Ciena Spotlights Latest Data Center Innovations at ECOC 2025

Demonstrations include the industry's first driverless 448Gb/s PAM4 optical transmission over 500m of fiber

At this week's ECOC 2025 (booth #C2129) taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) will showcase some of the company's latest coherent optical and IMDD innovations that bring greater scale, reliability and high-speed connectivity for inside and around the data center.

Demonstrations:

• Advancing next generation 3.2T optical interconnect: Ciena, HyperLight and McGill show the industry's first driverless 448G PAM4 optical transmission over 500m of fiber using Ciena 448Gb/s DSP in 3nm silicon, HyperLight sub-volt direct drive thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) modulator and McGill digital signal processing code.
• Gaining interconnect flexibility with high-performance 224G SerDes: demonstrating Ciena's state-of-the-art 3nm CMOS-based 224G SerDes, a functional block in Ciena's WaveLogic 6 Nano 1.6T Coherent-Lite.
• Bringing more scale and flexibility to data center fabric and campus networks with 1.6T Coherent-Lite: showcasing industry's first coherent pluggable transceiver with 8x224G SerDes that is space and power-optimized for deployment in applications traditionally using intensity modulation direct detect (IMDD) technologies.
• Addressing scale and performance requirements of geographically distributed AI clusters with WL6n 800G ZR+ pluggables: showcasing the newest product shipping in Ciena's industry-leading WaveLogic family of coherent optics, WaveLogic 6 Nano harnesses Ciena's advanced technology to power a wide range of applications, from 800ZR metro DCI to 800G metro/regional and 400G ultra-long-haul deployments.
• OIF (booth #C3425): Supporting OIF's 800ZR, 800G OpenROADM, 400ZR, 400G OpenZR+, 100ZR and Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) interoperability demos with Ciena's 8192 coherent router, WaveLogic 6 Nano 800G and WaveLogic 5 Nano 400G coherent pluggable transceivers, and Navigator Network Control Suite.

Speaking Sessions:

• Monday, September 29: Powering AI: Exploring modulation strategies for 448G electrical interconnects, featuring Ciena's Naim Ben-Hamida, Sr. Director of Analog Engineering. The topic of 448 Gb/s per lane speeds for data center networking has become one of the hottest discussions in the industry driven by the relentless push of AI. Modulation format is one of the foundational decisions that needs to be made in order to advance this new technology. Current experimental data suggests that PAM4 is likely a reasonable choice for 448G optical interfaces. However, electrical interfaces present additional challenges. This presentation walks through and analyzes extensive experimental data measured using Ciena high-bandwidth 3 nm silicon, exploring the benefits and challenges for electrical interconnect using a variety of modulation formats.

• Tuesday, September 30: Beyond 1600ZR: Liquid cooling, advanced optics, and the evolution of the pluggable, featuring Ciena's Frank Chang, Sr. Director, Product Line Management, WaveLogic Technologies. As the number of XPUs required for LLM training exponentially increases from tens to hundreds of thousands and power density per rack increases while total data center power remains constant, new innovations in higher-speed, low-power, and high-performance optical interconnects are needed. This session provides insights into the next generation of coherent pluggable transceivers that will power networks of the future, including 1600ZR, 1600ZR+, and beyond. Examples of technology readiness will be presented, from 3 nm to 2 nm and 18A CMOS technology nodes to 140 GHz-capable electro-optics. The foundational shift from air-cooled to liquid-cooled pluggables with the 3.2T generation will also be presented, including design details recently presented at the OSFP MSA.

OIF Unites Interoperability and Innovation at OFC 2025: Driving Industry Progress in Performance, Efficiency and Capacity for Future-Oriented Data Centers OIF continues to lead the charge in advancing interoperability, with 35 member companies at OFC 2025 showcasing innovative solutions that redefine performance, efficiency and capacity. The work being demonstrated-including 800ZR, 400ZR, OpenZR+, Multi-span optics, EEI & Co-Packaging, Common Electrical I/O (CEI) CEI-448G, CEI-224G & CEI-112G and CMIS-is collectively enabling the industry to move forward toward future-oriented data centers and laying the foundation for hyperscalers to scale AI networks seamlessly. Visit OIF at booth #5745 to experience these groundbreaking solutions live. For more information, visit: https://www.oiforum.com/meetings-events/oif-ofc-2025/.

About Ciena
Ciena is the global leader in high-speed connectivity. We build the world's most adaptive networks to support exponential growth in bandwidth demand. By harnessing the power of our networking systems, components, automation software, and services, Ciena revolutionizes data transmission and network management. With unparalleled expertise and innovation, we empower our customers, partners, and communities to thrive in the AI era. For updates on Ciena, follow us on LinkedIn and X, or visit the Ciena Insights webpage and Ciena website.

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