Windstream Wholesale and Infinera mark industry first with successful trial of LR8-based 400GbE client-side services

Industry-leading trial powered by Infinera’s Groove G30 platform

Windstream Wholesale, a leading provider of advanced network communications, and Infinera are the first to have successfully demonstrated 400GbE client-side services with commercially available ultra-efficient 400GbE-LR8 QSFP-DD compact pluggable interfaces. The trial leveraged Infinera’s commercially available 2 x 600G/Wavelength muxponder on its Groove (GX) G30 Compact Modular Platform with the CHM-2T sled, which enabled the customer facing 400GbE service to be transmitted using a single-carrier 600G wavelength. This achievement enhances Windstream’s ability to meet the ever-expanding bandwidth needs of its largest customers and solidify its position as an industry leader in wholesale services.

“We’re excited to partner with Windstream and leverage the power and flexibility of our 600G/Wavelength technology to deliver enhanced high-speed services,” said Glenn Laxdal, SVP, GM of Product Management, Infinera. “The ability to support 400GbE services with a wide variety of client interfaces and to carry those services across metro, regional and long-haul distances enables Windstream to seamlessly support their customers’ evolving connectivity needs.”

“Our customers’ bandwidth requirements are growing rapidly, and Windstream is increasing network capacity to meet this demand,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “Infinera’s GX G30 Compact Modular Platform provides an ultra-efficient transport solution enabling us to offer 400GbE services to support our customers’ high bandwidth needs. The use of LR8 clients with a single mode fiber interface and a 10-kilometer reach provides an extremely cost-effective solution by enabling us to extend these services directly to our customers’ premises.”

Windstream Wholesale’s optical infrastructure is engineered to seamlessly support high-speed optical services using state-of-the-art Flex Grid spectrum and flexible CDC architecture. This enables Windstream to leverage cost-effective 400G today, with 600G and 800G wavelengths in the future.

Source: Windstream and Infinera media announcement