Kinetic conducts trial of Coherent’s 100G digital transceiver

Kinetic by Windstream completed a trial of Coherent’s 100G ZR QSFP28 digital coherent optical (DCO) pluggable transceiver over a live network in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Coherent’s pluggable transceiver requires less equipment to expand network capacity. According to Kinetic, the technology offers a more straightforward, efficient way to bring high-speed internet to more homes and businesses while reducing carbon costs and offering an opportunity for more intelligent fiber investment in rural communities.

Because Coherent’s pluggable transceiver requires a fraction of the space and power of traditional transport solutions, the 100G DCO transceiver is as much as ten times more energy efficient. Also, plugging the transceiver into a router eliminates the need for additional transponder hardware—and the need to purchase, install, and power that equipment.

“Kinetic is committed to bringing fiber connectivity to businesses and homes across rural America. This innovation will accelerate the scale of our network sustainably,” said Jeff Austin, CTO for Kinetic. “Not only does its small form factor reduce our carbon footprint, but it is also interoperable with legacy networks, eliminating the need to rebuild costly network infrastructures.”

Kinetic is demonstrating the efficacy of the 100G DCO, proving through an extensive live field study that the transceiver performs across existing DWDM transport systems. Results of the study show that the technology can seamlessly be integrated into the existing Kinetic network without replacing current equipment.

The successful trial of the 100G DCO validates the ability to use this new technology across a large percentage of Kinetic's footprint. The module is currently a prototype and is set to be released in 2024.

“We’re proud to partner with Kinetic on developing the 100G DCO,” said Matthias Berger, VP of Coherent. “Validating the transceiver’s performance over more than 800 km across an existing transport system gives our industry a definitive conclusion to the questions surrounding achievable performance at low cost, lower power dissipation and small form factor of the transceiver.

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