Case Study: Alabama Fiber Network expands middle-mile broadband with Ciena

Alabama Fiber Network Chooses Ciena for the Middle Mile

Alabama Fiber Network (AFN), a coalition of eight rural electric cooperatives, faced the challenge of expanding a robust, scalable, and affordable open access middle-mile network to unserved and underserved areas across the state. To build this critical infrastructure spanning over 5,000 miles, AFN chose Ciena as its optical networking vendor. The project leveraged Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Nano 400G coherent pluggable transceivers and the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System.

By implementing Ciena’s solution, AFN gained the ability to minimize the cost and power per bit for transporting broadband traffic, even over long distances, while eliminating expensive signal regeneration. The deployment also included Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite for simplified management and Ciena Services for a full turnkey implementation. As a result, Ciena’s technology is providing last-mile providers with the scalable bandwidth required to bring high-speed connectivity to residents, helping to narrow the digital divide in Alabama.

Alabama Fiber Network

Terry Metze

Chief Executive Officer