New technologies including 448Gb/s PAM4 and Coherent-Lite support emergent applications in and around the data center

At OFC 2025, occurring March 30 to April 3 in San Francisco, Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) will showcase in booth #2443 industry-first coherent optical and IMDD technologies that bring new levels of scalability and flexibility to data center designs.

A recent Ciena global survey found that data center experts anticipate at least a sixfold increase in DCI bandwidth demand over the next five years, requiring new levels of scalability. To address this challenge, Ciena, the established leader in high-speed optical innovation, is bringing its expertise to high-performance interconnects—the pluggables and components required to support growth in cloud and AI traffic.

Ciena will break new ground with the following live demonstrations of industry-first technologies:

  • 1.6T Coherent-Lite: Featuring Ciena’s 224G SerDes, 1.6T Coherent-Lite provides robustness and a higher loss budget at a comparable power consumption to IMDD, supporting the scale and flexibility needed for data center and campus applications.
  • Paving the way to 3.2T interconnects: Only Ciena has 448Gb/s PAM4 working in silicon today, powered by Ciena’s ultra-high-bandwidth DAC (digital-to-analog) and ADC (analog-to-digital) converters implemented in low-power 3nm CMOS. Electrical PAM4 transmission will be shown in OIF booth #5745, and optical PAM4 IMDD transmission will be demonstrated in Ciena’s booth.

“Faster data rates inside cloud and AI-powered data centers require transformative technology,” noted Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst at Cignal AI. “With Ciena's latest innovations, such as 1.6T Coherent-Lite and 448Gb/s PAM4, the company is demonstrating how its technical leadership in coherent optical technology can be directly applied to solve these emerging challenges within the data center.”

“Ciena understands the challenges that hyperscalers, cloud, and AI providers are facing in and around the data center. Through our unmatched coherent technology expertise and vertical integration know-how, we are uniquely positioned to bring to market the innovative solutions required for next-generation data center applications and interconnection,” said Brodie Gage, Senior Vice President, Global Products & Supply Chain, Ciena.

Ciena’s Optical Leadership

Ciena has a proven track record of being first to market with optical technology innovations:

  • First 3nm coherent DSP in communications
  • First 200GBaud analog-digital and digital-analog converters
  • First 224G SerDes in a coherent ASIC
  • First high-bandwidth 100GHz transmitter and receiver
  • First 448Gb/s PAM4 transmission

OIF Unites Interoperability and Innovation at OFC 2025: Driving Industry Progress in Performance, Efficiency and Capacity for Future-Oriented Data Centers
OIF continues to lead the charge in advancing interoperability, with 35 member companies at OFC 2025 showcasing innovative solutions that redefine performance, efficiency and capacity. The work being demonstrated—including 800ZR, 400ZR, OpenZR+, Multi-span optics, EEI & Co-Packaging, Common Electrical I/O (CEI) CEI-448G, CEI-224G & CEI-112G and CMIS—is collectively enabling the industry to move forward toward future-oriented data centers and laying the foundation for hyperscalers to scale AI networks seamlessly. Visit OIF at booth #5745 to experience these groundbreaking solutions live. For more information, visit: https://www.oiforum.com/meetings-events/oif-ofc-2025/.

About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a global leader in networking systems, services, and software. We build the most adaptive networks in the industry, enabling customers to anticipate and meet ever-increasing digital demands. For three-plus decades, Ciena has brought our humanity to our relentless pursuit of innovation. Prioritizing collaborative relationships with our customers, partners, and communities, we create flexible, open, and sustainable networks that better serve all users—today and into the future. For updates on Ciena, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com.

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