Ciena has announced that its 100G coherent optical solution was awarded top honors at the Broadband InfoVision Awards. During a special gala dinner at the Broadband World Forum in Paris, Ciena's market-leading technology led the awards category of Core & Metro Network Innovation and Advances.

Ciena's 100G coherent optical solution, singled out from five nominees in its category, enables operators to increase the bandwidth of existing 10G and 40G fiber infrastructure by 10 and 2.5 times, respectively, through simple plug-and-play technology components without the need to re-engineer the network or deploy new equipment.

"With more and more people consuming services delivered via IP, the networks that power them are increasingly pushed to the limits," said Tom Mock, senior vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Ciena. "Ciena's 100G solution effectively enables the capacity of these networks to increase tremendously, helping to clear the network 'highways' of congestion even before the jams start. We are delighted to receive this prestigious recognition, which is a testament to the innovation and vision of our research and development teams."

Gavin Whitechurch, director at Broadband World Forum, commented: "The Broadband InfoVision Awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate excellence in the broadband industry. The standard of entries was very high with more than 145 entries and the judges had some tough choices to make to select this year's winners. I'd like to congratulate Ciena on winning the Core & Metro Network Innovation and Advances Award."

To create the winning 100G coherent optical solution, Ciena's research and development teams built a world-leading set of technologies for high-speed, high-capacity networking. The advanced work leverages the world's first optical coherent receiver, innovative use of wireless-inspired modulation schemes, the power of digital signal processing and advanced digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, and high-performance forward error correction. Since the technology's inception, Ciena has deployed the commercial solution in Verizon's European network, where it has operated with solid performance for nearly a year, and completed more than 15 trials with network operators around the world.

The Broadband InfoVision Awards are one of the industry's most renowned award programs with judges drawn from senior personnel at the world's leading operators, such as China Telecom, AT&T, Orange, PCCW, Etisalat, Telstra, Telus, Korea Telekom and Deutsche Telekom.