Telenet taps Ciena to light up network upgrade across Belgium

Looking to a programmable infrastructure to deliver 400G connectivity that will support growth in high-bandwidth services, Liberty Global company Telenet is deploying optical and network management solutions to support its network expansion across Belgium.

The largest provider of cable broadband services in Belgium, supporting almost five million subscribers, Telenet specialises in the supply of broadband internet, fixed and mobile telephony services and cable television to customers throughout Flanders, Brussels and parts of Wallonia, over a hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) network. It also supplies professional communication services to businesses in Belgium and Luxembourg, and its BASE brand supplies mobile services throughout Belgium.

Ciena is upgrading Telenet’s optical network, which connects consumers and businesses in metro areas, with a suite of solutions, including WaveLogic 5 Nano (WL5n) which provides 400G connectivity, while delivering what are claimed to be significant power, space and operational efficiencies. The 400G QSFP-DD coherent pluggable transceivers offer support of higher-performance, interoperable transmission to deliver 400G connectivity across all links in the network.

In addition, Ciena’s Waveserver 5 interconnect platform is being deployed to enable Telenet to scale the network in the future as needed. It offers support for multiple generations of coherent technology, along with 100GbE and 400GbE applications in a compact footprint.

Other solutions being deployed include the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), a photonic layer solution with built-in instrumentation and automation tools to ensure maximum fibre capacity while enabling faster, simpler, line system deployment; and the Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller, for managing and automating the network throughout its entire operational lifecycle. Telenet is also using Ciena’s PinPoint app to ensure network availability by isolating and troubleshooting fibre faults.

Telenet regards the network upgrade as not just about adding more capacity, but also creating a more energy-efficient and sustainable network, with the Ciena technology delivering significant efficiency upgrades and therefore enabling power savings, making the network more cost-effective and sustainable to run.

The deployment, starting in January 2024, is also seen as a significant step in enabling Telenet to improve its customer experience and support growing demand, while also making the network simpler.

“Ciena has taken a lot of time to fully understand the requirements for our next-generation network and how it can support our customers for decades to come,” said Luk Bruynseels, chief product and technology officer at Telenet. “During a rigorous selection process, it became clear that Ciena was able to offer us everything we needed to upgrade our network and provide high-capacity and bandwidth capabilities, underpinned by intelligent network management.”