Windstream Wholesale said that it has successfully sent 800 Gigabit Ethernet of data over a single 800 Gbps wavelength over a 1,386-kilometer link across its live network. The company said in a press announcement that this demonstration was the first of its kind and that it “validates the readiness of Windstream Wholesale’s network to provision 800GE business and wholesale services to support soaring customer traffic volumes.”
Combining this capability with its existing 800GE router will enable Windstream Wholesale to efficiently scale network capacity on its backbone, provide wavelength service at both 400GE and 800GE, use fewer client and transponder ports, and reduce power per bit requirements for both the IP and optical network layers, the company explained.
The trial was done in collaboration with Nokia, whose equipment supported the connection. It was conducted on Windstream Wholesale’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) network link between Atlanta and Miami.
In the trial, Nokia’s 7750 service router outfitted with an 800GE interface was connected to the vendor’s production-ready 1830 PSI-M optical transport platform and sixth generation super coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) line cards operating at 800 Gbps per wavelength. A third party WDM line system was used.
The trial ran across 16 spans and seven ROADM nodes. The company noted that the transmission was error-free.
“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,” John Nishimoto, Windstream Wholesale’s senior vice president of product marketing and strategy, said in a prepared statement.
Windstream Wholesale said last week that it added a 145-mile dark fiber route between Little Rock, Ark. and Memphis, Tenn. The route extends the 310-mile “T-Rock Express” that connects Little Rock and Tulsa, Okla. Windstream Wholesale now connects Tulsa and Memphis, which is 455 fiber-miles. The entire route features 432-count high-capacity fiber that supports 400G wavelengths.
