Thursday, March 3, 2022

Windstream Wholesale and Infinera develop Node-on-a-Blade

Windstream Wholesale will transform its optical network infrastructure using an innovative Node-on-a-Blade jointly pioneered by Infinera and Windstream.

The companies describe Node-on-a-Blade as the next evolution of ROADM-based solutions that will provide a more advanced and cost-effective approach to optical networking enabling deployment across a wider variety of network locations. Advanced capabilities include a coherent optical channel monitor and a coherent probe.

“Node-on-a-Blade technology will be a powerful tool in the evolution and transformation of optical networks,” said Ron Johnson, general manager, optical systems and network solutions group at Infinera. “Infinera is excited to work with Windstream to usher in a new era of optical networking capabilities and the services this new architecture will enable.”

“Networks and service offerings need to transform to provide better support for hyperscale customers as initiatives like distributed computing evolve,” said Art Nichols, vice president of architecture and technology at Windstream. “Key technologies such as Node-on-a-Blade and innovative partners like Infinera will be instrumental in enabling Windstream’s ICON vision to better support continued edge traffic growth and introduce a new class of hyperscale optimized network services that will provide unique value to our customers.”

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/windstream-wholesale-partners-with-infinera-to-build-next-generation-optical-infrastructure

NeoPhotonics demos 120Gbaud InP-based coherent receiver/modulator

NeoPhotonics has used its Indium Phosphide-based Coherent Receiver and Coherent Modulators, coupled with its Ultra-Narrow Linewidth Tunable Lasers or Distributed Feedback Lasers, to demonstrate 120Gbaud operation in applications ranging from 800G LR transmission to 400G long haul transmission.

The next-generation DSP baud rate will be based on 120+ Gbaud, and potential applications include 800LR (≤10km), 800ZR for DCI (≤100km), 800ZR+ for metro-core (≤1000km), and 400Gb/s ultra-long-haul transmission. 

Demonstrations of this level of performance are reported and listed below, showing that corresponding high-speed optoelectronic components are available today to match the DSP baud rate and to enable pluggable or embedded modules at these data rates.

Using its indium phosphide (InP)-based coherent driver modulator (CDM) and intradyne coherent receiver (ICR) with more than 60GHz-bandwidth, NeoPhotonics has experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of the following transmission systems at 120+ Gbaud:

  • Long-haul: 400Gb/s over 1500km standard single-mode fiber EDFA-only transmission system with a superior required OSNR of 16.7dB at OFEC threshold;
  • Regional/Metro-core: 800Gb/s (with probabilistic shaping) over 1000km standard single-mode fiber EDFA-only transmission system with a superior required OSNR of 24.3dB at OFEC threshold;
  • ZR DCI: 800ZR over a single-span EDFA-based 100km standard single-mode fiber with a superior required OSNR of 25dB at OFEC threshold and a transmitter output power of -6dBm; and
  • Unamplified LR: 800LR over an unamplified 10km link with a 9dB link budget, and 800Gb/s “coherent lite” over an unamplified 1km link with a budget of 5.2dB, both using a low-latency FEC with a BER threshold at 4 x 10-3. The latter used self-homodyne coherent detection so as to significantly simplify the DSP and remove wavelength locking between transmitter and local oscillator.

“We are pleased to take this opportunity to highlight the progress we have made in pushing our high-performance indium phosphide integration technologies to even higher speeds and over longer distances to enable new potential applications in cloud and data center applications,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “These 120Gbaud components, coupled with our ultra-narrow linewidth external cavity “nano” tunable laser or our distributed feedback lasers, along with concurrent DSP advances, could enable pluggable modules to operate at 800G for applications within and between datacenters, as well as to extend the speed and reach of embedded telecom systems,” concluded Mr. Jenks.

https://www.neophotonics.com/press-releases/?newsId=13151

Verizon teams with Celona on Private 5G

Verizon Business will integrate Celona's wireless private networking solution.

The strategic partnership will focus on leveraging the power of Verizon’s On Site LTE and 5G network with Celona’s c5G LAN products. The joint offer will deliver an enterprise-friendly approach to private networks that is designed to meet growing demand for the reliable wireless performance, coverage and connectivity required by a new era of network-dependent business applications and IoT systems. In addition, the solution will also lower the cost barrier for developers, opening new pathways for them to test innovative and transformative applications.

“Today, every organization around the world faces its own unique set of digital transformation challenges, and for businesses to remain competitive, they require new, cutting-edge solutions designed specifically to meet their needs. The partnership we’ve announced today does exactly that. No one is better positioned to leverage the power of private networks than Verizon, and we can’t wait to see our partnership with Celona deliver powerful results for our customers,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business.

“Celona and Verizon have a shared architectural approach and vision for the power that 5G technology has in transforming business operations,” said Rajeev Shah, Co-Founder and CEO of Celona. “We believe that 5G as a network software service, operating within common mobile edge compute environments, will give enterprises the agility they need to truly support their latest digital initiatives.”

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-business-launches-turn-key-private-networking-solution-celona


Terabit BiDi MSA gets underway

A new Terabit Bidirectional (BiDi) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) group has been established to develop interoperable 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s optical interface specifications for parallel multimode fiber (MMF).

The goal is to provide an upgrade path for the parallel MMF based 400 Gb/s BiDi to 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s. BiDi technology has already proven successful as a way of providing an upgrade path for installed duplex MMF links from 40 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s. 

The Terabit BiDi MSA specifications will address applications for critical high-volume links in modern data centers between switches, and server-switch interconnects.

Founding members of the Terabit BiDi MSA include II-VI, Alibaba, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Cisco, CommScope, Dell Technologies, HGGenuine, Lumentum, MACOM and Marvell Technology.

"As the industry transitions to 100 Gb/s per lane signaling on high density 25.6 Tb/s and future 51.2 Tb/s switches, there is a market need to increase interface speeds using VCSEL based technology to achieve cost-optimal and faster interfaces," said Tzu Hao Chow, MSA co-chair.

https://terabit-bidi-msa.com

SpaceX completes 9th launch of 2022

SpaceX launched 47 Starlink satellites from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was the ninth SpaceX launch of 2022. 

It was also the 11th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched GPS III-3, Turksat-5A, Transporter 2, and now eight Starlink missions.

The booster was recovered on a drone ship.



Micron samples 176-layer NAND SSD for data centers

Micron Technology is sampling the  first vertically-integrated 176-layer NAND data center solid-state drive.

The Micron 7450 SSD with NVMe achieves latency at or below 2 ms for 99.9999% QoS in common, mixed, random workloads— driving up performance in databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, RocksDB, Cassandra and Aerospike, among others. Compared to SATA SSDs, latency is reduced by nearly 50%, and read bandwidth is improved by up to 12 times.

"We're launching the Micron 7450 SSD at the same time PCIe Gen4 is becoming the most widely adopted SSD interface in servers,” said Jeremy Werner, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron’s Storage Business Unit. “This product delivers the world’s most advanced NAND in a data center SSD well ahead of the industry and, importantly, brings consistent, reliable latencies below 2 milliseconds, critical to enabling quality of service in scale-out data center workloads.”

The 7450 SSD offers e capacity range from 400GB to 15.36TB.