DZS unveiled its new Saber 4400 coherent optical transport platform, looking to seize on growing demand for high-capacity links closer to the network edge. Specifically, CEO Charlie Vogt told Fierce it’s got its eye on a “huge” opportunity to serve the middle mile fiber market in both the U.S. and abroad as multi-gigabit last mile services spread.
In a nutshell, the new Saber platform does what big DWDM transport networks do but in rugged environments at the edge of the network. One shelf or unit of the new Saber platform supports multiple 400 gig modules, offering up to 1.6 Tbps of capacity, and these can be stacked for additional capacity. Additionally, the solution can deliver 100 Gbps-plus circuits over a distance of up to 120 kilometers without amplification.
According to Vogt and DZS CTO Andrew Bender, the platform offers three key benefits: the aforementioned scalability, lower costs and a hardened design. They touted the latter as a unique feature which allows the platform’s modular transponder and muxponders to be deployed in environments ranging from -40 to 65 degrees Celsius ( -40 to 149 degrees Fahrenheit).
This, Vogt said, eliminates the need for racks to be housed in air-conditioned facilities, which in turn helps cut down on costs. DZS estimated the platform could save operators between $20,000 to nearly $200,000 per site since money won’t need to be spent on heat exchangers or building new cabinets for upgraded transport.
As an added bonus, the product meets the “Buy American” requirements attached to several new federal funding pots.
Bender said big league transport is nothing new for DZS. But he noted the move to the edge is a major macro trend which drove its decision to deliver such a specialized product.
“With the advent of optical broadband, with 5G connectivity and densification, we now are seeing these demands for 100-gig and above traffic levels all the way out to the edge of the network. And at the edge of the network there are not necessarily data centers or facilities or central offices that have power and air conditioning and all of these accoutrements to put a full-fledged transport platform in,” he explained. “So, things needed to change to support this mid-mile opportunity.”
Vogt said DZS began work on the new platform 18 months ago at the behest of unnamed customers he described as “large scale fiber broadband operators that are carrying both fixed and mobile traffic.”
Now that the product has come out of stealth mode, Vogt said it’s taking aim squarely at what it sees as a multi-billion-dollar middle mile market.
Demand for middle mile in the U.S. alone is significant. The U.S. government has committed $1 billion in funding to a new Middle Mile Grant Program. Applications for the program closed last week and on Tuesday the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it received more than 235 applications requesting upwards of $5.5 billion in funding.
The first version of the Saber 4400 platform will be available to customers in Q4 2022.