Today CESNET announced the research community’s first deployment of Ciena´s Waveserver Ai platform. The Czech research organization has interconnected GÉANT´s high-capacity routers using a 300 Gbps alien wavelength over 530km of CESNET network with Czech Light Open Line System. This accomplishment shows how the research and education community can establish reliable all-optical transmission that transit multiple networks that are crucial to Europe’s modern academic and scientific organizations.
CESNET, an active representative of NRENs in Europe, is evaluating the newest technologies to take a critical step toward future-proofing data networks for educational and research communities throughout the region,” said Rod Wilson, Chief Technologist for Research of Ciena. “Waveserver Ai is designed to address evolving density and power requirements for ultra-high-capacity interconnect applications of this nature.”
This solution has made it possible for CESNET to improve GEANT network resiliency through additional network meshing by combining spectrum sharing of CESNET network with DCI technology from Ciena. By deploying 300 Gbps wavelength, CESNET and Ciena demonstrate how R&E institutions may set up international capacity to run exceptional bandwidth-intensive service and applications such as HPC, with the future Exascale Super Computers, large data sets transfer and data storage migration. GÉANT is now carrying live traffic over unprecedented wavelength capacity of 300 Gbps across CESNET’s existing fibre that was originally engineered as a 10 Gbps compensated network, between the Prague and Vienna nodes located in two neighboring countries.
With national research and education network (NREN) traffic growing more than 70 percent each year, the high-density Waveserver Ai stackable interconnect platform, equipped with industry-leading WaveLogic Ai coherent optics, allows CESNET to deliver to GÉANT a solution that supports high-capacity applications while reducing power, footprint and cost per bit. GÉANT is also reducing network cost by spectrum sharing with NRENs while improving network resiliency by using network meshing as a safeguard against unpredictable spikes in traffic. Additionally, alien wavelength implementation enables the sharing of dark fiber infrastructure within the NREN community, ensuring these organizations are prepared for future growth by allowing them to quickly scale capacity up or down based on network demand.
Our network is designed to support the transfer of extremely large data sets and dedicated photonic services among geographically dispersed locations, especially, due to unique concepts used for network development, for example Nothing in Line (NIL),” said Josef Vojtěch, head of optical networks department of CESNET. “The 300 Gbps wavelength is seamlessly running in parallel with precise time and ultra-stable optical frequency transmissions. Together with Ciena and GÉANT, we are ensuring Europe’s R&E community can reliably connect anywhere, at any time, with any capacity.”
In this Chalk Talk video, Joe Shapiro, Ciena product manager, details the new Waveserver Ai platform. Waveserver Ai is purpose-built for DCI applications, delivering up to 400G per wavelength and 2.4 Terabits of client plus 2.4 Terabits of line capacity in a single rack unit – by far the highest capacity for a 1RU platform in the industry. This dramatically increases total potential fiber capacity to 30Tbps in flexible grid networks.
