Thin Transponder Layer

Expanding the power of high-performance coherent pluggables

What are thin transponders?

Thin transponders are streamlined pluggable transponders that provide the most cost-effective, compact and power-efficient host for coherent pluggables in optical transport platforms. They deliver much of the economic benefits of coherent routing without any of the operational challenges or loss of key functionality. Providing up to a 50 % reduction in space per bit and up to a 40 % reduction in power per bit, compared to embedded transponders, thin transponders maintain domain separation, client port aggregation, lawful intercept, streaming telemetry, alarm isolation and optical layer resiliency.

What are the benefits of thin transponders?

Thin transponders provide a new way to leverage coherent pluggables to improve network scalability and economics.

Reduce TCO

Up to 40% in CapEx ($/Gbps), up to 50% in footprint (RU) and up to 40% in power consumption (Watts/Gbps).

Support numerous applications

Leverage the latest generation of coherent pluggables with performance to support virtually any network application >1700km at 800G and >3000km at 400G.

Maintain operational efficiency

Thin transponders provide domain separation, client port aggregation, lawful intercept, streaming telemetry, alarm isolation and optical layer resiliency.

Improving optical transport economics with thin transponders

A new class of technology is quietly reshaping the optical transport landscape.

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Thin is in – combining the best of both worlds

Exploring new solutions to efficiently utilize the latest generation of high-performance and power-efficient coherent pluggables.

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Multi-haul coherent pluggables - powering the thin transponder layer

The latest generation of coherent pluggable optics are taking on new roles for data center interconnect and coherent routing.

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Find out how we've helped organizations like yours

Customer success

Nokia selected for Medusa Submarine Cable System to bring new connectivity across Europe and North Africa

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Telin selects Nokia to interconnect data centers across Singapore

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Cybernet and Nokia redefine Pakistan’s network landscape with 1.2T-per-lambda backbone

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Nokia and Islalink achieve 800Gbps capacity-reach record over the IONIAN submarine cable

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a coherent pluggable?

A coherent pluggable is an optical networking transport solution consisting of an optical front-end and a digital signal processor packaged into a small discrete pluggable unit that can be flexibly deployed in a variety of host systems. Coherent optical transport solutions are capable of transmitting a significant amount of information (800Gb/s+) over a single frequency (wavelength) combined with numerous other signals onto a single fiber enabling >50Tb/s of total fiber capacity.

What is an embedded transponder?

An embedded transponder is an optical transmission solution for telecommunications networks that integrates the highest performance optical transceivers into a customized interface module. Embedded transponders provide the highest individual signal transmission speeds and enable the transmission of the greatest amount information on a single fiber (>100T/bs).

What is a pluggable transponder?

A pluggable transponder is an optical transmission solution for telecommunications networks that enables support for small, power efficient, pluggable optical transceivers in interface modules that can be installed into optical transport platforms. Pluggable transponders provide a flexible, cost effective and power efficient method of increasing the scalability of optical transport networks.