Windstream Wholesale says it has successfully used 400G ZR+ pluggable optical transceivers from Acacia Communications to demonstrate single-wavelength 400G transmission over 1027 km. The demonstration leveraged Windstream’s long-haul network between Phoenix and Los Angeles. The fiber-optic network services provider then sent a 300G transmission 2054 km via loopback over the same route using the same pluggable modules for good measure.
Windstream suggests the results are industry firsts in both instances. “This record-setting accomplishment by Windstream Wholesale is a gamechanger for optical networks going forward,” asserted Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “Windstream is executing a well-crafted architectural strategy that embraces fundamental design principles of disaggregation, openness, and flexibility. Windstream continues as an early adopter of coherent optical technologies to drive efficient growth and scale of our network and services for our customers. We expect to begin deploying ZR+ coherent pluggable modules in the second half of 2021, a technology that has applicability in as many as 80% of our existing links.”
Acacia is a co-founder with NTT Electronics of the OpenZR+ MSA; the MSA aims to develop interoperable transceivers modeled on the OIF 400ZR Implementation Agreement but with better reach performance (see "OpenZR+ MSA Group releases first specification"). In addition to the ability to support long-reach applications, pluggable 400 ZR+ optical transceivers provide several other benefits, according to Windstream. The devices are significantly smaller than conventional 400G optics and 10X more energy efficient, according to the service provider. Windstream anticipates such pluggables will enable deployment models otherwise infeasible as well. This includes making coherent transmission more cost-efficient for deployment closer to the network edge. Bayer anticipates making significant use of them as part of Windstream’s nearly $2 billion effort to deliver gigabit broadband to 2 million residential customers.
The performance demonstration over a live network marks a major step forward for coherent pluggables, said a market analyst. “Windstream’s live network trial demonstrates the real performance of 400G pluggable outside of a controlled environment,” explained Jimmy Yu, vice president of Dell’Oro Group’s Optical Transport research. “This is a significant development in the industry, paving the way for network operators to operationalize the benefits of pluggable optics in the network.”
Cignal AI, another market research firm, predicted late last year that pluggable optics should gain significant traction in optical network architectures as well (see “Cignal AI: Expect coherent pluggables wave to reshape networks”).
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