Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. and Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) say they completed a successful trial of 400-Gbps data center interconnect trial during the first quarter of this year. The trial comes as Zayo works to deliver 400G wavelength services across the majority of its U.S. and European routes by the end of this year (see "Zayo plans 400G capabilities on 31 routes in North America and Western Europe" and "Zayo adds 400G wavelength services capabilities to pan-European fiber network").
The trial link connected data centers in London (Slough) and Paris on Zayo’s submarine fiber network. Zayo deployed a 500G optical channel on its 800G-enabled DWDM network as part of the trial. The extra 100G was devoted to network monitoring and enabled increased network visibility, the companies said. The connection received full-load testing without traffic loss, Zayo and Equinix added.
“As the first global data center platform to trial 400G, we see tremendous potential in how it will help power our next generation of services,” said Muhammad Durrani, senior director, global network architecture at Equinix. “Our success in this trial is about more than faster speeds; it’s about the outcomes it will enable for our customers, such as achieving the low-latency requirements of critical devices transforming everything from transportation to healthcare.”
The higher-speed technology also will provide benefits to Zayo and Equinix. For example, moving from four 100G line cards to a single 400G line card simplified the network and reduced the number of handoffs and potential points of failure. Zayo says it also reduced power consumption per gigabit by 40%. Equinix, meanwhile, reduced the number of circuits it needed to manage and operate its network and reduced costs.
“At Zayo, not only are we focused on our customers’ connectivity needs today, we are preparing for their speed, latency, and capacity needs of tomorrow while simultaneously driving efficiencies and simplifying the overall network design,” said Yannick Leboyer, Zayo’s COO, Europe. “Equinix is sitting at the epicenter of several trends that are reshaping the industry – from digital transformation and big data to IoT and AI. Together, we’re future proofing the ecosystem to help companies grow and innovate.”
For related articles, visit the Data Center Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To stay abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.
