Ciena sends a 1.6T optical lambda over a 470km link

• Ciena details its first live trial result using its latest WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent modem.
• The modem will be generally available at the end of the month.  

Ciena has detailed its newest coherent modem's first optical networking performance: sending 1.6 terabits of data over a 470km fibre link.   

Helen Xenos

The field trial used Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent modem in telecom operator Arelion's live network.

The link connects an Equinix data centre in Ashburn to a Telxius submarine cable landing station also in Virginia. 

"The fact that we are achieving 1.6-terabit wavelengths across close to 500 kilometres is a testament to the performance and integrity of the design," says Helen Xenos, senior director of portfolio marketing at Ciena.

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How DSP smarts continue to improve optical transport

• Kim Roberts explains the signal processing techniques Ciena is using for its WaveLogic 6 coherent DSP.
• Roberts explains how the techniques squeeze, on average, a 15 per cent improvement in spectral efficiency.
• The WaveLogic 6 Extreme chip can execute 1,600 trillion (1.6 x 10¹⁵) operations per second and uses the equivalent of 4km of on-chip copper interconnect.

Part 2: WaveLogic 6's digital signal processing toolkit

Kim Roberts, Ciena’s vice president of WaveLogic Science and winner of the 2019 John Tyndall Award

Bumping into Kim Roberts on the way to the conference centre at OFC, held in San Diego in March, I told him how, on the Ciena briefing about its latest WaveLogic 6 coherent digital signal processor (DSP), there had been insufficient time to dive deeply into the signal processing techniques used.

“What are you doing now?” said Roberts.

“I’m off to the plenary session to catch the keynotes.”

Chatting some more, I realised I was turning down a golden opportunity to sit down with a leading DSP and coherent modem architect.

“Is that offer still open?” I asked.

He nodded.

We grabbed a table at a nearby cafe and started what would prove to be an hour-long conversation.

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