RENATER Builds Metropolitan Research & Education Network with Ciena.

CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform Deployed Across Paris MAN; Delivers 10 Gbps Capacity to Improve Research Collaboration

LINTHICUM, Md. -- Ciena([R]) Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that RENATER, the national research and education network in France, has deployed the CN 4200[TM] FlexSelect([TM]) Advanced Services Platform across the organization's new metropolitan area network (MAN) in Paris.

The new MAN optimizes the bandwidth available to research, technology and teaching institutes across the Paris region, providing 10 Gbps connections to aid local research and collaboration. Parisian universities and higher education institutions are linked to four points of presence either directly or through aggregated regional and metropolitan networks deployed by local authorities. With on-demand programmable optical ports that support any service and any speed up to 10 Gbps, Ciena's CN 4200 enables local institutions to collaborate with more than 800 organizations across France that are linked to RENATER, as well other global research and education networks through the pan-European GEANT infrastructure.

"Key consortiums in the research and education sector, such as RENATER, are increasingly recognizing the additional value they can provide their member organizations by developing and expanding their own networks for more flexibility, greater capacity, higher bandwidth and support for advanced services," explains Eric Sele, Ciena's general manager for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "With that focus on improving quality of service to user communities, these organizations look to Ciena - and our demonstrated expertise with the research and education community as well as our leading innovation in multiservice convergence - to enable the flexibility and high-performance Ethernet capabilities required to deliver on the promise of true next-generation networks."

Following a rigorous public procurement process involving several leading vendors, RENATER selected Ciena's CN 4200 platform for its flexibility, high reliability and simplified network management capabilities. Previously, RENATER leased its Paris metropolitan area network from a managed service provider.

The CN 4200 is the flagship platform of Ciena's FlexSelect Architecture, a standards-based, service-oriented approach to building next-generation network infrastructures. The CN 4200 is the industry's first platform to offer a universal line card with individual user-programmable ports, providing transport for any protocol at any speed on any available port. The standards-based architecture provides RENATER a multiservice aggregation and DWDM transport solution capable of on-demand support for multiple service types over bandwidth that can be provisioned to fit network requirements. In addition, CN 4200 provides operator-grade fault monitoring, detection and management capability, which provides RENATER the same network reliability and service availability for its Ethernet services that it received from its previous private line managed service.

The partnership with RENATER builds on Ciena's success in deploying flexible, high-bandwidth optical networks with research and education institutions worldwide. With support for dynamic provisioning of high-bandwidth connectivity, Ciena's platforms are ideal for enabling computing-intensive research between geographically separate locations in support of supercomputing applications, cluster processing and transfers of large data sets, often in excess of one terabyte. Ciena's expertise has been leveraged in several advanced research networks across the globe, including the U.S. Department of Defense's GIG-BE (Global Information Grid Bandwidth Expansion) project, the U.S. Department of Energy's UltraScience Net, Internet2 and several university-related networks.

For additional information on Ciena's government solutions and support in the research and education community, please visit http://www.ciena.com/government.

About RENATER

The RENATER (http://www.renater.fr/spip.php?article70) network is a national infrastructure with territorial links to French overseas departments and territories, and international links with global research networks. Today more than 800 establishments with activities in the sectors of research, technology and teaching are linked to RENATER. The network enables these establishments to communicate between themselves as well as access research centres and teaching organisations worldwide through the Internet. For more information, visit www.renater.fr.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation is the network specialist, focused on expanding the possibilities for its customers' networks while reducing their cost of ownership. The Company's systems, software and services target and cure specific network pain points so that telcos, cable operators, governments and enterprises can best exploit the new applications that are driving their businesses forward. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

Note to Ciena Investors

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10, 2007. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.