Arelion Achieves 64% CAPEX and 76% OPEX Savings Enabled by Bright 400ZR+ Deployment

In August 2023, Arelion announced that it has taken another landmark step in converging its IP and optical layers as the first global network to deploy 400G QSFP-DD ZR+ Bright coherent optical modules in its production #1 ranked IP backbone. This first regional reach deployment spans 675 kilometers between Stockholm and Copenhagen over third-party Optical Open Line System (O-OLS). According to Arelion, the streamlined architecture eliminates the need for excessive hardware, thereby reducing potential points of failure. As a result, it achieves 64% CAPEX and 76% OPEX savings. This contributes to a significantly more cost-efficient network with fewer interfaces to control and maintain.

Highlighting the benefits of these modules, Arelion’s Mattias Fridström shares his insights in this video from testing the technology to how they can potentially transform network infrastructures.

Mattias Fridström, Vice President & Chief Evangelist at Arelion shares the benefits of deploying Acacia’s 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules in Arelion’s production IP backbone

Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations at Arelion added, “With constantly rising demand for our IP services and increasing traffic across the Internet, Arelion is constantly looking to deploy the latest technology. The deployment of 400G QSFP-DD Bright Optical Modules will ensure cost-effective, high-performance connectivity for our customers and help us grow our network in scale as we continue to connect the world. In addition, the coherent pluggable modules also help us achieve our sustainability goals through improved energy efficiency and redeploying redundant hardware assets.”

CENIC Validates Coherent Pluggable Optics for Big Data Applications
Using Bright QSFP-DD coherent optics, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) turned up a 300 Gbps optical service over CENIC’s production line system between Los Angeles and Sunnyvale and confirmed the error-free performance of the service with a comfortable operating margin.

According to CENIC, the new-generation coherent pluggables integrate an amplifier, making it possible to transmit from the optic at power levels that match those of typical transponder line cards. As a result, external amplification is no longer needed to boost the power level transmitted from the optic before it reaches the optical line system.  As explained by Sana Bellamine, CENIC’s Director of Regional and International Infrastructure, “The elimination of the external amplification requirement is an important step toward simplifying the provisioning of optical services and facilitates the adoption of coherent pluggables over our production line system.”

CENIC Validation Setup Diagram with Bright ZR+ Coherent Pluggables with Integrated Amplifiers

Announced earlier this year, Vodafone Turkey and Sipartech trials are summarized in this article.

Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD Modules Expands Applications by Enabling Longer Reach Applications
With an optical transmit power at least 10X greater than 400ZR, Bright QSFP-DD modules enable network operators to expand applications that can be addressed by 400G coherent pluggables in router-based optical deployments to include brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) nodes.

Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules expand applications of 400G coherent pluggable to brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with ROADM nodes.

Visit Us at ECOC OIF 400ZR+ Interop Demonstration
If you are attending ECOC and want to see the Acacia Bright ZR+ coherent module in action, check out the 400ZR+ optics interoperability demonstration at the OIF Booth #304.  We hope you see you there!

Additional Resources

• Blog: Brightening ROADM Networks
• Product Page: Bright 400ZR+ coherent pluggable QSFP-DD module

The aggressive ramp of 400G coherent pluggables has been faster than any previous coherent technology generation. Acacia’s comprehensive 400G pluggable portfolio in QSFP-DD, OSFP and CFP-DCO form factors and including support for 400ZR, OpenZR+ and Open ROADM MSA has led to its more than 50% market share in this category.

Field trials are now underway with several network operators looking to leverage Acacia’s newest 400G pluggable, the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD module with high-transmit power for 400G transmission over ROADM line systems. With announcements already from Arelion, Vodafone Turkey, and most recently Sipartech, the Bright 400ZR+ module with greater than +1 dBm transmit power is proving to help network operators meet bandwidth demands while driving economies of scale on a common technology platform.

Cisco and Sipartech Successfully Test 400G Over 1,337 km to Deliver a More Efficient Transport Network for the Future
Cisco and Neutral European infrastructure carrier, Sipartech, announced the successful trial deployment of a 400G circuit using the Cisco NCS 5504 network convergence system together with the high transmit power Bright 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD optical module over 1,337 km.

For the trial, Sipartech used a Cisco chassis with the 400G QSFP-DD capable line cards over a third-party line system, with eight ROADMs, a typical ‘alien wave’ deployment for the Cisco Routed Optical Network. The routers were upgraded with the Bright 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD optics at both ends. The speed of the deployment was done within a few hours. This model negates a significant amount of physical hardware components, helping to reduce the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing the equipment.

The long-haul route used for this trial in the production network was from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand to Lyon, and back to Paris over mixed fiber. Sipartech has been deploying its own fiber and optical transmission networks in France and Europe since 2008, interconnecting major data centers to ensure high-quality services.

Following the trial’s success, Sipartech will use the Bright 400G ZR+ QSFP-DD high-power module to roll out 400G transponder-free services across its network footprint to connect more international businesses and ensure quality connections.

“With the interoperability of Cisco’s equipment, we can deploy our next generation 400G+ services with speed, simplicity, and flexibility to meet our customers’ needs, while optimizing energy expenditure and our carbon footprint as part of our global strategy,” said Julien Santina, Sipartech CEO.

Arelion Takes Next Step in Converging its IP and Optical Networking Layers
Arelion (formerly Telia Carrier) announced late last year that it was the first network operator to successfully demonstrate 400G coherent connections between Cisco 8000 and NCS 5700 router platforms over third-party open line system using Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules supporting high transmit power. On a live fiber route with existing ROADM infrastructure between Hamburg and Copenhagen, Arelion successfully leveraged the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD between Cisco 8000 and NCS 5700 router platforms. The trial demonstrated the seamless integration of Routed Optical Networking with DWDM transponders carrying wavelength services.

“Multi-layer architecture has always been challenging to scale and operate due to decades of accumulated complexity. With this latest trial, Arelion demonstrated the possibility to simplify conversion and interoperability, bringing us closer to Routed Optical Networking that evolves cost structures, scalability and efficiency,” said Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations at Arelion. “400G coherent pluggables will help our customers secure high-performance connectivity at the lowest cost and help us grow our networks in scale as we continue to connect the world.”

Vodafone Turkey Provides Faster and More Reliable Services
Vodafone Turkey was the first operator in Turkey to test 400G speeds with multiple suppliers and network layers. In a trial conducted using the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules and Cisco routers, a speed of 400G was achieved with optical routing between Vodafone’s data centers in Tuzla and Esenyurt.  According to Vodafone, this technology will enable them to provide faster and highly reliable services to its corporate and individual customers. It will also support the fight against global warming and climate change by increasing energy efficiency and reducing its carbon footprint.

Brightening ROADM Networks
With an optical transmitter power at least ten times greater than 400ZR, the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD coherent module expands the applications that can be addressed by 400G coherent pluggable modules to include brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) nodes. To learn more about the expanding use cases read this blog article.

For more information on the Bright 400ZR+ module or to discuss how any of Acacia’s 400G pluggables can meet the needs of your network, contact us.

The 400G OpenZR+ MSA expanded 400ZR reaches far beyond 120km by utilizing higher-gain forward error-correction coding (FEC) and increased compensation for chromatic and polarization mode dispersion. This enabled the use of 400G pluggables not only in hyperscale environments, but also in metro/regional service provider network environments. Service providers have thus been focusing on these “plus” versions of 400G modules for their network needs.

Brightening ROADM Networks
The latest expansion of 400G pluggable applications is being enabled by QSFP-DD form-factor modules, such as Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD, which have an optical transmitter power at least ten times greater than 400ZR. The higher transmitter power expands the applications that can be addressed by 400G coherent pluggable modules to include brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) nodes, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Recently introduced Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules expand applications of 400G coherent pluggables to brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with ROADM nodes.

ROADMs enable the ability to selectively add/drop wavelengths to/from the network, avoiding optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversions on channels passing through the ROADM node. Enabled by wavelength selective switch (WSS) technology, ROADM-based architectures can provide operational advantages compared to fixed optical add/drop solutions that required manual intervention for reconfiguration.

These network elements operate in tandem with terminal DWDM equipment and amplified single-span or multi-span line systems. To ensure optimal aggregate optical SNR performance, a certain level of transmit optical power and uniformity is required across the entire DWDM wavelength band. Having a 400G coherent pluggable QSFP-DD solution with high transmit optical power would enable 400G router-based optics to be deployed in a ROADM network architecture with existing wavelength traffic.

Bright Applications
Figure 2 illustrates two general examples of how Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules can be used in ROADM networks for sites with or without existing DWDM transponder terminal equipment.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. 400G QSFP-DD pluggables with high transmit optical power can be used at a network node in new deployments (a) or with (b) existing DWDM transport/transponder terminal equipment.

IP-over-DWDM over ROADM Infrastructure
While point-to-point IP-over-DWDM architectures can be fully supported using 400ZR or OpenZR+ modules, there may be instances in which IP-over-DWDM traffic may need to traverse over a legacy ROADM infrastructure (Figure 2a), perhaps as an overlay with existing sites populated with DWDM transport terminal equipment (Figure 2b). Figure 2b also illustrates an alien-wavelength example where a router-port wavelength is inserted into a line system of a different vendor.

While there are network designs that support the use of -10dBm 400ZR+ modules over a ROADM network, it becomes a challenge when the DWDM transmission from these modules are adjacent to multiple legacy higher optical power channels (Figure 3a) resulting in relatively lower received optical power and OSNR. Legacy transponder terminal equipment typically have a per-channel ingress optical power in the 0dBm range. One solution is to add an external optical amplifier per module to boost the optical transmit power to the 0dBm level into the line system ingress.

By taking advantage of highly integrated silicon photonics design and packaging technology, such as Acacia’s 3D Siliconization, it is possible to eliminate the need for an external amplifier by incorporating the optical amplification into the compact QSFP-DD form factor module. Utilizing a 400G coherent pluggable with a higher optical transmitter power of at least 0dBm ensures sufficient optical power, relative to other DWDM wavelengths, to traverse through legacy ROADM nodes, as shown in Figure 3b.
(a)
(b)

Figure 3.  (a) A standard 400ZR/ZR+ module with transmitter output power of -10dBm co-exists with legacy higher power channels, subject to lower received optical power and OSNR; (b) a Bright 400ZR+ wavelength ensures channel power uniformity in ROADM/line-system ingress when combined with other line-system traffic.

Transmitting in High Fidelity
Many ROADM architectures utilize colorless multiplexing. This type of ROADM has a passive optical combiner element (Colorless MUX in Figure 4) that takes individual fiber inputs from different transmission wavelengths and combines them together into a single fiber without any optical filtering, hence the name colorless. In wavelength-agile network designs, external control of the tunable wavelengths avoids any contention issues. To minimize wavelength crosstalk/noise through colorless ROADMs, the transmitter OSNR of each ingress wavelength needs to be maximized. One way to achieve this is to attenuate the laser amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise using a band-pass optical filter to minimize optical crosstalk/noise into nearby channels. And to accommodate wavelength-agile networks, a tunable optical filter (TOF) is utilized.

Figure 4.   Illustration highlighting the benefits of a TOF inside a coherent module with internal optical amplification when multiple channels pass through a colorless multiplexer; comparison between (a) modules without TOF vs. (b) modules with TOF.

Figure 4 illustrates how multiple wavelengths are combined using a colorless MUX. In figure 4a, the noise from multiple modules without a TOF impacts nearby transmission channels through a colorless MUX. By using a TOF, not only does is transmit OSNR improved, but also the noise affecting adjacent channels is minimized. The Figure 4 inset illustrates how a TOF suppresses noise resulting in an optimal situation of a module wavelength insertion surrounded by legacy wavelength transmissions, shown in Figure 4b.

Higher Density DWDM Footprint
For network operators continuing to leverage an optical transport layer, the higher optical power QSFP-DD modules enable a higher density design for DWDM transponder terminal equipment. While high transmit optical power has been available in the CFP2 form factor for 400G, advanced integration and design has resulted in this capability in the smaller QSFP-DD housing.

The Acacia Bright Solution
Acacia recently introduced its Bright 400ZR+ coherent pluggable QSFP-DD module that transmits at least +1dBm of optical power to expand 400G coherent pluggable applications with brownfield and greenfield ROADM network architectures. This module leverages 3D siliconization to provide a highly integrated design enabling the silicon photonics integrated circuit (including TOF), coherent DSP, high-speed components, and optical amplifier to fit entirely into a compact QSFP-DD pluggable form-factor module. In addition to supporting interoperable OpenZR+ and Open ROADM modes, the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD module can aggregate 4x100GbE client traffic and also utilize FlexO mapping for OTN transport applications.

Bright 400ZR+ Expands Applications for 400G Pluggables
High transmit power 400G pluggables, such as Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ module, surpass the market applications served by 400ZR module by enabling an optical transmit power that is at least ten times greater (i.e., brighter). This is another significant milestone because it enables service providers and hyperscalers to take advantage of 400G pluggables in brownfield and greenfield ROADM based optical network architectures.

Additional Resources:

• Bright 400ZR+ coherent pluggable QSFP-DD module Product Page
• Arelion completes first multi-vendor, multi-layer field trial using Acacia Bright 400ZR+ modules and Cisco Routers