Ciena is well known for our pedigree in subsea, long-haul, and metro optical networks, but what about taking our innovations in and around the data center? Brodie Gage, Senior Vice President of Global Products & Supply Chain explains how Ciena is helping our customers tackle new AI-driven challenges.
Ciena has long been known as the global leader in high-speed optical networking. At the core of our approach are industry-leading coherent modem technology, versatile optical line systems, and advanced network automation tools. These solutions are widely deployed in subsea, long-haul, metro DWDM, and data center interconnect (DCI) networks of all sizes, setting the standard for modern optical networks and ensuring they can scale while reducing power and space requirements.
As we look forward, the rapid expansion of cloud services and the exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications have led to soaring traffic growth, beyond the typical 30% annual growth rate. We know first-hand that service, cloud, and content providers demand the highest capacity and lowest latency network architectures to underpin innovative new AI solution offerings.
We are already helping our customers meet those demands with our WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent modem—the industry’s only 1.6 Tb/s single wavelength solution, integrated C&L band photonics solutions, and network control tools. In addition to these hardware and software capabilities, Ciena is also focusing on automating capacity deployment to meet the industry's demand for accelerated and error-free deployment.
At Ciena, we think big and will never stop pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Our teams aren’t slowing down on developing innovations to support traditional applications, but did you know we are leveraging the strength of our market-leading optical technology to do more? We are expanding our solutions not only to address connectivity needs for thousands of kilometers but also across a data center campus and inside the data center itself—something we like to call “in and around the data center.”
This shouldn’t surprise you because addressing the hardest networking challenges is what Ciena does best, and AI is bringing with it a pile of new challenges for us to help you tackle.
We are expanding our solutions not only to address connectivity needs for thousands of kilometers but also across a data center campus and inside the data center itself—something we like to call “in and around the data center."
Building on our optical strength – innovative solutions inside and around the data center
The data center space is seeing incredible growth driven in part by AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) related build-outs. AI clusters are scaling massively, rapidly growing to hundreds of thousands of interconnected xPUs (GPUs, TPUs, etc.), consuming unprecedented amounts of power, and needing a greater distribution of compute infrastructure across data centers. In response, global cloud and AI solution providers are challenging the industry to deliver innovations that enable scalable data center designs with high performance, low power, and flexible connectivity – aligning perfectly with the technology innovations Ciena provides.
Our data center strategy focuses on three key areas:
1) Metro DCI (Data Center Interconnect)
2) Campus applications (2-20km)
3) Intra-Data Center applications
Let me tell you a bit more about what we’re doing in each of these areas.
- Metro DCI
As data centers become more distributed and the distances between them decrease, coherent pluggable transceivers deployed directly on routers offer the most space, power, and cost-efficient solution. Ciena is a leading supplier for these applications with our WaveLogic Nano portfolio, and the demand for our high-performing, best-in-class pluggables is strong and growing. Our WaveLogic 5 Nano 400G coherent pluggables are being deployed in volume today, and our WaveLogic 6 Nano 800G pluggables are currently sampling and will be generally available in the first half of this year. In addition, development for the next-generation 1600ZR pluggable solution is well underway.
- Campus applications
As interconnect line rates increase, driven by the demands of AI, achieving the required performance and reach for optical interconnects inside and around the data center will become increasingly challenging using traditional intensity modulated direct detect (IMDD) technology. To address this, we’re introducing groundbreaking products like our 1.6T Coherent-Lite solution, offering significant performance and capacity benefits to IMDD technology, with the ability to support WDM and extend reach to 20km or more, while also providing lower latency and lowest cost per bit compared to 400ZR/800ZR pluggables. For campus applications, this provides operators with unprecedented flexibility to build and connect data centers near sustainable energy sources while maintaining optimal performance.
- Intra-data center applications
We are planning to leverage our expertise in mixed signal design and packaging to introduce optimized 224G and 448G SerDes chiplets. These technologies provide industry-leading performance for use across both scale up and scale out AI driven applications, such as embedded xPU, xPO engines and AECs.
In fact, only Ciena has 448Gb/s PAM4 working in silicon today, powered by state-of-the-art 224GDAC (digital-to-analog) and ADC (analog-to-digital) technologies in 3nm CMOS. This achievement not only paves the way for next-generation interconnects, such as 3.2T and beyond, but also enables progress toward a more sustainable digital infrastructure.
Strategic solutions to unlock AI and cloud opportunities
Ciena’s strategy for addressing AI and cloud growth is more than a technological roadmap; it’s a commitment to helping service providers and cloud operators alike prepare for the opportunities presented by AI in the WAN and inside and around the data center. With our cutting-edge technology, Ciena is uniquely positioned to guide operators through this next chapter of network evolution.
Faster data rates inside cloud and AI-powered data centers require transformative technology. 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.
In addition to showcasing our innovations to meet the growing demand for subsea, terrestrial, and metro networks, Ciena’s data center strategy will be on display at OFC.
Here’s what you can expect to see:
- The industry’s first 1.6Tb/s coherent solution with WL6e on our Waveserver and 6500 platforms, enabling highest capacity connectivity in all applications
- Our programmable photonic line systems supporting application-optimized configurations from edge to core, including ROADM terminal site evolution to support multi-rail deployments
- Our metro DCI solutions including WaveLogic 5 Nano 400G and WaveLogic 6 Nano 800G coherent pluggable transceivers
- The industry’s first live showcase of a 1.6T Coherent-Lite solution for campus DCI and intra-data center applications supporting 1.6 Tb/s throughput with 224G SerDes
- The industry’s first 448Gb/s PAM4 working in silicon, powered by Ciena’s ultra-high-bandwidth DAC (digital-to-analog) and ADC (analog-to-digital) converters implemented in low-power 3nm CMOS, paving the way to 3.2T interconnects. Both electrical PAM4 and optical PAM4 IMDD transmission will be demonstrated
I hope to see you at OFC. We’re excited to share this strategy and these innovations with you.
