Summit Broadband deploys 400G using Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme
Florida-based fiber optic telecommunications provider Summit Broadband has launched 400G services following a network upgrade with Ciena. Summit Broadband is leveraging Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) [1.] to offer 400 Gbps wavelength services to enterprise customers in Central and Southwest Florida, Ciena said last week.
Summit Broadband owns and operates over 4,300 fiber-route miles of infrastructure and serves industries and communities throughout the state with voice, video, data, internet, and Ethernet services, as well as dark fiber transport.
Note 1. Summit Broadband is deploying Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai coherent optics across a flexible 6500 ROADM network, delivering 400GbE wave services to increase capacity and reach more users. Summit Broadband is also utilizing Ciena’s 3926 and 5164 Routing and Switching platforms for cost effective service delivery, as well as Adaptive IP Apps and Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller for real-time visibility and analysis of routing behaviors to optimize network performance and identify issues with greater ease for faster resolution.
Ciena noted that Summit Broadband has rolled out 400 Gbps wavelength to support the rise in data consumption of high-bandwidth applications such as cloud computing, IoT devices, video streaming, and enterprise services. This upgrade builds on the longstanding relationship between both companies, with Ciena powering Summit’s optical network.
In his first year as CEO, Kevin Coyne has transformed Summit Broadband’s network to create data superhighways encircling the Florida peninsula, serving customers in Central, West, and Southwest Florida. This recent network expansion gives Summit Broadband even greater flexibility and adaptability to respond to the increasing needs of its customers, including school districts and municipalities.
“The past year has shown us how having access to high-quality connectivity is a necessity for everyday life,” said Coyne. “We chose to invest in deploying Ciena’s cutting edge solutions to bring an enhanced digital experience across Florida, connecting more people and businesses using higher speeds and lower latency services.”
“The demand for bandwidth shows no signs of slowing down, and our new 400 Gbps service ensures that our business customers have the high performance and scalability essential for applications like data center interconnect, which require fast speeds and low latency.”
Additionally, the upgrade will allow Summit to deliver more data per unit of energy over our existing infrastructure, maximizing network utilisation and providing capex and opex savings, Summit Broadband added.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
In January, BW Digital, the owner of the Hawaiki Submarine Cable, confirmed the availability of commercial 400 GbE services on the Hawaiki trans-Pacific cable, powered by Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme subsea network solution.
References:
LightCounting reports from the OptiNet China Conference 2024, Tom William and Vlad Kozlov
The 24th OptiNet China conference was held at the JW Marriott Hotel Beijing Central, on June 19 and 20, 2024. The Grand Ballroom was packed with industry leaders, experts, scholars, and business representatives from the computing and telecommunication industry who gathered to support the development of China’s computing power networks and intelligent computing centers around AI-enabled high-speed and ultra-high-speed optical communication technologies.
LightCounting hosted its annual start-up competition at the event. Four Chinese companies and four start-ups from Europe and the US were selected as finalists and presented their stories to the audience and a panel of judges. Aloe Semiconductors received the award for Best Business Strategy, Latitude Design Automation Systems secured the Best Product award, and Silux Technologies won the Best Technology Award at the event.
Mr. Wei Leping, Director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Telecom and Chairman of the OptiNet China Conference gave the opening keynote speech as always. The title of his speech this year was “Development Trends and Thoughts on the Two Hot Areas of Optical Communication”. The two hot areas are:
Upgrades of telecom networks in China to 400G, which finally started in the end of 2023.
Accelerated expansion of datacenter networks in China and a much faster pace of innovation in this market segment.
China Telecom is the latest of the three major operators in deploying 400G and plans to start it this year. The plan includes 400G QPSK transmission across C+L band with new WSS modules and using an internally developed end-to-end network management and control system.
China Mobile started 400G deployments in September 2023 and China Unicom in early 2024. Both companies are also using 400G QPSK, enabled by 120G baud rate components and new 5-7nm DSPs. The majority of the components are manufactured by Chinese vendors, but few companies were willing to comment on the details.
Mr. Wei Leping also noted that Marvell, Acacia, Infinera and Nokia are already offering 1.2Tbps solutions and Ciena is introducing 1.6Tbps this year. Ciena’s new products use 180G baud components and 3nm DSPs. The next rate to expect is a 240G baud rate. The OIF plans to standardize 1.6T ZR/ZR+ in 2026, and start commercial use in 2027, sooner than originally anticipated.
The pace of optical network upgrades and expansion in data centers is a lot faster compared to the telecom networks. Upgrade cycles of telecom networks stretch to 15 years. Current deployments of 400G should support telecom operators until 2035-2040, according to Wei Leping. Cloud companies started deployments of 400G ZR/ZR+ in 2022-2023 and plan to adopt 800G ZR/ZR+ pluggable and 1.2T or 1.6T non-pluggable modules in 2025.
Deployments of AI clusters will further accelerate the upgrade cycles in DCI networks. Higher bandwidth accompanied with low latency will require all-optical networking between the data centers and even the end users. Whether this trend will accelerate upgrades to telecom networks remains to be seen.