While traveling the globe to meet Nokia customers, I have encountered diverse networking perspectives shaped by culture, past experiences and applications. Despite differences, a common theme I have encountered is the tension between introducing innovations into the network while retaining existing operational practices. Customers often seek the latest technology alongside familiar features, desiring change without disruption. I’m convinced, and I hope you are too, that we embraced this challenge with the latest evolution of the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) – the 1830 PSS-HC. 

The Nokia 1830 PSS is trusted globally by more than 1,000 network operators and continues to set industry benchmarks. To meet evolving capacity and service demands while reducing footprint and power per bit, we are introducing two new high-capacity shelves: the 1830 PSS-4hc and 1830 PSS-10hc. These shelves support the latest Nokia embedded and pluggable coherent optical engines, are designed for future coherent generations and support a broad range of traffic card types.

In my discussions with network operators, here are the five reasons they are excited about the 1830 PSS-HC.

Seamless network integration

The 1830 PSS HC shares the same software as the rest of the 1830 PSS family, including the 1830 PSS-x, 1830 PSI-L and 1830 PSI-M. This ensures both interoperability and a common feature set for operational consistency. The PSS-HC can be deployed over an existing 1830 PSS or 1830 PSI-L optical line system. In addition, the solution is supported by WaveSuite automation and management software. 

Deployment-friendly and field-proven

The 1830 PSS-HC supports carrier-class network protection mechanisms including client protection and coherent line interface protection. Deployment-hardened GMPLS software provides a standards-based, feature-rich, multi-layer control plane with fast restoration. As a chassis-based solution, capacity is scaled (up to 12Tb/s per slot) by adding additional traffic cards.

Future-ready coherent technology

The 1830 PSS-HC supports PSE-6s coherent optical engines, which deliver up to 140 GBaud and 1.2Tb/s per wavelength. Coherent pluggables are also supported, including industry-leading ICE-X 800G ZR/ZR+ pluggables, which leverage a 3-nm DSP and deep vertical integration to deliver high performance in a low-power QSFP-DD package. 450-mm depth and front-to-back airflow ensure the 1830 PSS-HC is ready for future high-performance embedded and pluggable coherent optical engines at 1.6 Tb/s and beyond.

Cost-effective, pay-as-you-grow scalability

Both client and line interfaces are pluggable in the PSS-HC. This enables capital expenses to scale linearly with bandwidth and service revenue. For example, the PSE-6s card supports up to four 1.2Tb/s PSE-6s pluggable modules, enabling one, two, three or four PSE-6s interfaces. On the PSE-6s card, 100GE LR4/CWDM4 client interfaces can be multiplexed onto 1Tb/s line-side wavelengths without wasting line-side components due to the pluggable nature of the line module. The 800G ZR/ZR+ card provides a thin transponder layer for 800Gb/s coherent pluggables, supporting one to 15 800Gb/s coherent line interfaces. Optical modularity also enables easy support for C-band and L-band transmission. 

Carrier-class, multi-service AND next-generation

Network operators must often choose among next-generation, multi-service and carrier-class when selecting a new optical platform. They can typically have one of these, sometimes two of these, but until now not all three at the same time. The 1830 PSS-HC is carrier-class with redundant hardware, optical protection, a GMPLS control plane, a traditional SNMP management option and 450-mm depth enabling deployment in 600-mm-deep racks. The 1830 PSS-HC is multi-service, architected for muxponder cards, distributed OTN switching and centralized OTN switching. The 1830 PSS-HC is next-generation, ready for future coherent engines. 

Come join us

We are incredibly excited to see the 1830 PSS-HC deliver the capacity, power and space innovation that network operators need while retaining feature and operational consistency with the broader portfolio. To learn more about this high-capacity addition to the 1830 PSS family, download the new 1830 PSS-HC datasheet or, even better, come and see us and the 1830 PSS-HC at the Nokia booth at Network X in Paris October 14-16, 2025. I look forward to seeing you there.