Windstream teamed with Cisco’s Acacia and component supplier II-VI on a successful interoperability trial of 400G ZR+ modules in a production environment, marking a key milestone on the road to open networks. Art Nichols, Windstream’s VP of network architecture and technology, told Fierce the test demonstrates that long-dreamed of interoperability between pluggable optics is not only possible, but now a reality.
According to Nichols, Windstream’s trial is believed to be the first of its kind. While Acacia and Microchip Technology previously partnered to prove interoperability between their respective transport components in October 2021, Nichols explained their test primarily focused on short-reach, intra-data center optics. By contrast, Windstream’s test was conducted over a 1,027-kilometer (about 638-mile) 400G link, which was bookended by a transceiver from Acacia on one side and II-VI on the other.
“All transceivers historically have been bookended…with a single vendor technology” he explained. Enabling multi-vendor deployments is something the industry has been “chasing for some time and this is the entry into that reality,” Nichols added. While he declined to specify performance metrics, he noted “this is suitable for an operational network over a long span. So we’re able to take that and extrapolate with confidence what this means for deployment into the rest of the network.”
Windstream is looking to apply the technology across its Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) infrastructure. Nichols said the plugs the operator has been working on with II-VI are expected to become available in the middle of this year, and it plans to begin deploying them in late 2022. Acacia’s pluggables are already available, he added.
Why it matters
In terms of practical impacts, Nichols said the ability to use open, pluggable optics will allow Windstream and other operators to significantly cut costs and simplify their networks.
“What we’re talking about is optics that are suitable from a power and a space and a form factor [perspective] to be placed directly into routers. Historically optics existed in a whole separate transport element,” he explained.
“If you remove the need for a whole separate box and a whole separate point of failure and a whole separate point of costs, [and] all the other things that come along with having another element in the path of a given fiber connection, if you rid that from the equation suddenly that individual connection and the network at large is simplified,” Nichols continued. “It turns out it increases reliability by taking them out, it certainly reduces costs for maybe obvious reasons and it ultimately enables greater automation, greater simplification, greater operational efficiency.”
In addition to its trial, Windstream announced it joined the OpenZR+ Multi-Source Agreement, making it the first service provider to do so.
Nichols said the move will allow it to act as a neutral third party to bring together vendors in the community which may be at odds. He added the operator is hoping others will follow its lead now that its work with partners has proven the technology to be viable.