity, speed and power.

Ciena’s expertise in network modernization combined with the strong partnership between the two companies will enable TDF, a Ciena BizConnect partner, to continue developing new services in line with users’ needs, such as very high speed and low latency connectivity and data center interconnection.

TDF provides radio and television transmission services, and other multimedia services, such as digitization of content, encoding and storage. TDF’s connectivity solutions address the needs of telecom operators, IT service providers and institutions, in addition to healthcare and finance organisations.

TDF’s high-capacity network, stretching 4,200 kilometres, is connected to data centers in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Aix-Marseille and Rennes, and will increase its reach in France to 5,000 kilometres by the end of 2014. The performance of the new network was tested and approved on a long-haul transmission network from Bordeaux to Marseille (via Paris), which covered 1,800 kilometres in France, without needing regeneration. With this deployment, TDF is now positioned as a key player in the French digital economy.

The network will be powered by Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with third generation WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors and integrated packet switching capabilities. TDF will also leverage Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System, for unified and simplified low-touch service management. OneControl also enables rapid service delivery, comprehensive transparent service visualization, and network monitoring and diagnostics.

With this technology and adoption of Ciena’s OPn architecture approach, TDF will benefit from an extremely robust and efficient network that can easily scale to address all the diverse service requirements for its enterprise customers.

Additionally, TDF will deploy Ciena's digital video transport solution to offer users the ability to transport high-quality video content over its network.

TDF is also leveraging Ciena’s GeoAnalytics consulting service that uses enterprise databases and analytics to give service providers strategic business insight to help grow their business efficiently and profitably. TDF will use this for customer identification by geography, vertical market targeting, and lead generation activities.