Vodafone New Zealand has decided to work with optical transport systems partner Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) to enable 800-Gbps data center interconnect between facilities in Auckland. The fiber network upgrade will help Vodafone manage network requirements in support of its recently launched 5G service, the companies say.
The digital and connectivity services company will leverage Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) coherent optical engine on line cards plugged into Vodafone New Zealand’s previously fielded Ciena 6500 packet-optical transport platforms. The new capabilities will enable the service provider to offer transmission rates from 200 to 800 Gbps. The company also will see a 50% reduction in power consumption.
“Ciena’s innovative 800G coherent optics enable Vodafone New Zealand to execute on our vision to provide New Zealanders with access to the world’s best digital services. With Ciena’s WL5e, Vodafone will provide increased bandwidth for a plethora of data-hungry applications, especially necessary as we’ve seen both increases and spikes of data used during the past few months, a trend that is only set to continue as remote working becomes more widespread and New Zealand gears up for a more digitally-focused future,” commented Tony Baird, Wholesale and Infrastructure Director at Vodafone. “The highly advanced data transport system has been deployed together with Vodafone’s optical partner Ciena and test equipment experts VIAVI.”
Vodafone New Zealand is a longstanding Ciena customer. The service provider leveraged Ciena technology for New Zealand’s first 100G link in 2012 (see “Vodafone deploys 100 Gbps in New Zealand”) and added 400G capabilities in 2017 (see “Vodafone New Zealand deploys 400 Gbps between data centers”). As was the case with the 100G deployment, this new 800G deployment is the first in the country.
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