CenturyLink was recognized by the Metro Ethernet Forum for providing carrier Ethernet services to Monroe City Schools in Louisiana using Cyan's technology. The network built by CenturyLink using Cyan's Z-Series packet-optical platforms and Blue Planet SDN software provided each of Monroe's 20+ schools with dedicated gigabit Ethernet connections in a redundant hub-and-spoke topology. This allowed Monroe City Schools to create a consolidated and resilient Ethernet infrastructure across their network. CenturyLink and Cyan partnered to address Monroe's needs in a cost-effective way that provides a platform for future growth.

1. Cyan Customer CenturyLink Wins MEF Carrier Ethernet Award
Petaluma, CA – Dec 12, 2012 – Cyan today announced that its customer CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL)
has been recognized by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) for the “Best Carrier Ethernet Business
Application” for the education vertical. The award, which was presented at Light Reading’s Ethernet
Expo in New York, was granted for services CenturyLink developed with Cyan for Monroe City Schools in
Monroe, Louisiana. Thanks to CenturyLink’s efforts, Monroe City Schools dramatically advanced the
student population’s learning environment with increased per-school bandwidth, improved reliability,
enhanced productivity, and reduced capital and operating expenses.
CenturyLink built a carrier Ethernet E-Line network to backhaul voice, video, and data traffic from more
than 20 schools to Monroe City Schools’ central office in a fully-redundant, logical hub-and-spoke
topology over optical fiber rings. Each school was provided with a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet connection
using a design based on layer two connection-oriented Ethernet (COE) to ensure deterministic
bandwidth and guaranteed service quality with multiple classes of service. This architecture allowed
Monroe City Schools to create a consolidated, and highly resilient Ethernet-based LAN and WAN
infrastructure for managing all traffic on the network.
According to Stuart Keyes, director of CLEC sales at
CenturyLink, “This is truly a partnership between
Monroe City Schools, CenturyLink, and Cyan. The
Cyan solution gives us the ability to cost effectively
and precisely satisfy the requirements that Monroe
City Schools set forth, and also provides a platform
allowing them to more easily scale their network
and add more capabilities to build a stronger
foundation for the future of education and the
community of Monroe.”
CenturyLink employs the MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 (CE 2.0) compliant Cyan Z-Series packet-optical
transport platform (P-OTP) to deliver COE services over optical fiber to the schools throughout Monroe.
In order to streamline management and control over the entire network, CenturyLink uses Cyan Blue
Planet, a software defined network (SDN) system that allows CenturyLink to customize services using its
own or third-party applications.
According to Keith Broach, vice president of sales for Cyan, “CenturyLink has demonstrated the
willingness and the ability to deliver feature-rich Ethernet services to the market. It has been a pleasure
to partner with CenturyLink to address the needs of Monroe City Schools and a number of other
customers. The recognition by the MEF is both exciting and well deserved.
About Cyan
Cyan (NYSE: CYNI) enables network transformation. The company’s software-defined network (SDN)
solutions deliver orchestration, agility, and scale to networks, that until now, have been static and
hardware driven. Serving carriers, enterprises, governments, and data centers globally, Cyan’s open

2. platforms provide multi-vendor, multi-layer control and visibility to network operators, making service
delivery more efficient and profitable. Cyan solutions include the award-winning Blue Planet SDN
software and N-Series hyperscale and Z-Series packet-optical hardware platforms. For more
information, please visit www.cyaninc.com or follow Cyan on Twitter at twitter.com/CyanNews.
For Cyan inquiries, please contact:
Joe Cumello
+1 410.227.7487 | joe.cumello@cyaninc.com | @JCumello
Merritt Group for Cyan
Melissa Chadwick
+1 571.382.8513 | chadwick@merrittgrp.com