By Oystein Bergmann, Bureau Chief, Scandinavia

Nokia and Windstream have announced the successful trial of 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) service transmission over a single 800 Gb/s wavelength over a 1,386-kilometer link across Windstream’s live network.

Utilizing Nokia FP5 IP service routing platforms with 800GE interfaces and Nokia optical transport platforms with 6th generation super coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) technology, this demonstration is the first of its kind and validates the readiness of Windstream Wholesale’s network to provision 800GE business and wholesale services to support soaring customer traffic volumes.

The trial was conducted over Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) backbone connecting Atlanta, GA, to Miami, FL, and leveraging one of Windstream Wholesale’s latest East Coast ICON routes into Florida. The Nokia 7750 Service Router with an 800GE interface was connected to Nokia’s production-ready 1830 PSI-M optical transport platform with PSE-6s linecards operating at 800Gb/s per wavelength over a third-party WDM line system. The trial ran across 16 spans and seven ROADM nodes in the Windstream ICON network and demonstrated the first turn-up of error-free performance at 800G over a long-haul link with 800GE service bandwidth.

This combination of Nokia 800GE routing, shipping since 2022, and 800Gb/s long-haul optical transport enables Windstream to efficiently scale network capacity over its backbone and provide wholesale Wave service connectivity at both 400GE and 800GE speeds. In addition, Windstream can utilize fewer client and transponder ports while reducing network power-per-bit for both IP and optical network layers. A significant industry milestone, this transport and technology breakthrough will undoubtedly pave the way for more advanced and efficient communication networks in the future.  

Head of the Optical Networks Division at Nokia, James Watt said: “We are delighted with the success of this trial, and we look forward to continuing to support Windstream in their network upgrade strategy. Nokia’s IP and optical portfolios are specifically designed to move more bits using less energy, providing the scale, performance and cost-efficiency to meet the world’s unrelenting demand for data.”

Windstream Wholesale senior vice president of product marketing and strategy, John Nishimoto,said: “We are thrilled with the success of this trial and its confirmation of our continued optical technology leadership and readiness to deliver ever-greater bandwidth and service choice across our nationwide footprint. We pride ourselves on being ‘fast and flexible’ with the combination of Nokia 800GE routing and PSE-6s technology we will continue to lead the marketplace in innovation and excellence.”

Windstream Wholesale president, Joe Scattareggia said: “Windstream Wholesale is fully committed to being at the forefront of connectivity and cutting-edge technology. We maintained this commitment as the first to introduce 400G to the market and are poised to further advance these technologies aiming to deliver 800G wave services from metro to ultra-longhaul distances to customers in 2024.”

Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) provides open and disaggregated networking infrastructure, enabling wholesale and enterprise technology customers to select unique custom routes, maintain operational insights with Windstream’s Network Intelligence functions, and place their networks closer to the edge to better serve end-users.