Infinera adds ICE6 to Groove (GX) Series

April 2, 2020

The new "sled" will mark the first implementation of the ICE6 coherent transmission engine, which is designed to enable 800-Gbps transmission.

Stephen Hardy

The new sleds are designed to provide additional features to the Groove (GX) Series platforms, such as this G40.

Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) has announced new “sleds” for the Groove (GX) Series. One of the small line cards leverages the newest version of the company’s Infinite Capacity Engine, ICE6. The sled will mark the first implementation of the ICE6 coherent transmission engine, which is designed to enable 800-Gbps transmission (see “Infinera unveils ICE6 coherent engine, Infinite Network vision”).

The Groove G30 was originally developed by Coriant as a compact, modular system for data center interconnect and metro applications (see “Coriant Groove G30 1RU data center interconnect platform offers 3.2 Tbps”). Infinera picked up the product line (and others) when it acquired Coriant in 2018 (see “Infinera closes Coriant acquisition”). The new sleds build on the system’s modular design and come in three categories:

The ICE6-enabled CHM6 sled, which offers 2 x 800G transponder capabilities. The ICE6 can support a pair of transmissions, implying that there is a single coherent engine on the sled.
Metro-optimized aggregation sleds for multi-service aggregation
Open line system sleds, including low- and high-degree ROADMs with colorless/directionless/contentionless add/drop architectures and low-cost FOADMs.

The CHM6 will be available on the Infinera GX G40 Groove platform in the second half of this year, according to Glenn Laxdal, Infinera senior vice president, product management.

“With sales growth over 25% for the year, Compact Modular was the fastest growing segment of the optical hardware market in 2019,” said Scott Wilkinson, lead analyst at Cignal AI, via an Infinera press release. “The new capabilities of Infinera’s GX Series facilitate the expansion of the Compact Modular market beyond ICPs to include traditional Service Providers as well.”

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.