I sat down with Argemiro Sousa, Chief Operations Officer for Equipment at Padtec, who shed some light on the development of this new product line and the company’s plans for the future. As Argemiro pointed out “The LightPad Max platform not only demonstrates our commitment to offer state-of-the-art innovative products, but it also furthers Padtec’s goal to extend our leadership in the Brazilian market while expanding our presence in the international market.”  This includes a focus on Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Africa.

Development Goals:  Performance, Time-to-Market, Form Factor and Robustness
As Argemiro explained, developing a new transponder is a long-cycle project and the transmission module is a key component for its success. Each year, coherent technology is improving its power consumption, advanced DSP algorithms and maximum GBaud rate. As the industry approaches the Shannon limit in fiber optics, these improvements are what make it possible to continue lowering the cost per bit in Padtec’s customers’ networks. Padtec chose Acacia’s CIM 8 because it enabled them to meet the following key requirements:

• Performance: Enabling channels with up to 140 GBaud is essential to continue reducing the cost per bit in DWDM networks. The minimum received OSNR required by the CIM 8 enabling rates of 400G and above, making these high rates feasible in ultra-long-haul and long-haul networks.
• Time to market: As an equipment manufacturer, Padtec starts developing its products before the optical modules are commercially available. “From previous experiences, we see Acacia as an aggressive player in getting to the market first and delivering cutting edge technology,” added Argemiro.
• Form factor: The CIM 8 is a module focused on performance and yet is pluggable. Since its transponder design considers two modules, Padtec can offer a pay-as-you-grow model to its customers.
• Robustness: Padtec needed a module that was highly reliable and had low rates of defect and they knew from experience that this was an Acacia strength.

Disaggregated Design Drives Cost Effectiveness in New LightPad Max Platform
Padtec’s goal with the LightPad Max was to repeat the success of its TM800G in Latin America by entering the Terabit era with a very competitive product that lowers total cost of ownership. Designed to optimize density and legacy compatibility, each line interface has 6 associated client interfaces capable of working both with 400GbE based on QSFP-DD and 100GbE QSFP-28 legacy interfaces, which are still prevalent in Padtec’s customers’ routers and switches.

One Product Family Spanning Multiple Markets
Targeting medium, long and ultra-long distances, the LightPad Max platform not only delivers scalability and cost effectiveness, but its disaggregated design also reduces space on customers’ infrastructure. And as a bonus, the standalone form factor makes the product more attractive to Alien Wavelength scenarios and the architecture is aligned to SDN technological trends.

Since the LightPad Max is a programmable transponder, operators can configure it with different rates and operational modes according to its needs. “This feature has great potential for the product to adapt to several network characteristics,” claimed Argemiro. “For instance, LightPad Max will make it possible to reach long haul and ultra long haul distances with 400G line rate, as well as higher rates of 1T or above in short distances such as data center interconnect scenarios.”

Padtec and Acacia’s Long-Standing Partnership
With the successful launch of the first LightPad Max family members, Padtec also plans to release future versions with advanced functionalities to be delivered by firmware updates throughout 2024 and 2025. The company already has agreements with some of its main customers to deploy in their networks.

At Acacia, we could not be more thrilled to see Padtec succeed on a global scale. We are also extremely proud of our long-term partnership, which dates back to 2016 when Padtec launched its 200G line cards based on Acacia’s CFP2-DCO.  Recently, these same line cards were adapted and qualified to use Acacia’s new generation 400G CPF2-DCO, based on the Greylock DSP.

Padtec was an early adopter of Acacia’s AC1200 module with its TM800G and TM1200G products, which Padtec has sold thousands of units of since 2020.  And we can’t forget our 400G pluggable family – the fastest growing coherent ramp-up of all time.  Padtec launched a disaggregated TMD400G standalone offering using Acacia’s 400G QSFP-DD OpenZR+ in 2023.

Lighting up the Future with Padtec Innovation and Customer Loyalty
Padtec ended 2023 with net revenue of R$ 368 million (US $70 million) which represented record gross profit and distribution of dividends. It was also the year the company saw a significant increase in its customer loyalty index, measured by survey based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology. Padtec achieved a NPS index of +77, a result that places it in the “Excellence zone.” This was a significant jump compared to 2022, when the company’s NPS was +55, and the highest historical level since the survey began in 2017.

As Argemiro explained, “The NPS survey showed that we are on the right path, by reinforcing our position of commitment to the success of our customers and investing increasingly in the technological evolution of our solutions and in expanding our service portfolio. The flexibility to meet customer needs, both from a commercial point of view and in the offering of products and services, is an important differentiator for Padtec that was recognized in this research. We are constantly seeking ways to expand and enhance our services, and as a result, we aim to serve our customers better with each passing day.”

Customer loyalty and technological innovation are clearly what drives Padtec day in and day out.  On behalf of the entire Acacia team, we look forward to seeing what the company achieves in the future and are excited to continue our trusted partnership to help them grow and succeed.

Acacia is excited to share the results of three breakthrough live network trials showing Ultra Long Haul, Long Haul and Regional distances recently completed by Adtran with NYSERNet, China Mobile with ZTE, and Windstream Wholesale, all leveraging Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8).  As these trials demonstrate, the CIM 8 enables network operators to achieve the highest capacity and reach today while maximizing transmission data rate across a wide range of multi-haul network applications including DCI, metro, long haul, and subsea.

Adtran Breaks Industry Record for Single-Carrier 800G Long-Haul Transport
Adtran announced that it successfully completed a field trial of 800G single-carrier transport, achieving error-free transmission over a record distance of 2,220km in NYSERNet’s production network. The test route passed through 14 route-and-select flexgrid ROADMs comprising a total of 28 wavelength-selective switches. Leveraging Acacia’s 140GBd DSP technology, this result was made possible by Adtran’s use of continuous symbol rate tuning and probabilistic constellation shaping offered by the CIM 8 module. The trial showcases an opportunity for network operators to increase capacity and efficiency while minimizing complexity and cost.

A post-deadline paper accepted by OFC, using the NYSERNet production network, describes the 800G trial over a distance of 2,220km, an error-free 1T single-carrier real-time transmission over 869km, and an error-free transmission of single-carrier 138 Gbaud 800G over 1,422km with filtering from 24 wavelength selective switches (WSS) from in-line reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexers (ROADMs) configured to 150-GHz slot width.

According to Sorin Tibuleac, director of system architecture at Optical Networks at Adtran, “We’ve taken single-carrier 800Gbit/s data transmission further than ever before. And we’ve achieved it not in a lab but in a real-world network also carrying live traffic. What’s more, we succeeded without any optimization to the line system, maintaining the same amplifier settings used before the field trial. We’ve demonstrated that the highest capacity and reach can now be accomplished even over deployed fiber comprising a mix of standard G.652 and G.655 and including multiple network nodes and flexgrid ROADMs. Building on the success of our TeraFlex^TM CoreChannel^TM technology, these results represent the next milestone in the development of high-speed optical networks. The potential to enhance throughput while minimizing opex and operational complexity is immense.”

China Mobile’s 400G All-Optical Network Sets Record for Ultra Long Distance Transmission
China Mobile announced the world’s longest distance 400G optical transmission with help from ZTE. Using 400G QPSK non-electric relay network transmission the distance set a record.  The network spans Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces, involving 45 optical discharge segments, achieving 5,616 kilometers of ultra-long-distance real-time network transmission.

The trial was completed to accelerate the development of 400G high-speed optical transmission in the industry. China Mobile believes the construction of a 400G all-optical network will provide strong support for faster transmission, greater capacity, and lower latency of computing network services.

Windstream Wholesale Sets Live Network Record with 1T Wave over 540km
Windstream Wholesale announced the completion of a live network trial that successfully deployed a 1T wave over 541 kilometers across Windstream’s Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) network between Dallas and Tulsa. The trial employed Acacia’s CIM 8, which is powered by the Jannu DSP and is the industry’s first pluggable module in the “High-Performance” category that represents the next evolution in driving high-capacity optical connections to expand the network. The team also looped the circuit to establish an 800G link over a live network measuring 1,082 kilometers.

The 1T trial marked the first use of pluggable modules in the High-Performance category. Acacia’s modules reduce power consumption by more than 65% while being more than 70% smaller than traditional network gear. In addition, the performance gains allow for a significant jump in route coverage of high line rates such as 800G and above.

According to Art Nichols, Chief Technology Officer for Windstream, “With this trial, Windstream Wholesale and Acacia have broken through the Terabit limit, once again demonstrating the power and benefit of an open, disaggregated network. Our success here further validates Windstream Wholesale’s early adoption of the latest evolution advancements of coherent pluggables, and our strong partnership with Acacia enables us to understand and meet the rapidly evolving bandwidth needs of our customers.”

“As Windstream Wholesale is demonstrating, our CIM 8 module is breaking the Terabit threshold with deployable performance on a real network,” said Benny Mikkelsen, Chief Technology Officer at Acacia. “By leveraging silicon photonics, we’ve been able to achieve the power consumption needed to bring the CIM 8 into a pluggable form factor and that is going to help Windstream cost-effectively meet their customers’ growing bandwidth demands.”

Join the Terabit Era

If you’re ready to join the Terabit Era with CIM 8, contact us to schedule a field trial.