Adtran, China Mobile and Windstream announce record field trials leveraging Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module 8

2023-03-09

Acacia Communications Inc of Maynard, MA, USA (now part of Cisco) — which develops and manufactures high-speed coherent optical interconnect products — has reported the results of three breakthrough live network trials showing ultra-long-haul, long-haul and regional distances recently completed by Adtran with NYSERNet, China Mobile with ZTE, and Windstream Wholesale, all leveraging Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8). As these trials demonstrate, the CIM 8 enables network operators to achieve the highest capacity and reach today while maximizing transmission data rate across a wide range of multi-haul network applications including DCI, metro, long-haul and subsea.

Adtran breaks record for single-carrier 800G long-haul transport

Adtran announced that it successfully completed a field trial of 800G single-carrier transport, achieving error-free transmission over a record distance of 2220km in NYSERNet’s production network. The test route passed through 14 route-and-select flexgrid ROADMs comprising a total of 28 wavelength-selective switches. Leveraging Acacia’s 140GBd DSP technology, this result was made possible by Adtran’s use of continuous symbol rate tuning and probabilistic constellation shaping offered by the CIM 8 module. The trial showcases an opportunity for network operators to increase capacity and efficiency while minimizing complexity and cost.

A post-deadline paper accepted by OFC, using the NYSERNet production network, describes the 800G trial over a distance of 2220km, an error-free 1T single-carrier real-time transmission over 869km, and an error-free transmission of single-carrier 138Gbaud 800G over 1422km with filtering from 24 wavelength-selective switches (WSS) from in-line reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers (ROADMs) configured to 150GHz slot width.

“We’ve taken single-carrier 800Gbit/s data transmission further than ever before. And we’ve achieved it not in a lab but in a real-world network also carrying live traffic,” says Sorin Tibuleac, director of system architecture at Optical Networks at Adtran. “What’s more, we succeeded without any optimization to the line system, maintaining the same amplifier settings used before the field trial. We’ve demonstrated that the highest capacity and reach can now be accomplished even over deployed fiber comprising a mix of standard G.652 and G.655 and including multiple network nodes and flexgrid ROADMs,” he adds. “Building on the success of our TeraFlex CoreChannel technology, these results represent the next milestone in the development of high-speed optical networks. The potential to enhance throughput while minimizing OpEx and operational complexity is immense.”

China Mobile’s 400G all-optical network sets record for ultra-long-distance transmission

China Mobile announced the world’s longest-distance 400G optical transmission with help from China’s ZTE. Using 400G QPSK non-electric relay network transmission, the distance set a record. The network spans Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou provinces, involving 45 optical discharge segments, achieving 5616km of ultra-long-distance real-time network transmission.

The trial was completed to accelerate the development of 400G high-speed optical transmission in the industry. China Mobile believes that the construction of a 400G all-optical network will provide strong support for faster transmission, greater capacity and lower latency of computing network services.

Windstream Wholesale sets live network record with 1T wave over 540km

Windstream Wholesale announced the completion of a live network trial that successfully deployed a 1T wave over 541km across Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) network between Dallas and Tulsa. The trial employed Acacia’s CIM 8, which is powered by the Jannu DSP and is the industry’s first pluggable module in the ‘High-Performance’ category that represents the next evolution in driving high-capacity optical connections to expand the network. The team also looped the circuit to establish an 800G link over a live network measuring 1082km.

The 1T trial marked the first use of pluggable modules in the High-Performance category. Acacia’s modules reduce power consumption by more than 65% while being more than 70% smaller than traditional network gear. In addition, the performance gains allow for a significant jump in route coverage of high line rates such as 800G and above.

“With this trial, Windstream Wholesale and Acacia have broken through the Terabit limit, once again demonstrating the power and benefit of an open, disaggregated network,” says Windstream’s chief technology officer Art Nichols. “Our success here further validates Windstream Wholesale’s early adoption of the latest evolution advancements of coherent pluggables, and our strong partnership with Acacia enables us to understand and meet the rapidly evolving bandwidth needs of our customers,” he adds.

“As Windstream Wholesale is demonstrating, our CIM 8 module is breaking the Terabit threshold with deployable performance on a real network,” says Acacia’s chief technology officer Benny Mikkelsen. “By leveraging silicon photonics, we’ve been able to achieve the power consumption needed to bring the CIM 8 into a pluggable form factor, and that is going to help Windstream cost-effectively meet their customers’ growing bandwidth demands.”