specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Ciena
providerId: ciena
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: false
tags:
  - MEF
  - Network Management
  - Optical
  - SDN
  - Telecom
  - TM Forum
  - Rate Limiting
description: Ciena's Blue Planet, MCP, and Emulation Cloud APIs are deployed in carrier networks and
  developer sandboxes rather than as a public multi-tenant SaaS, so rate limits are governed by
  deployment sizing rather than a published per-second cap. Practical throughput is bounded by the
  customer's installation footprint (number of MCP instances, Blue Planet microservice scale,
  underlying database) and any policy thresholds configured by the operator.
notes: No public per-second / per-minute rate-limit table is published. Carriers receive
  deployment-sizing guidance through Ciena product teams and professional services.
sources:
  - https://www.blueplanet.com/technology/open-apis.html
  - https://developer.blueplanet.com/
  - https://developer.ciena.com/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serverError: 500
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: Blue Planet API
    scope: deployment
    metric: varies
    limit: 'see Blue Planet sizing guide; not publicly documented'
    notes: Limits depend on the deployed Blue Planet microservice topology and the carrier's hardware
      footprint.
  - name: MCP REST / RESTCONF API
    scope: deployment
    metric: varies
    limit: 'see MCP admin guide; not publicly documented'
    notes: MCP applies session-level concurrency controls; numeric ceilings are deployment-sized.
  - name: Emulation Cloud (developer sandbox)
    scope: developer-account
    metric: varies
    limit: 'developer-account fair-use; not publicly documented'
    notes: Sandbox is for evaluation only; no SLA on rate or availability.
policies:
  - name: Backoff Strategy
    description: On 429 / 5xx, retry with exponential backoff and jitter; honor Retry-After when
      present.
  - name: Sizing-Based Throughput
    description: Increase practical throughput by scaling Blue Planet microservices or MCP instances
      rather than expecting cloud-style elastic limits.
  - name: Sandbox Fair Use
    description: Emulation Cloud sandboxes are shared developer environments — avoid load-test
      patterns that would impact other developers.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com