Salt River Project increases network capacity and efficiency with Ciena

HANOVER, USA: Salt River Project (SRP), an Arizona public power utility and water supplier, will modernize its backbone network with Ciena Corp.'s converged packet optical platform to improve network resiliency, reduce costs, and increase capacity.

This upgrade will enable SRP to support the surging demand for high-bandwidth services driven by supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), grid automation and storage traffic.

In addition, SRP's network will be able to support more dynamic applications, such as smart meters and substation automation, to enable real-time information monitoring and control, and provide increased electric-system reliability, improved power quality and faster service restoration capabilities.

The SRP power district is one of the nation's largest public power utilities, providing electricity to more than 990,000 retail customers in a 2,900-square-mile service area that spans three Arizona counties, including the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

SRP is deploying Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical platform equipped with WaveLogic Coherent Optical Processors and integrated switching capabilities. Architected for network modernization, the 6500 converges Ethernet, TDM, and WDM capabilities into one platform. The 6500 helps to reduce costs for operators by decreasing operations and maintenance expenses and enabling network consolidation, while supporting legacy functions.

This network enhancement and adoption of Ciena's OPⁿ architecture gives SRP a more secure and resilient network that is automated, connected and intelligent.