GEN90P Coherent Trials and Deployments

Last Updated November 18, 2021

Cignal AI is no longer tracking announcements of GEN90(P)erformance (800Gbps-capable, 90+ GBaud) optical trials and deployments in this post.

Methodology

This report tracks publicly announced, terrestrial trials and network wins by vendors of 5th generation coherent optics.

Only terrestrial wins are tracked, as submarine builds are atypical. See the last section for a plot of submarine trials and announcements for comparison.
Only publicly announced trials and customer wins are tracked. Each point on the graphs below can be traced to a press release or other public announcement.
Some trials are designed to demonstrate maximum performance of the optics while others are performed on real-world networks with sub-optimal characteristics (e.g. multiple ROADMs, older fiber, etc.). This tracker merely reports the data released, not the relative merits of each announcement.
5th generation coherent optics is defined as optics operating at rates in excess of 90GBaud. 5th generation is not defined by the top speed or performance of the optics. 5th generation optical engines include the Infinera ICE6, Ciena WaveLogic 5 Extreme, Nokia PSE-Vs, and Huawei OptiXtreme 7.

Results

The first graph demonstrates GEN90P performance by different vendors based on publicly available information, with the speed and distance for each announcement plotted on a log scale (blue triangles). GEN90P optics are capable of operating at many different speeds, typically ranging from 100Gbps to 800Gbps. Slower speeds can operate over longer distances while higher speeds are intended for shorter distance operations.

As a comparison, publicly announced GEN60P generation (~60-70GBaud) trials and announcements are plotted as red squares. Note that the maximum speed for GEN60P coherent optics is 400Gbps for the Ciena WaveLogic Ai and 600Gbps for Acacia Pico/AC1200 and Nokia PSE-3.

GEN60(C)ompact pluggable coherent optics field trial announcements began with Cisco/Acacia in February 2021. GEN60C coherent optics – also called 400ZR or 400ZR+ – are available in multiple pluggable formats, but the highest performance optics are typically provided as CFP2s. For comparison, those high performance pluggable coherent trials are included in green on the graph below.

GEN90P and GEN 60P Coherent Announcements – Distance versus Speed

The second graph shows trials (blue) and commercial deployments (red) as vendors work with their customers to deploy GEN90P optics. The first GEN90P announcements were in January of 2020. The COVID-19 shutdown inhibited the ability of vendors to complete trials with some customers, but the announcements started to pick back up in June.

GEN90P Coherent Announcements – Speed versus Time

Vendor Summary

Infinera focused on demonstrating the capabilities of the ICE6 over long distances at 800Gbps, with no other vendor showing distances in the 600-900km range at full speed. The cluster of Infinera points at 800Gbps in the first graph is a result of Infinera’s strategy of pushing the limits of coherent capabilities based on its belief that ICE6 has superior performance.
Ciena has focused on commercial deployments of WaveLogic 5e and is responsible for all the red points (commercial deployment announcements, not trials) in the second graph. Ciena claims that its performance rivals Infinera’s, but to date has not demonstrated comparable distances at 800Gbps.
[Update 2 September 2020] Ciena has taken the time to do an limits-pushing trial of Wavelogic 5e with TELUS and reported a 970km span, the longest 800Gbps span to date.
Huawei had a few trial OptiXtreme 7 announcements early at relatively short distances but has been quiet lately. Huawei may be having issues with development as access to 7nm fabrication has been cut off due to political pressure on TSMC.
[Update 16 April 2021] Huawei demonstrated 1100km transmission of 800Gbps in a lab environment with a pre-production DSP, further demonstrating the power of 5th generation technology to operate over long distances.
[Update 22 July 2020] Huawei claims to have received sufficient inventory of OptiXtreme 7 chipsets prior to the access cutoff, that those chipsets have been used in trials with customers, and that those customer trials are not public. Cignal AI is attempting to independently verify those claims.
Nokia announced the PSE-V GEN90P coherent engine (see Nokia PSE-V Coherent Chipset) but hasn’t made any trial or deployment announcements.
[Update 22 July 2020] Nokia announced a trial with Orange of the PSE-V chipset. While this is not a trial of equipment, the performance and dates have been added to the charts for comparison. Note that the maximum speed of the PSE-V is 600Gbps by design.

Submarine Trials and Announcements

Submarine (SLTE) trials and announcements are not included in the graphs above. For comparison, the chart below plots GEN90P and GEN60P speed and distance for SLTE trials and commercial announcements. GEN60P solutions are shown with red squares. GEN90P solutions are shown with blue triangles.

5th and 3rd Generation Coherent SLTE Announcements – Distance versus Speed

November, 2021 – Added latest wins and announcements from Nokia, ADVA (GEN60P), and Ciena.
October, 2021 – Updated generation nomenclature. Added latest wins and trials from Infinera and Ciena.
August, 2021 – Added the latest wins from Infinera and Ciena.
June, 2021 – Added Neophotonics CFP2 trial, Ciena trial with Telia Carrier / Aqua Comms and wins with Segra, AccessOn, and Macatel, and Infinera win at UFINET.
April, 2021 – Added Huawei lab demonstration of 1100km performance and Ciena Bell Canada and Altibox wins.
March, 2021 – Added Infinera’s commercial win with EllaLink, NeoPhotonics QSFP-DD 400ZR+ trial, and Ciena’s Aqua Comms, Internet2, and Zayo wins and COLT Japanese trial.
February, 2021 – Added Ciena’s Southern Cross win. Added Cisco/Acacia 4th generation trial with Windstream.
January, 2021 – Added Infinera’s MAREA subsea trial and Ciena’s LTV, LG U+, and Vogel wins.
November, 2020 – Added Ciena’s subsea wins with SUB.CO and Hawaiki, terrestrial wins with RETN and NTT Communications, and September trial with Telstra.
September 2nd, 2020 – Added Ciena’s 970km 800Gbps trial and updated text in the Ciena section.
August 5th, 2020 – Added Methodology, 3rd generation coherent data points, SLTE Performance, additional 5th generation trials
July 25th – Added notes on Huawei and Nokia and added Nokia datapoints

References

GEN90P

GEN60P

GEN60C