Windstream Wholesale has announced the latest in a series of demonstrations leading up to its eventual deployment of pluggable 400ZR/ZR+ optical transceivers. The latest of the communications services provider’s efforts demonstrated interoperability of QSFP-DD 400ZR+ pluggable optical modules from II-VI Inc. (NASDAQ: II-VI) and Acacia, now part of Cisco. Windstream also announced that it has joined the OpenZR+ Multi-Source Agreement (MSA).
The interop feature 400G transmissions in a production environment over a 1,027-km link. The exercise showed interoperability between the II-VI optical module, power by Marvell’s Deneb Coherent DSP and co-developed with Windstream (see "Windstream Wholesale to co-develop 0-dBm 400G optical transceivers with II-VI"), and the Acacia transceiver equipped with the company’s Greylock coherent DSP. Industry-standard oFEC forward error correction helped enable the 400G interaction.
Windstream has aggressively advanced towards leveraging 400G pluggable coherent optics in its Intelligent Converged Optical Network, having announced such plans early in 2021 (see “Windstream Wholesale runs 400G ZR+ transmission more than 1000 km in live network”). The service provider subsequently has worked closely with II-VI and Acacia to advance its ambitions.
“These successful trials demonstrate that Windstream Wholesale remains the optical technology leader in making 400G wavelengths the default deployment for large wholesale and hyperscale customers,” said Buddy Bayer, president of Enterprise and Wholesale at Windstream. “Interoperability is key to simplifying high-performance networks in a cost- and energy-efficient manner, and no other service provider has done more than Windstream toward making it a reality in the marketplace. This significant achievement validates Windstream’s strategy of open, disaggregated optical networking.”
Joining the club
To further enable pluggable 400G, Windstream says it has become the first service provider member of the OpenZR+ MSA. “We see the OpenZR+ community as well-positioned to make progress around standardization and interoperability in the high-performance transceiver arena,” said Art Nichols, vice president of network architecture and technology at Windstream. “Our goal is not simply to take advantage of our interop and optimization learnings internally, but to also contribute to the industry as a whole in driving open networking forward.”
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