Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) and Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) last week at OFC 2022 in San Diego, CA, discussed their visions for a ROADM node-on-a-blade. The concept, as the name implies, shrinks functionality normally found in a rackmounted platform into a single blade, in large part thanks to advances in wavelength selective switch (WSS) technology. Infinera will work with Windstream Wholesale to develop ROADM node-on-a-blade for the service provider’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON); Lumentum also has a customer for its version, but sources at the show declined to identify the company.
Infinera and Windstream revealed their collaboration March 3. At OFC the following week, Infinera Senior Vice President of Marketing Rob Shore said that his company had successfully negotiated through a Windstream RFP to partner with the carrier on ROADM node-on-a-blade technology, which will better enable Windstream to deploy coherent-based ROADM technology on ICON. Toward this end, the blade will feature a coherent optical channel monitor and a coherent probe to provide improved visibility into coherent transmissions traveling across the fiber network.
However, a key enabler of the “on a blade” packaging will be the ability to partition a single WSS into multiple ROADMs with multi-degree capabilities. This approach, which Shore credited Windstream's Kim Papakos with pioneering, should significantly drive down costs and simplify deployment, he said. The fiber network enhancements also would make it easier for Windstream to appeal to the advanced requirements of customers such as hyperscalers who want more control of leased resources. The architecture would enable Windstream to sell spectrum to such customers via optical network slicing, Shore theorized, who could then do with that spectrum as they wished.
Shore said that Infinera is working with a WSS vendor he would not identify to create the ROADM node-on-a-blade, which he added could reach the field as soon as next year. The blade is targeted toward the Infinera GX Series G30 platforms; it likely will be double width, Shore predicted.
We’ll make it for you custom
Lumentum, of course, makes WSSs, but company sources at the show were reluctant to draw any lines between its work on ROADM node-on-a-blade technology and what others are doing. In a press release, Lumentum described its version of this technology as “integrating optical switching, amplification, and monitoring functionality from across multiple degrees onto a single linecard.”
The company introduced the 16x26 TrueFlex Contentionless Wavelength Selective Switch in San Diego, which Lumentum Senior Vice President and General Manager, Telecom Transport Doug Alteen said would make a good candidate for such a blade. Lumentum stated in the press release that its ROADM node-on-a-blade would see initial commercial deployment late this year, while the 16x26 TrueFlex won’t be in mass production until early next year. However, the eight-degree 8x26 TrueFlex is available now and Alteen indicated that Lumentum could customize its ROADM node-on-a-blade implementations to suit customer needs; he added that the width of the blades would be dependent on the size of the WSS used.
[Editor's Note: This article has been updated from the original with the name of the Windstream staffer who developed the ROADM node-on-a-blade concept.]
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