CenturyLink, RAD, Ciena, and Ciena’s Blue Planet Division Earn Proof of Concept Excellence Award at MEF 16

Monroe, LA - CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL), RAD, Ciena®, and Ciena’s Blue Planet® division recently won the Third Network Proof of Concept Excellence Award at the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) 2016 Global Networking event.

The Proof of Concept (PoC), titled “Multi-Vendor Service Orchestration Using Open APIs for Service Activation, Performance Monitoring and NFV,” was built on CenturyLink’s network and demonstrated the tangible benefits associated with multi-vendor automation using open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Software Defined Networking (SDN), and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)-based value-added services. CenturyLink’s initiative to build open APIs under the MEF Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) framework was a key component of this PoC. Those open APIs were developed, in collaboration with RAD and Ciena, to enable automated provisioning and the delivery of orchestrated services in a multi-vendor environment, providing solutions to many of the challenges IT managers face.

“We are honored to have received this award,” said Jack Pugaczewski, CenturyLink Distinguished Network Architect. “This PoC ran on CenturyLink’s real-world network environment bringing this solution several steps closer to deployment and demonstrating to customers that if they need multi-vendor orchestration within their environment, we can build it.”

The judging panel for the MEF 2016 Excellence Awards was comprised of global and regional senior analysts from ATLANTIC-ACM, Current Analysis, Frost & Sullivan, IHS Markit, Metanoia, Ovum, SDxCentral, and Vertical Systems, in addition to independent judges.

MEF 2016 is the global gathering of networking professionals enabling the future of agile, assured and orchestrated services. The MEF 2016 Excellence Awards program is the largest in the world focused on advanced Carrier Ethernet services and emerging Third Network services powered by CE 2.0, LSO, NFV and SDN networking technologies.

About CenturyLink
CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company enabling millions of customers to transform their businesses and their lives through innovative technology solutions. CenturyLink offers network and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting, and operates more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a robust 250,000-route-mile U.S. fiber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. Visit CenturyLink for more information.

About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a network strategy and technology company. We translate best-in-class technology into value through a high-touch, consultative business model – with a relentless drive to create exceptional experiences measured by outcomes. For updates on Ciena, follow us on Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com.