Arelion Achieves World’s First Live 1.6 Tb/s Wave Data Transmission with Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme

Arelion and Ciena announced the successful completion of the world's first 1.6 terabits-per-second wavelengths data transmission in a live network field trial. Powered by Ciena’s state-of-the-art WaveLogic 6 Extreme, this milestone occurred on Arelion’s 470km route between its existing Points-of-Presence in Ashburn, Virginia (Equinix) and Telxius’ (Telxius-CLS) Virginia Beach cable landing station, increasing capacity between two critical locations in Arelion’s North American network. Following this trial, Arelion will deploy WL6e across its network to increase its ability to serve the surging bandwidth demands of 5G, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning applications, cloud services, content delivery and more for wholesale and enterprise customers.

Ciena’s WL6e leverages coherent digital signal processing innovations to improve energy efficiency and performance, providing Arelion with a 50% space and power per bit reduction and 15% higher spectral efficiency compared to previous generations. WL6e will enable Arelion to deliver multiple 400 / 800 gigabits-per-second (Gb/s) services optimized using 1.6 Tb/s line capacity, supporting higher traffic volumes and faster connectivity speeds across its existing network footprint.

The trial also leveraged Ciena’s open, programmable 6500 Reconfigurable Line System, a solution designed to simplify and automate network service provisioning and reconfiguration. The milestone reinforces Arelion’s early investments in open optical networking and next-generation coherent optic solutions to improve performance, energy efficiency and cost savings.

“This new benchmark reflects our ongoing investment in cutting-edge optical networking technologies that increase capacity and performance while reducing energy consumption to benefit our customers,” said Dariusz Solowiej, VP Network Technology & Customer Operations at Arelion. “Our collaboration with Ciena is crucial in supporting global enterprises’ capacity needs amid rising power and colocation costs, helping us provide the reliable connectivity companies need to transfer massive data volumes at the fastest speeds available today.”

“This significant milestone with Arelion serves as a template for service providers striving to improve the energy efficiency and scalability of their optical networks amid mounting bandwidth demands,” said Jamie Jefferies, Vice President & General Manager, International at Ciena. “As the industry’s first 1.6 Tb/s coherent optic solution, WaveLogic 6 Extreme brings forth new innovative capabilities for optical transport, with forward-thinking service providers like Arelion leading the charge.”

This achievement enhances the performance of Arelion’s leading optical transmission services, including high-speed Managed Optical Fiber Services and Wavelengths for service providers, content providers and enterprises.

Ciena’s WL6e is the industry’s first high-bandwidth coherent transceiver using state-of-the-art 3nm silicon technology to drive significant economic benefits for operators, including a 50% reduction in space and power per bit.

Source: Arelion and Ciena media announcement