Telecom & service provider
Metro, access, and DCI links, DWDM, coherent ZR, and per-channel performance you can SLA against.
Service-provider networks span metro fibre rings, mobile fronthaul / midhaul / backhaul, cable / PON access aggregation, and inter-data-centre transport. The constants: high per-port density, multi-vendor interoperability across legacy IP/MPLS gear, and per-channel optical performance that has to hold up under regulatory SLA scrutiny. Optical transceivers in this segment span direct-detect LR/ER, DWDM tunables, and 100G/400G/800G coherent ZR / ZR+.
Operating constraints
- Long unrepeatered reach (40–120 km without amplification, 500–1500 km with EDFA chains)
- Wavelength planning across DWDM C-band and L-band
- Tight per-channel BER and OSNR margins
- Interoperability across multi-vendor IP/MPLS, optical transport, and customer-edge gear
- Capex pressure, coherent ZR replacing dedicated muxponders is the dominant 2024–2026 trend
Use cases
Metro DCI on dark fibre
Inter-data-centre links across town: typically 20–80 km on lit single-mode dark fibre. 100G coherent ZR and 400G ZR have largely displaced direct-detect ER4/ZR4, they tolerate fibre impairments much better and remove the need for dispersion compensation modules.
5G fronthaul / midhaul
eCPRI / O-RAN open-fronthaul links between radios and DUs/CUs. 25G, 50G, or 100G fibre depending on radio config. SyncE / IEEE 1588 PTP timing requirements drive tighter Tx jitter specs than typical enterprise SKUs, confirm SyncE-compliant variants where needed.
PON / GPON / XGS-PON aggregation
Upstream from OLT chassis to core aggregation routers. 10G, 25G, and 100G fibre uplinks. Standard LR4 / ER4 for the aggregation tier; tunable DWDM SFP+ for some PON-tunable architectures.
Long-haul DCI and metro mesh
Inter-city transport, typically 100–1500 km. 400G ZR+ and 800G ZR+ coherent modules with OpenZR+ FEC enable transport that previously required dedicated optical transport systems. C-band DWDM, integrated amplification, polarisation-mux DSP.
Recommended SKUs for this segment
- NAP-QSFP28-100ZR (100G coherent, 80–120 km)
- NAP-QSFPDD-400ZR (OIF 400ZR, 80–120 km)
- NAP-QSFPDD-400ZR-PLUS (OpenZR+, 500–1000 km+)
- NAP-OSFP-800ZR (800G coherent, 80–120 km)
- NAP-OSFP-800ZR-PLUS (OpenZR+ 800G, 500 km+ with amps)
- NAP-SFPP-DWDM-TUN (tunable 10G DWDM, 80 km)
Design notes
- Pre-FEC BER and OSNR per channel matter more here than at the enterprise tier. Provision SLAs against pre-FEC BER, not post-FEC.
- OpenZR+ adds line-side enhancements over OIF 400ZR for carrier-class metro: stronger FEC, configurable launch power, and 16-QAM/8-QAM modes for longer reach.
- PTP / SyncE timing transparency varies by transceiver SKU, verify with us before deploying in 5G fronthaul.
Designing a telecom & service provider deployment?
Our pre-sales engineers will review your topology, fibre plant, and switch firmware and spec the SKU list before you order. Free.