Windstream Wholesale enters game-changing partnership with II-VI Incorporated to streamline 400G services

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Windstream Wholesale, a leading provider of advanced optical solutions, announced today that it has partnered with II-VI Incorporated (Nasdaq: IIVI), a global leader in engineered materials and optoelectronic components, to co-develop next-generation transceivers that will streamline deployment of 400 gigabit services while significantly reducing costs, power consumption and network complexity.

“This game-changing partnership is a vital step toward making 400G wavelengths the default deployment service for large wholesale and hyperscale customers,” said Buddy Bayer, chief network officer at Windstream. “II-VI’s high transmit power 0dBm 400G QSFP-DD DCO transceivers will enable Windstream to deploy greatly simplified network architectures, by optically connecting routers directly to access, metro, and regional transport networks without additional intermediary interfaces, eliminating an entire layer of optical equipment. This revolution in IP-over-DWDM network architecture achieves significant savings in upfront costs and ongoing expenses, affording Windstream a highly competitive operational model.”

Windstream Wholesale announced in February 2021 that it had deployed 400 gigabits per second single-wavelength transmission across its long-haul network using compact, low-power, industry-compliant pluggable modules. These modules represent the next major step in network evolution while driving high-capacity optical connections to the network edge to deliver ultra-fast speeds to more end-users than ever before.

Today’s announcement bolsters Windstream Wholesale’s position as a technology leader and pioneer leveraging a multi-layer open architecture that enables a fast and flexible solution along with interoperability through the fundamental design principles of disaggregation, promoting speed, flexibility and interoperability standards.

“Our partnership with Windstream will fast-track the development of a disruptive 400G transmission technology that builds on our award-winning integrated coherent transmitter and receiver optical subassembly, or IC-TROSA, which itself is based on our advanced and proprietary indium phosphide technology along with our industry leading opto-electronic integration platform,” said Matthias Berger, vice president, coherent technology, II-VI Incorporated. “Indium phosphide is the intrinsic enabler of the 400G transceiver’s high 0 dBm output power yet with low enough power consumption to be uniquely suitable for QSFP-DD.”

The new technology will:

• Deliver the world’s first high-performance 0 dBm, 400G QSFP-DD coherent pluggable module—making these transceivers compatible with existing and emerging modern ROADM based photonic layers supporting multi-service, multi-layer architectures;
• Significantly increase 400G transceiver density by drastically reducing the size and power demands of 400G pluggables relative to sled-based and even CFP2-based solutions;
• Reduce capex and opex by allowing for direct insertion of high-performance coherent optics into current 400G enabled routers, based on the smaller form factor; and
• Open up a direct technical path for the further evolution IP-over-DWDM with ROADM-based photonic layers, extending the application space beyond simple point-to-point DCI style networks.