Windstream Wholesale and Cisco conducted a trial where they transmitted a 1 Tbps wavelength over a 1,100-kilometer link across multiple routes on Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON).
For the trial, Windstream Wholesale leveraged Cisco’s NCS 1014 C-Band 2.4T WDM Transponder Line Card with Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module (CIM) 8, a 1.2Tbps faceplate pluggable coherent solution.
Leveraging Jannu, Acacia’s 8th-generation digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC, the CIM 8 is designed to deliver high performance with single carrier 1.2 Tbps operation. The CIM 8’s capabilities were demonstrated over a third-party line system (150Ghz Channel).
The trial deployments achieved wavelength transmissions across key Windstream ICON routes:
- Roundtrip transport of 1Tbps over 1,100 km from Miami to Jacksonville, Florida
- Transport of 800G over 1,387 km of mixed fiber from Miami through Tallahassee, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia
- Roundtrip transport of 600G over 2,774 km from Miami, Florida, to Atlanta, Georgia
“We developed ICON to provide multi-vendor flexibility and seamlessly integrate the newest optimized technology into our disaggregated network,” said John Nishimoto, Windstream Wholesale's senior vice president of products, marketing, and strategy. “Achievements like this reinforce our 800G wave strategy and offer improved design and network planning options among our 100G and 400G solutions.”
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