Ciena is introducing a much larger version of its 4200 multiservice transport platform this week. To the 2- and 4-slot versions of the 4200, Ciena is now adding a 16-slot version.

The new 4200 RS contains 96 ports per chassis. Carriers can link together up to 56 subtended units to build a platform capable of handling well over 5,000 services. With the quadrupling in size, the one-degree wavelength-selective switch (WSS) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) Ciena added to the 4200 a year ago becomes a four-degree ROADM in a box.

“The creation of the [16-slot] CN 4200 RS was driven by customer demand for a bigger, denser chassis,” said Steve Alexander, Ciena’s chief technology officer. “Large customers [were] stacking multiple CN 4200s at locations where they needed large channel counts to keep pace with services growth.”

The announcement comes a week after Ciena announced 40-Gb/s shelves for its 4200 and CoreStream Agility long-haul products.