On February 22, 2023, Fujitsu announced its 1FINITY Ultra Optical System, featuring 1.2Tbps transmission per wavelength. Fujitsu has compiled a compelling package of innovations that will meet its clients’ future optical network needs.
Omdia view
Summary
On February 22, 2023, Fujitsu announced its 1FINITY Ultra Optical System (Ultra), featuring 1.2Tbps transmission per wavelength. The solution’s additional innovations include continuous C+L ROADM architecture with forward Raman amplification. The new NTT Electronics Corporations (NEL) 5nm CMOS coherent DSP can support operations up to 140Gbaud. Fujitsu will also leverage a super-computer technology—liquid cooling—and introduce this into the Ultra. The company’s Virtuora Network Control Solution will manage the new Ultra. Fujitsu has a long history of listening very attentively to its Tier 1 customer requests. The company has compiled a compelling package of expected and unanticipated innovations that will no doubt meet its customers’ next-generation optical network needs.
Analyst’s view
Fujitsu launches 1FINITY Ultra Optical System
Fujitsu, a leading metro DWDM vendor, announced its 1FINITY Ultra Optical system to address the ultra-long-haul market segment. For many CSPs, their networks have been comprised of metro and long-haul portions with different vendors for each segment. With 1FINITY Ultra, Fujitsu will offer its customer base the opportunity to have both metro and long-haul networks served by one vendor using one network management system.
140Gbaud capabilities enable1.2 terabit wavelengths
Fujitsu’s Ultra will be based on a 5nm coherent DSP capable of 1.2Tbps wavelength transmission. Fujitsu’s high-performance coherent DSP was developed in cooperation with NTT. Commercially, NEL offers its DSP as ExaSPEED GAIA. In addition to the coherent DSP, NTT also developed the Coherent Driver Modulator. Per Fujitsu, this optical device incorporates a coherent optical modulation chip and a circuit to drive it, achieving operations up to 140Gbaud. With high-performance coherent DSP, CDM is developed as a key device to realize the All-Photonics Network (APN) proposed by the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) Global Forum.
Continuous C+L innovation
DWDM systems began operating in the C-band, with L-band being an afterthought. Since then, Fujitsu has evolved to have C-band and L-band spectrums designed into its continuous C+L ROADM architecture. Two wavelength selective switches (WSSs), one per band, have been reduced to one WSS for the combined continuous C+L bands, resulting in equipment and operational efficiency savings.
Improved system reach via extended Raman excitation
Fujitsu and Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. developed a forward Raman propagation technique that enhances system reach while minimizing noise propagation.
Liquid cooling for power reduction and sustainability innovation
Fujitsu has a long and impressive lineage in supercomputing. Fujitsu Networks is leveraging a closed-loop liquid cooling technology, initially developed for supercomputing applications, and introducing it into its Ultra Optical solution. Liquid cooling improves cooling efficiency while maintaining high reliability and maintainability, key attributes for long-lived optical systems.
Fujitsu has assembled an impressive bricolage of capabilities
Overall, combining 1.2Tbps wavelength transmission at 140Gbaud and continuous C+L with improved Raman performance, Fujitsu will bring to market an ultra-long-haul system capable of 80Tbps per fiber pair. Fujitsu has introduced a supercomputing technology into communications products, enabling a footprint and power draw savings.
Appendix
Author
Ian Redpath, Research Director, Transport Networks and Components
