Achieving 800G across 800km with ICE6

The success of Infinera and Corning’s 800G trial demonstrates the benefits of an industry leading coherent 800G solution with superior fibre designed to help meet growing bandwidth demands for network operators from metro to subsea network applications.

The demonstration leveraged Infinera’s ICE6 technology in a Groove (GX) Series platform transmitting 800G using 64QAM with probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS). This record-breaking achievement was accomplished using Corning’s state-of-the-art TXF fibre, an ITU-T G.654.E compliant, ultra-low-loss, silica-core fibre with large effective area. 

This demonstration highlighted the advanced features of Infinera’s vertically integrated ICE6 technology, including Nyquist subcarriers, per-subcarrier long-codeword PCS, and per-subcarrier dynamic bandwidth allocation. 

“This demonstration proves that 800G transmission using Infinera’s industry-leading technology enables a wide variety of network applications and is further enhanced by Corning’s innovative TXF fibre,” said Parthi Kandappan, Chief Technology Officer at Infinera. “This achievement is made possible by Infinera’s high degree of vertical integration including our in-house digital signal processor design, photonic integrated circuit design and manufacturing, and holistic in-house packaging.”

“We are pleased to work with Infinera to demonstrate how our combined leading-edge technologies can maximise capacity and reach,” said Jeanne Propst, Division Vice President, Product Line Management, Optical Fibre and Cable, Corning Incorporated. “Our TXF fibre, with its high-data-rate capabilities and exceptional reach, helps network operators stay ahead of growing bandwidth demands while lowering their overall network costs.”

ICE6 combines Infinera’s sixth-generation photonic integrated circuit with its in-house-developed 7-nanometre dual-channel 800G per-wave FlexCoherent digital signal processor.