Technically Speaking

Adtran nominated for several FTTH Innovation Awards

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:18:00 Z

Heading into this year’s FTTH Conference, we’re proud to be shortlisted for three FTTH Innovation Awards. Covering edge routing, in‑home connectivity and AI‑driven operations, these nominations demonstrate the strength of our end-to-end strategy for scaling fiber networks with consistency and control.

As AI adoption accelerates, service providers everywhere are being asked to do more than simply add bandwidth. They need to scale capacity at the edge, deliver reliable performance throughout the home and maintain operational visibility as networks grow, all without increasing cost, complexity or day-to-day effort.

Each of our shortlisted technologies plays a distinct role in addressing that challenge.

Bringing 400Gbit/s where it belongs

Our nomination in Active Infrastructure – Central Network recognizes our Terabit-class edge routing portfolio, including our FSP 150‑XG490 and SDX 8230 high‑capacity edge routers with 400Gbit/s interfaces, designed to make high‑capacity aggregation practical beyond the core.

With 100Gbit/s now widely deployed across access, aggregation and mobile backhaul, operators need smarter ways to aggregate traffic closer to the edge. Too often, the choice comes down to stretching lower‑capacity platforms too far or deploying oversized core routers in places where space, power and cost are at a premium.

Our FSP 150 and SDX 8000 Series address that gap by bringing Terabit‑scale edge routing into compact, cabinet‑ready platforms that enable aggregation from 10Gbit/s to 400Gbit/s. Supported by a unified software foundation and optional optical integration, they give operators a more practical way to scale bandwidth at the edge while keeping deployments efficient, operations consistent and complexity under control – without forcing core‑router economics into edge use cases.

From Terabit‑class routing at the edge to AI‑driven operational clarity, each nomination reflects practical innovation built for real fiber networks.

Whole‑home Wi-Fi, not just faster speeds

Our second nomination, in Active Infrastructure – Home Network, is for the SDG 8000 and 9000 Series mesh Wi-Fi solutions. Faster access speeds are only part of the story. What matters most to subscribers is consistent performance across every room, floor and corner of a property, whether that’s a single‑family home, an apartment building, a small business or a shared community environment.

The SDG 8000 and 9000 Series give service providers a unified platform for delivering multigigabit Wi-Fi across those scenarios. Built on a common SmartOS foundation and managed through our Intellifi® cloud platform, the portfolio delivers enhanced Wi-Fi experience, deployment flexibility and operational simplicity.

As a result, providers can extend a true full-fiber experience to all users, gain deep insights on the in-home environment and have a predictable way to manage and evolve Wi-Fi services at scale.

Turning operations from reactive to proactive

Our third nomination, in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Other Software, is for Mosaic One Clarity. As fiber footprints expand, operations teams are under increasing pressure. More subscribers, more connected devices and more network data make it harder to stay ahead of issues using reactive workflows alone.

Mosaic One Clarity is designed to change that. It brings together network and subscriber data to surface early warning signs, highlight the likely root cause and guide teams toward the next best action. By embedding this intelligence directly into day-to-day workflows, it helps CSRs, NOC engineers and field teams focus on the issues that matter most and act with confidence.

The payoff is fewer unnecessary truck rolls, faster resolution times and a shift from reactive troubleshooting toward more guided, efficient operations.

Different technologies, one shared focus

While these three nominations span very different technologies, they share a common goal: helping service providers scale fiber networks efficiently and predictably without adding unnecessary friction. Whether it’s delivering Terabit-class routing at disruptive cost points, ensuring consistent whole‑property Wi-Fi performance or bringing clarity to day‑to‑day operations, the focus is on practical innovation that works in real networks.

We’re proud to see that approach recognized across all three FTTH Innovation Award categories, and we’re looking forward to the conversations these nominations spark at FTTH this year. If you’re attending the conference, we’d love to continue the conversation and hear how these challenges are playing out in your network.

REAL AI - from proactive to autonomous

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 11:28:00 Z

In our earlier posts, we introduced REAL AI as a practical approach to embedding intelligence into broadband operations, then showed how service providers are moving from reactive support to responsive service and on to proactive assurance. Now, we turn to the next phase: autonomous optimization, where networks can take corrective action before issues arise rather than simply surface them as alerts. The emphasis shifts from alerting and guidance to execution, allowing common problems to be resolved automatically before anyone notices. It’s the next step in the REAL AI journey.

Proactive assurance – smarter driving, but still hands-on

Proactive assurance raised the bar for broadband operations. Instead of waiting for subscribers to report issues, AI now detects anomalies, infers experience degradation and recommends fixes before frustration sets in. Support teams no longer react blindly and subscribers enjoy smoother service. But even this smarter model has limits. It still relies on human expertise to interpret alerts, prioritize actions and execute resolutions.

That expertise is stretched thin. Skilled engineers spend time solving known problems – rebooting ONTs, clearing MAC addresses and escalating tickets. These tasks are repetitive, predictable and ripe for automation. Meanwhile, the bespoke issues that truly require expert insight get delayed. Operational efficiency stalls. Support teams stay in firefighting mode. It’s like driving with lane assist and adaptive cruise control: you’re supported, but still steering, braking and making every decision yourself.

Autonomous optimization – full self-driving for broadband

Imagine a network that doesn’t just see problems but actively resolves them.

Rather than stopping at detection and recommendation, the system takes action. AI agents reroute traffic, reboot ONTs, bounce ports or escalate intelligently, without waiting for human intervention. The result is a self-healing network that can recover from common issues on its own.

Think of it as full self-driving. The system monitors, diagnoses and resolves issues in real time. It moves beyond assistance into operation. And like any good autopilot, it’s governed. Operators can override, adjust or set boundaries. But most of the time, they won’t need to.

This is the next phase in the REAL AI journey. From reactive to responsive. From responsive to proactive. And now from proactive to autonomous.

Autonomy with oversight – healing without losing control

Autonomous optimization isn’t about removing humans from the loop. It’s about shifting the relationship, so the system participates as a collaborator rather than a tool. AI amplifies operator judgement by handling routine decisions autonomously, while humans step in where context, policy or expertise matter most. The outcome is governed autonomy with as much or as little human intervention as necessary.

That means putting the right controls in the right places. At its core, autonomous optimization is a question of oversight. How do we ensure automated decisions are safe, explainable and aligned with operator intent? How do we limit the risk of bad decisions while unlocking the efficiency of automation?

Adtran’s vision for the REAL AI Factory addresses these questions through two complementary approaches, each designed to deliver autonomy with accountability.

Autonomous optimization moves broadband networks from recommending fixes to executing them, safely and under operator control.

Rules-based automation – predictable, configurable, safe

In rules-based automation, the operator sets the conditions, and when those conditions are met, the system acts. If a port flaps but the RG doesn’t reboot, the system clears the MAC address and reboots the RG. If a fiber splitter shows temperature-related anomalies, it opens a ticket. If a home device repeatedly drops due to congestion, it shifts the Wi-Fi channel. These actions are deterministic and transparent. Operators define the logic and the system executes it.

REAL AI powers this model with a reasoning flow that detects anomalies, recommends remedies and automates fixes when thresholds are met. Some actions are direct, such as rebooting a device or bouncing a port. Others trigger workflows like ticket creation or work order generation. It takes time to configure, but it’s predictable. Rules-based automation is like setting up guardrails: the system can drive itself, but only within the boundaries you define.

Agent-based optimization – intelligent, adaptive, efficient

For operators ready to go further, REAL AI supports agent-based optimization, where AI decides when to act. These agents use reasoning flows, domain knowledge and real-time data to determine the best course of action. They might reflow services, reboot ONTs or create work orders based on context, not just pre-set conditions. This model adapts to new patterns, learns from outcomes and responds faster than any human could, unlocking higher efficiency across the network.

But autonomy requires control. That’s why Adtran embeds consent layers, governors and explainability into every agent. Using MCP tools and domain-specific agent skills, they query network health, execute actions and trigger workflows – all with configurable consent levels and condition-based rules. Even LLM-based agents are bounded by deterministic governors, ensuring they act safely, predictably and in alignment with operator intent. Agent-based optimization is like giving the system self-driving capabilities but with the operator always in command.

Self-driving networks, human-guided outcomes

Autonomous optimization doesn’t just change how problems are solved. It redefines who solves them and when. Subscribers benefit from uninterrupted service, protected by AI that heals in real time. Tier 1 agents shift from reactive troubleshooting to orchestrating automated flows. Tier 2 engineers focus on improving the network, not chasing anomalies. And operations leaders gain clarity and control, scaling excellence without scaling headcount.

REAL AI makes this possible through governed autonomy. Whether using rules-based automation or agent-based intelligence, every action is explainable, reversible and aligned with operator intent. This delivers autonomous optimization with oversight. A system that reasons, explains, acts and learns, so every user can do more with less friction.

Written with the assistance of REAL AI

Training AI for optical networks without compromising data sovereignty

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:30:00 Z

Across Europe and internationally, research organizations are exploring new ways to accelerate AI innovation in optical transport networks while maintaining strict control over sensitive network data. As part of this effort, Adtran is collaborating with Fraunhofer HHI, Japan’s NICT and Trinity College Dublin to support a federated testbed approach – the Optical Testbed Data Space (OTDS) – that enables partners to develop and validate machine learning models safely, efficiently and across multiple domains.

A core focus of the work is data sovereignty, ensuring that operators, vendors and research partners retain full control over how optical network data is shared and used. Rather than pooling raw data, the approach relies on governed, policy-controlled access that respects ownership and confidentiality.

This work is being demonstrated at leading research events, including this month at the OFC Demo Zone, where the partners are showcasing how different optical testbeds can share selected telemetry using well‑defined policies and modern dataspace technologies.

A shared approach to data‑sovereign AI development

Optical networks generate valuable telemetry that can help improve failure prediction, performance optimization and overall service resilience. But much of this data cannot be shared freely. Operators have understandable concerns about data ownership, network visibility and confidentiality, while vendors face similar questions about exposing equipment performance.

To support this, the partners use a dataspace approach that allows each organization to control how its data is accessed. This is built on open‑source components from the Eclipse Foundation and follows the internationally recognized International Data Spaces model for governed data sharing.

This framework allows each participant to maintain full control over their data while enabling tightly governed access for research. Partners can define which data is shared, at what level of granularity and under what conditions.

This capability is particularly important in Europe, where digital autonomy and data sovereignty are recognized priorities for future network innovation. At the same time, the approach remains open and international, supporting collaboration with European partners alongside colleagues in Japan and beyond.

How Adtran supports the federated testbed

We’re contributing both live optical infrastructure and digital‑twin models to the federated testbed. Our FSP 3000 optical technology, deployed within the Fraunhofer HHI testbed, provides real optical signals and network behavior for cross‑domain experimentation, helping ensure the federated setup reflects practical, multi‑vendor environments.

Digital twin models and simulated networks

In addition to physical equipment, Adtran is contributing digital‑twin models of key components, particularly optical amplifiers, created using internal simulation environments. These models allow realistic behavior to be shared without exposing sensitive performance data. As federated data sharing matures, these models will help partners evaluate new AI techniques and test algorithms under controlled conditions.

Linking independent testbeds through governed data exchange

The collaboration uses a multi‑domain reference architecture that links the testbeds at HHI, NICT, Trinity College Dublin and Adtran. Each domain operates independently, with dataspace connectors managing governed access to selected telemetry and models across the testbeds.

Avoiding fiber splicicles with 24/7 in-service monitoring

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:44:00 Z

During this year’s severe cold snap, millions were forced to retreat indoors, but daily life didn’t stop. Families used fiber broadband connections to work, learn and access telehealth services when journeys to the doctor’s office became hazardous. Outside, as bomb cyclones hit and blizzards raged, first responders relied on that same fiber to coordinate life-saving efforts.

We expect power outages and water main breaks during sub-zero stretches, but communication lifelines are often overlooked. This may stem from the common misconception that buried fiber is immune to the elements. In reality, fiber infrastructure is far more vulnerable than many assume. And with 70–80 million kilometers of aerial fiber in the US, a vast portion of the infrastructure remains directly exposed to the season’s harshest environmental pressures.

How can cold weather damage fiber?

Technically, glass fiber handles the cold pretty well. The danger isn’t temperature – it’s the mechanical stress created when the materials surrounding fiber optic cables react to cold conditions:

Thermal contraction and microbending: Different cable materials (plastic buffers, strength members and glass) contract at different rates. In sub‑zero conditions, this creates “microbends” – tiny kinks in the fiber that cause signal attenuation (loss).
Frost heave and duct deformation: Freezing ground shifts and expands. This can deform buried ducts, crushing or bending cables in shallow or poorly supported installations.
Splice closure degradation: Extreme cold stiffens seals and gaskets. As temperatures fluctuate, water can seep in, freeze and expand, putting direct pressure on delicate fusion splices.

With ALM, operators can see the network as it behaves in real time.

Predicting fiber stress in real-time

None of these mechanisms are unusual. But during widespread cold weather events like the one we’ve seen in the US this year, the challenge is scale and uncertainty. For operators, two questions quickly become critical: Where’s the problem? And how long will it take to fix?

This is where in-service fiber monitoring plays a decisive role. By continuously observing the condition of live fiber across the network, operators gain end‑to‑end visibility that allows emerging issues to be identified, faults to be localized precisely and corrective action to be taken before services are affected.

Detailed, pinpoint insight into network health

The Adtran ALM assurance platform is an in‑service fiber monitoring system that continuously assesses the condition of live fiber across the network without disrupting traffic. With ALM, operators can see the network as it behaves in real time. The system highlights anomalies, indicates the likely nature of an issue and pinpoints its physical location along the fiber route. This level of insight enables repair teams to be dispatched with purpose, reducing investigation time, avoiding unnecessary truck rolls and accelerating restoration.

When extreme weather hits, communications infrastructure is more important than ever. In these moments, guesswork can be costly. By providing real-time visibility into fiber health, ALM supports faster fault isolation and resolution when it matters most. The result is more resilient services: families stay connected, emergency responders coordinate more effectively, and communities retain access to the digital services that keep our economy running.

Is hollow-core fiber ready for real-world networks?

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:04:00 Z

Hollow-core vs. solid-core fiber

As the name suggests, hollow-core fiber (HCF) contains an inner core filled with low-pressure air, surrounded by solid glass. A simple hollow glass tube, however, would not be sufficient to confine light within the air core. To achieve confinement, the inner wall of the hollow glass tube (typically some tens of microns in diameter) is lined with thin glass capillaries, usually four to six nested hollow tubes with around one micrometer thickness. These capillaries reflect light toward the center, and the resulting multiple reflections interfere constructively to prevent light from leaking into the surrounding glass wall of the HCF.

As a result, HCF relies on interference effects, similar to the colorful patterns seen on thin films of oil on water. In contrast, solid-core fibers (SCFs) guide light using total internal reflection generated by a refractive index difference between the core and cladding.

While this new fiber structure unlocks enormous performance benefits, HCF has long been held back by one challenge: fiber attenuation. For nearly two decades, researchers have worked to refine HCF designs and fabrication techniques, but losses remained too high for real-world deployment. That’s now starting to change. The past few years have seen a rapid reduction in attenuation reported in the literature, bringing HCFs into the spotlight for near-term practical applications.

It’s important to note that all conventional fiber types classified by their physical properties – such as number of modes (single-mode or multi-mode), chromatic dispersion categories (DSF, NZDSF) or effective area – have a solid glass core. Throughout this post, these existing fiber categories will be referred to collectively as solid-core fibers (SCFs) to clearly distinguish them from the emerging class of hollow-core fibers.

What improvements does HCF offer?

Latency

From the viewpoint of near-term applications, arguably the most important advantage of HCF is its low latency, around 31% lower than SCF, which is determined by the difference in refractive index between the fiber cores where most of the light is confined.

This property makes HCF very attractive for a range of latency-sensitive applications, including data center interconnects, mobile fronthaul and FTTH, to name a few where the impact is greatest.

Nonlinear effects

Transmission of optical channels through solid-core fiber such as traditional single-mode fiber is limited by the dependency of the refractive index on optical power, which introduces fiber-induced nonlinear effects that degrade channel performance. This imposes an upper limit on the optical power which can be launched into the fiber, thus limiting the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and, in turn, the transmission distance or transmission capacity through the fiber.

HCF has negligible nonlinear effects, allowing much higher launch power to offset high loss of long fiber spans and to increase OSNR. Experiments reported at recent conferences have used the highest available amplifier output power, launching up to 37dBm total optical power into HCF, well above the power limit for even the more tolerant high-effective area varieties of SCF.

This opens promising prospects for higher capacity per fiber or longer transmission distances, provided that fiber attenuation is low enough.

What once held hollow-core fiber back is now rapidly changing.

Attenuation

Until recently, high attenuation was a major drawback of HCFs and the main obstacle to deployment. A turning point was the first report by Microsoft and the University of Southampton at OFC 2024 of HCF with attenuation below the theoretical limit for SCF. This was followed by new low-attenuation records which currently stand around 0.05dB/km. Obviously, these are research results obtained on relatively short lengths of fiber and commercial HCF manufactured in large volume will have higher attenuation. The attenuation of HCF planned for deployment has not been publicly disclosed as work is ongoing within each manufacturing company to determine a value that is both feasible in production and adequate for the initial network application. One useful data point was offered by YOFC at ECOC 2025, showing a distribution of attenuation over fiber segments totaling 733km where the average was 0.147dB/km and the highest value around 0.3dB/km.

Narrow gas absorption peaks, particularly those induced by CO2 impact transmission distance in the L-band by attenuating some frequencies within the channel bandwidth. This limitation may be resolved by the time the market is ready to deploy HCF in core networks, which require wider operational bandwidth than available in the C-band.

Chromatic dispersion

Chromatic dispersion (CD) can be very low (e.g., 3 to 5ps/nm/km), removing the need for optical or digital compensation, while avoiding the nonlinear effects that occur in SCF with similarly low dispersion. Reducing the requirement for digital CD compensation in coherent transceivers also serves to reduce DSP complexity and to limit the power consumption, both highly desirable in the main applications of HCF.

Transmission bandwidth

The bandwidth for low attenuation in HCF is a design-dependent parameter and therefore can be adjusted. Current telecom-oriented designs target low attenuation in the C-band or across C-, S- and L-bands for compatibility with existing WDM equipment. Future developments could shift to longer wavelengths, where wider usable bandwidths could be available, assuming that transceivers and amplifiers are also developed for these spectral regions.

Looking forward to OFC 2026

The strong interest in HCF from research labs around the world, combined with the substantial investments made by industry to advance development and deployment of HCF, will continue to drive rapid progress. Several of today’s technical limitations may look very different even within the next year.

At OFC 2026, HCF will undoubtedly be one of the most closely followed topics. We anticipate new reports demonstrating continued improvements in transmission performance, broader examples of real-world applications, as well as further progress in the supporting ecosystem – particularly in cabling, splicing, field installation practices and monitoring tools essential for large-scale deployment.

Key questions likely to be addressed include:

What attenuation levels are now achievable at scale?
What span lengths, link distances and total capacities have been demonstrated using commercial-grade amplifiers and transceivers?
How close are manufacturers to offering standardized cabling and interconnect solutions?
What progress is being made in early field deployments, and what lessons are emerging from these trials?

I look forward to hearing your views on HCF. If you’re attending the OFC conference, stop by the Adtran booth (1001) to continue the discussion in person. And stay tuned for a follow-up after OFC, where I’ll highlight the most important new results and insights presented at the conference.

If you’re heading to OFC and would like to learn more about the topic, please book a meeting through our OFC 2026 page.

Shaping sustainable and resilient optical networks through SUSTAINET-Advance

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:20:00 Z

Optical transport networks are facing a fundamental transition. Traffic growth, AI workloads and rising expectations around sustainability are all converging at the same time, while networks themselves are becoming increasingly critical to energy systems, public infrastructure, and economic resilience. Meeting these challenges requires more than incremental improvements. It demands a rethink of how optical networks are designed, monitored, and operated from the outset.

This is the motivation behind the CELTIC-NEXT flagship project SUSTAINET, coordinated by Adtran, and its network‑foundations sub‑project SUSTAINET‑Advance, which Adtran is also proud to lead.

From connectivity to critical infrastructure

For many years, optical networking was primarily about capacity and reach. Today, it’s become critical infrastructure, supporting energy systems, research networks and essential public services.
SUSTAINET is a flagship European research initiative, bringing together industry, research institutes and universities to address a shared objective: building communication networks that are sustainable, resilient, secure and fit for a digitally sovereign Europe.

The program is structured into three complementary sub-projects, spanning network foundations, advanced services and security, each addressing a different layer of the challenge.

Led by Adtran, SUSTAINET-Advance focuses on the network foundations. Its scope spans optical transmission, monitoring, control and automation, with a strong emphasis on how communication networks interact with energy systems. As networks become more tightly coupled with renewable energy sources and critical infrastructure, they need to be able to adapt dynamically, withstand faults and attacks, and operate efficiently under changing conditions.

From the outset, the project has been about practical progress rather than abstract research. The ambition is to develop architectures, algorithms and demonstrators that can be validated in real network environments and ultimately influence how future optical networks are designed and operated.

Adtran’s role as coordinator

As coordinator of SUSTAINET-Advance, Adtran is leading a large, multi-country consortium spanning industry partners, research organizations and operators across Europe and beyond. The role is both technical and organizational. It involves aligning national funding priorities and research goals, ensuring interoperability between workstreams, and keeping a clear focus on outcomes that matter to real networks.

Equally important is the level of commitment behind this work. SUSTAINET-Advance represents a substantial long-term investment by Adtran in European R&D. Alongside public funding, we’re contributing significant internal resources, engineering expertise and system knowledge. This is tightly connected to our broader optical networking roadmap and our long-held belief that innovation must be built collaboratively and responsibly.

SUSTAINET is building communication networks that are sustainable, secure and fit for a digitally sovereign Europe.

Key innovation themes

One of the strengths of SUSTAINET-Advance is its holistic view of optical networks. Rather than optimizing isolated components, the project looks at how different layers interact and how intelligence can be applied end-to-end.

A central focus is energy-aware networking. As operators integrate more renewable energy and move toward climate-neutral targets, networks must become more adaptive. This includes understanding energy availability, adjusting operation accordingly and avoiding unnecessary overprovisioning while still maintaining performance and reliability.

Another goal is resilience. Optical networks increasingly support critical services, from power grids to research infrastructures. In SUSTAINET-Advance, we’re exploring new concepts for fault detection, recovery and continuity of service, ensuring that networks can maintain operation under adverse conditions, whether caused by technical failures, external disruptions or cyber threats.

AI plays an important role, but with a pragmatic mindset. Rather than treating AI as a black box, the project explores trusted, explainable approaches for monitoring, analysis and control. This includes advanced telemetry, digital twin concepts and automation mechanisms that help operators understand what’s happening in their networks and make informed decisions.

Security is also addressed as a foundational requirement. Zero- trust principles and secure control frameworks are integrated into the network designs being developed, recognizing that future optical infrastructures must be robust against increasingly sophisticated attack vectors.

From research to real-world visibility

The work of SUSTAINET-Advance is being fed into publications, demonstrations and broader industry collaboration, helping to share results with the wider optical community. Events such as OFC provide an important platform to exchange ideas, present progress and engage with partners, customers, and peers.

For Adtran, this visibility is about demonstrating sustained leadership in optical innovation and reinforcing our role as a committed European technology partner. Being deeply involved in collaborative programs like SUSTAINET-Advance enables us to contribute to the direction of future networks while staying closely aligned with operator needs and regulatory priorities.

Strengthening Europe’s optical future

The challenges facing Europe’s digital infrastructure are complex and interconnected. Addressing them requires long-term collaboration, credible investment and a willingness to look beyond short-term product cycles. SUSTAINET-Advance is one example of how this can be done in practice.

By coordinating this project, Adtran is helping to shape the foundations of sustainable, resilient optical networks that will support Europe’s digital ambitions for years to come. It reflects our belief that innovation thrives when industry and research work together, and that optical networking will continue to be a cornerstone of a secure, energy-efficient and technologically sovereign Europe.

Elements of this work are being demonstrated live in the OFC 2026 Demo Zone and at the SUSTAINET booth on the exhibition floor, where attendees can see how collaborative, data‑sovereign approaches to AI‑driven optical networking are being applied in practice. To learn more, visit Adtran in the Demo Zone and on the exhibition floor during OFC 2026.

Four key trends to watch at OFC 2026

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 10:08:00 Z

1. Co-packaged optics, linear pluggable optics and the race to 1.6T

If you track only one theme this year, make it the industry’s push from 800Gbit/s towards 1.6Tbit/s and even 3.2Tbit/s – and the packaging and device innovation required to make that leap viable. Advancements in linear pluggable optics (LPOs), co-packaged optics (CPOs), and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are becoming essential for reducing energy per bit inside AI-scale data centers.

At the same time, coherent pluggable modules and open line systems are reshaping data center interconnectivity (DCI), unlocking scale-across connectivity at 800Gbit/s and beyond. Rather than being constrained to a single facility – where power and cooling limits quickly become binding – cloud providers can now build large, purpose-designed AI giga-factories across multiple sites.

Expect to see 800Gbit/s and 1.6Tbit/s validations, 224G SerDes discussions, and debate over when CPO and near-package optics (NPO) finally tip from “demo” to deployment. And make sure to stop by the OIF interoperability showcases.

2. From data-driven intelligence to “self-driving” networks

The progress in AI has been so astonishingly fast that keeping up with the pace of innovation has become a challenge in itself. Advances span everything from ever-more capable large language models (LLMs) to emerging agentic frameworks and multi-agent collaboration. Innovation is accelerating across the entire stack.

In network operations, AI is already being applied to predict network health, localize faults and optimize network utilization. LLMs are poised to provide human-friendly conversational interfaces for operators, while agentic frameworks will automate routine and repetitive tasks.

The overarching narrative at OFC 2026 is clear: AI is becoming the optimization loop around everything – from photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and fiber manufacturing to real‑time network operations. Expect a range of technical sessions and short courses covering AI‑driven methods, along with thoughtful debates on persistent challenges such as hallucinations, security, explainability and trustworthiness.

AI is rapidly becoming the optimization loop around everything from photonics design to network operations.

3. Hollow-core fibers

Hollow core fiber (HCF) has been labeled “future tech” for years; OFC 2026 now treats it as an ecosystem question rather than a lab curiosity. Dedicated conference sessions will explore design, simulation, deployment and interoperability. New partnerships among fiber manufacturers – along with growing calls for standardization – signal an accelerated path toward commercialization and volume production.

With their combination of low dispersion, low loss, low nonlinearity and high bandwidth, HCFs are emerging as strong candidates for next‑generation regional and long‑haul systems, enabling more optimized architectures than conventional solid‑core fiber allows. And with several new HCF announcements and demonstrations expected on the exhibit floor, this feels like the moment when HCF finally converges with mainstream system and network discussions.

4. Satellite laser links and optical networks in the sky

Beyond the data center ceiling, OFC 2026 will lean hard into space as the next optical frontier. Special programming will cover a plenary talk on optical satellite communication, a panel on standards for interoperability and a symposium on architectures and technologies for space-based optical networks. Additional topics span turbulence mitigation, ground-station diversity and optical space–terrestrial integration. For anyone tracking 6G, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) or sovereign satellite constellations, OFC is becoming a key venue for understanding how space optics, ground segments and terrestrial backbones are co-evolving.

Looking ahead to OFC 2026

The four trends above paint a clear picture of where the industry is heading: faster optics pushing toward multi‑terabit speeds, AI‑driven automation reshaping network operations, hollow‑core fiber moving from concept to commercialization, and space‑based optical links emerging as the next frontier. Together, they outline a rapid evolution towards larger scale, greater energy efficiency and more automation.

At OFC 2026, we’ll be a big part of these conversations – engaging with peers and customers through live technology demos, speaking events and conversations on the show floor.

To discover more about what we’re bringing to the world’s biggest optical network event this year and to arrange a meeting with our team of experts, visit our dedicated OFC 2026 page.

How NetDevOps is driving the next wave of optical network automation

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:06:00 Z

Optical transport networks are evolving rapidly to support 5G, cloud services, and ever-increasing traffic demands. As these networks grow in size and complexity, traditional manual configuration methods struggle to keep up. Network operators are left managing hundreds of devices using CLI or GUI-based workflows that are slow, error-prone, and difficult to scale.

To address these challenges, NetDevOps – the application of DevOps principles to networking – offers a compelling alternative. By bringing automation, version control, and continuous integration into network operations, NetDevOps enables optical networks to become more agile, reliable and scalable. This work forms part of the SEASON project, a Horizon Europe SNS initiative (G.A. 101096120) supporting research into next-generation optical network automation. As part of SEASON, Adtran contributes to research activities across both the data plane and control plane of advanced optical networks, and the NetDevOps work described here reflects one element of that broader contribution.

Why NetDevOps matters for optical networks

Unlike software systems, optical networks consist of diverse physical devices such as ROADMs, amplifiers and transponders, each with unique configuration requirements. Managing these elements manually often leads to inconsistencies, policy violations and operational overhead.

A NetDevOps approach shifts network management from manual, device-by-device operations to software-driven workflows that deliver:

Automated and repeatable configuration changes
Faster service provisioning and updates
Consistent network state management through version control
Reduced dependency on human intervention

While DevOps practices are well established in software development, their adoption in optical networks has been limited. Our work focuses on extending NetDevOps concepts into the optical domain in a practical and standards-compliant way.

An automated NetDevOps pipeline delivers faster, safer and more scalable optical operations.

An automated NetDevOps pipeline for optical networks

Our state-of-the-art solution introduces an automated NetDevOps pipeline that manages both device configurations and end-to-end optical services. The pipeline integrates commonly used tools and open standards, including:

Git for version control and configuration tracking
Ansible for automated, scalable deployment
NETCONF and RESTCONF for programmatic device and service configuration
ONF-TAPI for standardized northbound service interfaces

Each network device maintains its own configuration file in a Git repository, allowing fine-grained, per-device customization while preserving a complete change history. Service provisioning is handled through structured service definitions, enabling automated creation, deletion and modification of optical services.

CI/CD workflow and operational safety

Once changes are committed to the repository, a CI/CD pipeline automatically executes a structured workflow. This includes detecting affected devices, validating connectivity, deploying configurations and provisioning services. Security is addressed through encrypted communication and secure credential handling.

Importantly, the pipeline includes automated rollback, allowing the network to quickly return to a previously stable configuration. This limits the impact of faulty changes and accelerates recovery, even though the root cause still requires further diagnosis.

Practical benefits and applications

This NetDevOps-driven approach is particularly valuable for:

Large-scale optical networks with frequent configuration changes
Environments requiring rapid service provisioning and reconfiguration
Multi-vendor or partially disaggregated optical architectures
Operational teams aiming to reduce manual effort and errors

By automating routine tasks and enforcing consistent workflows, network operators can focus more on optimization and innovation rather than repetitive configuration work.

Takeaway

Applying NetDevOps principles to optical networks enables a fundamental shift in how these networks are managed. By combining automation, version control and standards-based interfaces, the proposed pipeline delivers a scalable and reliable framework for modern optical network operations.

As optical networks continue to grow in complexity, NetDevOps provides a practical path toward more agile, resilient and efficient network management – bringing software-driven automation to the operational challenges optical networks increasingly face.

REAL AI - from responsive to proactive

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:15:00 Z

REAL AI continues its journey. In our first post, we introduced REAL AI as a pragmatic philosophy for embedding intelligence into broadband operations. In the second, we explored how responsive support empowers every user to deliver expert-level outcomes. Now, we shift to proactive assurance, where the network anticipates issues before they surface, infers subscriber experience from signals and guides resolution before frustration sets in. This isn’t just smarter support – it’s a smarter network.

Responsive support today – driving with warnings

Responsive support is a leap forward. It gives human agents anomaly detection, guided workflows and clear next steps – no more digging through fragmented systems. But it still starts with a subscriber noticing something’s wrong.

By the time they call, the damage is done: frustration, a ticket and time lost. It’s like driving with lane-departure warnings – you’re alerted only after drifting. Responsive support reduces the guesswork, but it’s still reactive. And that’s what we’re here to change.

Proactive assurance tomorrow – driving with guidance

Proactive assurance flips the model. Instead of waiting for subscribers to report issues, the network becomes the early warning system. AI monitors experience and health in real time, predicts what’s likely to go wrong and recommends actions before service is impacted.

It moves beyond anomaly detection toward predicting experience and guiding resolution. Think of it as adaptive cruise control for broadband: still human-driven but smarter, safer and more efficient. Support shifts from reacting to preempting. Instead of getting fixes, subscribers get uninterrupted service.

The real leap forward is a network that fixes issues before subscribers ever feel them.

Tools for proactive assurance – AI that sees ahead

Proactive assurance isn’t just a vision – it’s already underway. Mosaic One Operate acts as a broadband co-pilot for network engineers, scanning Adtran and third-party equipment for early signs of trouble. It identifies issues such as fiber degradation, configuration drift and capacity constraints, surfacing issues before subscribers notice. It’s adaptive cruise control for broadband, built on a consistent reasoning pipeline that ensures insights are explainable and scalable.

Mosaic One Clarity, currently in customer trials, is the next evolution. Designed to enhance both Operate and Care in upcoming releases, Clarity filters alert noise, infers subscriber experience and pinpoints root causes across the access and in-home network. It delivers prioritized subscriber health views and actionable insights – who’s affected, why and what to do. ACE Fiber projects Clarity will reduce their ticket volume by up to 75% per month. This shifts operations from simple detection to intelligent triage, and from identifying symptoms to understanding the issue and the fix.

The intelligence backbone – reasoning, learning and agentic growth

REAL AI’s reasoning flow goes beyond anomaly detection. It’s a structured, human-curated pipeline that mirrors how expert engineers think: fast, repeatable and explainable. It begins by identifying what’s out of place in the network, then diagnosing why it’s happening and where, whether in the home, the access network or both. From there, it prescribes the right action to restore service.

But proactive assurance adds a critical fourth step: inferring whether the issue actually matters to the subscriber. This is where REAL AI sets itself apart. It doesn’t just detect and diagnose – it evaluates impact. Drawing on feedback from tools like Intellifi® and Care, it determines whether a slow connection or buffering video is affecting one device, several or the whole home. It weighs frequency, scope and severity to flag what needs fixing first.

While the reasoning flow delivers immediate value, the learning flow ensures the system gets smarter over time. Anomalies, interactions, resolutions and subscriber reactions feed the loop. Implicit signals from Mosaic One Care, diagnostics from MSI and direct feedback from the Intellifi® app all contribute to refining the logic. Human researchers and AI agents collaborate to mine this data, test hypotheses and build new detectors. Over time, troubleshooting evolves from reactive triage to intelligent, subscriber-centric prioritization.

Proactive assurance – AI teammates for every user

Responsive support gave every user in the support chain a boost from subscribers using guided workflows to Tier 1 agents delivering expert-level outcomes. But proactive assurance changes the game entirely. It anticipates issues rather than waiting for them. And it enables operational change at every level.

With REAL AI, service provider operations shift from reactive firefighting to predictive precision. These intelligent AI teammates continuously monitor network health and subscriber experience, infer what’s about to go wrong and guide resolution before the subscriber ever notices.

Subscribers enjoy uninterrupted service, protected by intelligence that sees ahead. There are no calls and no frustration, only seamless connectivity.

Tier 1 agents become experience managers. Instead of reacting to complaints, they resolve issues before they escalate, armed with root cause insights and guided resolution paths.

Tier 2 engineers focus on optimization, not triage. With deep diagnostics and AI-prioritized workflows, they tackle the most impactful problems first.

Operations leaders gain foresight. They see sparks before they become fires, allocate resources proactively and deliver service excellence at scale.

This is the shift from support to assurance. From reacting to anticipating. From fragmented tools to unified intelligence. And from human effort to human-AI partnership.

REAL AI teammates act as collaborators. They’re built to reason, designed to explain, ready to act and always learning. This is how we redefine broadband operations for the future.

Written with the assistance of REAL AI

Is data center energy efficiency the bottleneck to AI growth?

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:26:00 Z

AI is reshaping data center design faster than any previous workload. Training and inference clusters demand unprecedented power density, sustained utilization and ultra-high bandwidth connectivity. At the same time, electricity prices remain volatile, grid connections are increasingly difficult to secure and environmental scrutiny is intensifying across regions.

Efficiency, once treated as a cost-optimization exercise, has become the primary way operators unlock usable power for growth. The challenge is no longer how to reduce energy use, but how to make enough power available to support continued AI expansion.

Why efficiency matters more than ever

Power, not space or server count, is now the limiting factor in today’s data centers. AI accelerates this problem by concentrating consumption into dense clusters that push electrical and thermal limits simultaneously.

Cooling technologies, liquid loops and advanced airflow design all play a role. But even with best-in-class facility engineering, inefficiencies elsewhere can undermine progress, leaving power effectively stranded by issues such as:

Under-utilized compute, where capacity exists but can’t be fully exploited
Imbalanced workload placement, leading to localized power and cooling constraints
Network bottlenecks, which limit effective cluster scaling

Every wasted watt of power reduces the data center’s effective output, inflates the cost per computation, and limits ROI, while constraining how much growth existing sites can support.

The operators who win will be the ones who cut power consumption across the entire AI chain.

Sustainability, regulation and the hidden cost of inefficiency

Regulatory pressure adds another dimension. Energy reporting requirements, carbon accounting and regional sustainability mandates increasingly force operators to quantify not just total consumption, but efficiency per workload.

This exposes a less obvious issue: energy inefficiency doesn’t only raise operating costs, it increases exposure to regulatory risk by driving higher emissions per unit of useful compute. Inefficient architectures require more capacity to deliver the same output, amplifying emissions, grid impact and compliance overhead.

As a result, efficiency improvements that once delivered incremental savings now directly influence where and how data centers can be built, expanded or interconnected.

The rise of distributed AI data centers

To work around power and land constraints, many operators are moving away from single, monolithic campuses and distributing AI workloads across multiple facilities, often separated by tens or hundreds of kilometers, to tap into diverse grid connections and regional energy availability.

This shift fundamentally changes the role of data center interconnect (DCI). Inter-facility links are now part of the compute fabric itself, carrying latency-sensitive traffic that enables clusters to behave as one logical system.

In this model, transport efficiency becomes critical. Poorly optimized DCI can introduce hidden penalties through:

Power-hungry optics, which scale energy use with bandwidth
Limited reach or capacity, forcing additional intermediate sites
Operational complexity, increasing overhead as networks expand

Energy efficiency doesn’t stop at the data center wall

As AI clusters scale horizontally, transport networks must deliver massive bandwidth without proportionally increasing energy consumption. Otherwise, the power constraint simply shifts from the facility to the network.

This is where open, high-capacity optical transport plays a critical role. Efficient line systems, modern modulation techniques and coherent optics designed for dense DCI allow operators to move more data using less power, while simplifying scaling and operations.

Platforms such as our FSP 3000 IP OLS and energy-efficient coherent pluggable transceivers are designed to address this challenge directly. By automating operations and eliminating unnecessary opto-electronics – therefore reducing watts per transported bit – these technologies help ensure that networking interconnect solutions support, rather than constrain, AI growth.

Instead of treating DCI as a necessary overhead, forward-looking operators design it as an efficiency multiplier in their so-called “scale-across” architecture, enabling distributed architectures that extract more value from constrained power budgets.

Scaling AI efficiently, end to end

While advances inside the data center remain essential, the ability to interconnect facilities efficiently is becoming just as critical to sustainable growth. For many operators, energy efficiency is already the limiting factor in AI growth, not within individual sites, but across the networks that connect them.

As AI continues to drive demand, the operators that succeed will be those who reduce power consumption across the networks that tie them together.

To learn how our open optical transport solutions support more energy-efficient DCI for scalable AI workloads, visit adtran.com.

Talking fiber priorities for 2026 with new FBA chair Ash Brown

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:41:00 Z

How does it feel to step into the role of chair of the FBA?

It’s an honor, first and foremost. I’m grateful for the trust the board and our members have placed in me. The progress we’ve made as an association is the result of many people working together, and I want to build on that. This role is about representing the industry and the full FBA membership, and my focus is on listening, supporting collaboration and making sure the association continues to deliver real value.

Why is the FBA’s work so important right now?

We’re in the middle of an unprecedented period of fiber expansion across the US, and what we build now will shape future decades. Fiber is long-term infrastructure. It underpins economic growth, opportunity and resilience. To turn today’s momentum into lasting outcomes, we need alignment across technology, policy and communities. And with AI and data centers growing at pace, the demand for robust fiber is only increasing, from the first mile to the middle mile.

What are your top priorities as chair?

One of my biggest priorities is strengthening collaboration across our members, committees and working groups. There’s so much expertise within the FBA and bringing that collective knowledge together is key. I also want to make sure members are getting value from the association, whether that’s education and advocacy around the benefits of fiber, policy work to remove deployment barriers or support for successful deployment and adoption. Workforce development and training are critical too because none of this happens without skilled people. And through it all, I want us to stay grounded in real-world impact, using research and data to measure progress and guide decisions.

Trust and understanding turn networks into real community assets.

Community engagement, adoption and affordability are themes you often highlight. How do they connect to the FBA’s mission?

Fiber’s value depends on adoption. Building the network is only part of the equation. People need to understand it, trust it and see how it benefits them. That’s where community engagement comes in. The FBA helps by sharing best practices and bringing stakeholders together, from industry and policymakers to local leaders. Advocacy and policy matter, but so do education and outreach. Those pieces all work hand in hand.

Where is fiber deployment heading in 2026, and what will success look like?

For me, success means more homes and businesses connected, stronger middle mile and better in-home experiences. It also means fewer roadblocks and faster timelines so projects move more smoothly. This year, we’ll see more data-driven buildouts and closer collaboration between operators, vendors, policymakers and communities. In that environment, the FBA will keep serving as a neutral platform for sharing best practices and guidance. And fiber is also the backbone for data centers and AI, so making sure that infrastructure is ready is crucial.

What policy or regulatory areas will you be watching most closely?

I’ll be keeping a close eye on how funding programs are executed and making sure accountability stays front and center. Streamlining permitting and rights-of-way is another big one because those delays can really slow progress. Workforce development incentives matter too. We need to keep building the talent pipeline. And long-term investment certainty for fiber is essential. The FBA’s role is to be a resource for agencies and states, offering insight without advocating for any single company. That neutrality is something I take seriously.

How will your day-to-day work at Adtran inform your perspective in this role?

Working at Adtran gives me a front-row view of the challenges and opportunities service providers face every day. It’s everything from practical deployment realities to evolving customer needs, and that perspective is invaluable when we’re talking about industry priorities. At the same time, there’s a clear line between my job and my role at the FBA. Leading the association is about serving all members and the broader industry. My goal is to bring practical insight while keeping the FBA’s mission front and center.

Read more about the FBA’s work and upcoming initiatives at www.fiberbroadband.org.

Five ways IPoDWDM will reshape optical networks in 2026

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 08:49:00 Z

The way networks are built is changing fast. With cloud-scale traffic and AI workloads pushing optical infrastructure to its limits, service providers are rethinking how they design and operate transport networks. IP-over-DWDM (IPoDWDM) has already proven its value in reducing complexity and improving scalability, but the next twelve months will mark a turning point. From pragmatic management models to next-generation optics, here are five trends that will define IPoDWDM in the coming year.

1. Scaling IPoDWDM as AI-driven traffic reshapes demand

AI-driven traffic growth is creating unprecedented demand for high-capacity interconnects. Beyond traditional data center interconnect (DCI), AI clusters now span multiple physical locations, requiring seamless optical connectivity between back-end switches. All of this is powered by IPoDWDM. At the same time, more communication service providers (CSPs) are moving from trials to mainstream deployments and IPoDWDM capabilities are now a standard requirement in many RfQs.

Prediction: IPoDWDM will become a default requirement in CSP tenders and AI-driven DCI will dominate investment priorities.

2. Normalizing coherent pluggables across routing platforms

Expect nearly ubiquitous support for coherent pluggables across routing platforms, with 100ZR, 400ZR/ZR+ and 800ZR+ widely available and early plans for 1.6T optics already underway. ROADM architectures are also becoming more IPoDWDM-friendly, with simplified add/drop structures and direct connections to ROADM degrees to maximize reach and optical budget. Meanwhile, IP-optimized OLS solutions such as fully automated point-to-point systems are gaining traction for their simplicity and scalability.

Prediction: 1.6T coherent optics will move from roadmap to reality and two DWDM designs will support scaling: fully automated point-to-point systems and simplified ROADM-based designs.

IPoDWDM is no longer optional – it’s becoming the backbone of modern optical networks.

3. Making IPoDWDM operational with pragmatic management models

While hierarchical controller models remain the long-term vision, most operators are taking pragmatic steps to integrate IPoDWDM into existing workflows. Some rely on manual coordination between IP and optical teams, while others use optical controllers or custom data exchange scripts. The goal is to maintain operational consistency across legacy and IPoDWDM services while building toward automation and multi-layer visibility.

TIP-based hierarchical controller frameworks remain the reference architecture, but most CSPs acknowledge that these models are not yet practical and are adopting interim solutions such as tool-based integrations or shared databases to bridge IP and optical domains.

Prediction: Expect hybrid approaches with manual processes combined with incremental automation rather than full controller integration.

4. Capturing real cost savings through simpler optical architectures

The biggest economic win remains the shift from embedded optics to coherent pluggables. Whether hosted in routers or thin transponders, these modules deliver significant cost efficiencies. Operators are also streamlining sourcing by partnering with OLS vendors for optics, reducing risk and simplifying lifecycle management. Expect this trend to grow as networks scale and operators seek fewer integration headaches.

Prediction: More operators will source optics from OLS vendors to simplify operations and reduce risk.

5. Evolving networks steadily rather than chasing a single breakthrough

Expect steady evolution rather than a single game-changer. CSPs will continue to mix IPoDWDM with thin transponders, adopt pragmatic management models and push toward higher-capacity optics. The next big challenge is extending automation and visibility across disaggregated domains without adding complexity. Success will hinge on open standards, robust optical control and collaboration across the ecosystem.

Prediction: IPoDWDM will become the foundation for multi-layer automation strategies, but full convergence will remain a work in progress.

Looking ahead

IPoDWDM is no longer optional. It’s becoming the backbone of modern optical networks. By embracing these trends, operators can build infrastructure that scales with demand, supports diverse services and stays ahead of the curve in the year ahead.

Six networking trends shaping Australia in 2026

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:15:00 Z

Australia shares the global ambition to expand fiber availability and deliver high-quality connectivity that keeps businesses competitive. But achieving this across vast geographies requires open, modular solutions that scale rapidly and cost-effectively, alongside smarter networks that reduce operating costs while protecting long-term investments.

Here are six trends set to influence Australia’s networking landscape in 2026.

1. AI-driven automation and network intelligence

With populations spread over huge distances, Australia needs networks that can run efficiently without constant site visits. This makes automation and predictive intelligence critical in 2026.

Mosaic One Clarity, part of our Mosaic One suite, utilizes our REAL AI engine to predict issues before they impact service, detect anomalies in real time and provide explainable root-cause analysis. By reducing truck rolls and enabling automated, self-optimizing networks, it empowers operators to maintain performance without sending engineers to remote sites.

2. A rapid transition toward 5G-Advanced

Australia’s 5G buildout is accelerating, and the next milestone is 5G-Advanced (5.5G). Enterprises and service providers will increasingly rely on features that boost spectral efficiency, reduce latency and improve uplink capacity for applications such as AR/VR, industrial automation and IoT environments.

To make these capabilities work across Australia’s vast geography, operators need ultra-precise timing and resilient backhaul. Our Oscilloquartz timing and synchronization portfolio provides this foundation with high-precision PTP, GNSS assurance and ePRTC capabilities, ensuring 5G-Advanced services stay stable even in remote deployments. Combined with our high-performance fixed wireless access platforms and scalable optical transport technology, our solutions enable operators to deliver the low-latency, high-capacity connectivity that advanced use cases demand.

3. The rise of next-gen PON

Australia’s mix of dense metro areas and regional communities creates strong demand for faster broadband, business fiber and 5G backhaul. XGS-PON remains the standard, but some providers are beginning to explore 50G PON for its higher bandwidth and long-term scalability potential.

Our SDX 6400 Series optical line terminals support this evolution through a fully open, software-driven architecture designed for multigigabit growth. They enable coexistence with GPON and XGS-PON, helping operators unify residential, enterprise and mobile backhaul services while preparing for full-scale 50G PON evolution.

Automation isn’t optional in 2026 – it’s essential for networks spanning Australia’s vast geography.

4. Industrial, smart city and remote operations connectivity

Sectors such as mining, energy, agriculture and smart city projects are deploying IoT sensors, machine-to-machine systems and autonomous infrastructure that require reliable fiber, secure wireless and ruggedized systems.

To keep these critical operations running in harsh, remote environments, operators need robust, high-capacity solutions. Our access and transport portfolio is built for operational technology networks, combining hardened fiber access systems for carrier-grade reliability with pluggable coherent optics that deliver high-capacity backhaul at the edge. This ensures industrial sites and smart-city projects stay connected without compromise.

5. Hybrid connectivity models for underserved and remote regions

Fiber remains Australia’s long-term strategy, but diverse access models are essential to cover rural towns, agricultural sites and communities where terrain makes deployment difficult. In 2026, hybrid networks that mix fiber, fixed wireless, 5G and satellite will increasingly become the norm.

Flexible platforms that integrate multiple technologies are key to overcoming geographic challenges. Our end-to-end portfolio spans fiber access, fixed wireless access and modular optical transport systems designed for multivendor environments. This approach helps extend reach into remote areas while balancing cost, performance and deployment speed.

6. Prioritizing sustainability and energy efficiency

Like their global peers, Australian network operators face growing pressure to reduce carbon footprints and energy costs. In 2026, sustainability will increasingly shape network design and investment decisions.

To meet these goals without sacrificing performance, operators need platforms that combine high capacity with low power consumption. Our FSP 3000 OLS provides power-efficient, high-speed optical transport for AI-driven workloads and data center interconnect (DCI), reducing operational costs while supporting Australia’s sustainability targets.

Strengthening Australia’s connectivity roadmap for 2026

By combining openness, automation and scalable network architectures, Australian operators can meet growing demand across urban and regional areas, support next-generation applications and expand digital services efficiently. With integrated fiber, wireless, timing and AI-driven orchestration solutions, we help ensure networks are ready for the evolving connectivity landscape in 2026 and beyond.

Learn more about Adtran’s solutions for Australia’s next-generation networks at www.adtran.com.

Five AI trends impacting telecom in 2026

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:09:00 Z

1. Hyperscale data centers are outpacing fiber infrastructure

The explosive growth of large-scale foundation models is fueling an unprecedented buildout of hyperscale data centers. These facilities are being constructed at such a rapid pace that the supporting infrastructure – optical fiber, power, cooling and even space – is struggling to keep up. As compute-intensive AI workloads become the norm, the demand for high-capacity, low-latency interconnects between data centers is surging.

Telecom providers must urgently adapt to exponential traffic growth from AI workloads by investing in robust, scalable fiber backbones. The Fiber Broadband Association projects a 2.3x increase in total fiber miles by 2029 to meet this demand. The surge is already transforming network planning and capital investment strategies, with data center interconnect (DCI) emerging as a critical enabler of AI-driven services and hyperscale cloud operations.

2. Edge-to-cloud traffic is becoming symmetric and persistent

Generative AI workloads, such as real-time content creation and interactive agents, are reshaping traffic dynamics across telecom networks. Historically, traffic has been heavily downstream and bursty, driven by human usage patterns that peak at certain times of day. AI is changing this equation, introducing continuous, bidirectional traffic flows that challenge legacy assumptions.

Research from one vendor shows that generative AI applications drive 26% more upstream traffic than traditional download-heavy patterns. Additionally, agentic AI operates autonomously across enterprises, communicating persistently and in parallel between edge devices, on-premises infrastructure and centralized data centers. To accommodate this shift, telecom providers must rearchitect networks to support increasingly symmetrical and persistent traffic patterns, optimizing edge-to-cloud pathways for intelligent, always-on interactions.

3. Metro fiber expansion is critical for edge AI

The deployment of AI agents at the network edge is accelerating, driven by enterprise needs for low-latency responsiveness, data governance and differentiated AI capabilities. As organizations increasingly rely on real-time AI decision-making, the proximity of compute and data becomes critical to meet performance and compliance requirements.

This decentralization is fueling demand for dense metro fiber networks that can support high-throughput, low-latency connectivity between edge sites and regional data centers. Telecom providers must expand metro fiber infrastructure to support distributed AI architectures. This investment enables smarter, faster services at the point of need, while positioning providers to meet enterprise expectations around performance, security and control.

4. AI agents are redefining telecom operations

In 2026, telecom providers will begin to see AI agents embedded across the full lifecycle of their operations – from network planning and deployment to customer support and field service. These agents are evolving rapidly, moving from simple assistants to co-pilots and, eventually, autonomous operators. Early deployments are already demonstrating their ability to perform tasks like capacity planning, predictive outage prevention, automated network healing, subscriber triage and dispatch optimization. These capabilities are laying the groundwork for a shift from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, even autonomous, optimization, setting the stage for smarter, faster and more resilient service delivery.

But the most profound change may be in how telecom professionals work. AI agents are poised to become true teammates, collaborating with human teams, scaling expertise, and preserving institutional knowledge by learning from expert interactions. In the near future, Tier 1 personnel will be empowered to resolve issues before subscribers even notice, while Tier 2 engineers will shift their focus from repetitive triage to strategic optimization. This transformation will redefine operational roles, allowing workers to spend less time firefighting and more time innovating. As AI takes on the routine lifting, telecom teams will be freed to innovate.

5. AI is emerging as the 8th layer of the OSI model

As AI becomes deeply embedded in telecom infrastructure, a foundational shift is emerging: AI is functioning as a new abstraction layer – the 8th layer of the OSI model. This idea was sparked during a recent panel discussion when someone asked, “Are we now just building fiber for the machines?” The question captured a growing unease that telecom might be losing its human-centric mission. But the concern also revealed something deeper: the OSI model has always been about abstraction – each layer hides complexity to empower the one above it. The application layer (Layer 7) historically provided users with interfaces to perform tasks without needing to understand the underlying network mechanics. Now, AI is beginning to sit atop this stack, abstracting even the application layer itself. Intelligent agents interpret user intent and autonomously execute tasks, removing the need for users to navigate menus, write code or understand system logic.

How three longstanding partnerships skyrocketed JCE Co-op’s network performance and subscriber growth

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:24:00 Z

Technology shifts, competitive pressures and rising customer expectations make it harder than ever for service providers to feel confident in their efforts. Too often, providers look for ways to solve a problem quickly, economically and on their own, but finding the right assortment of products is only half of the battle. Arguably more important is identifying vendors who will provide more than technology – a true support system of people within an ecosystem who know how to help, collaborate fully and prioritize lasting resolutions over quick gains.

For many providers, Adtran has become a haven. We’re a trusted partner that combines innovative solutions with a culture of collaboration and responsiveness. More than a technology supplier, Adtran builds long-term relationships that help providers deliver reliable connectivity, empower communities and grow with confidence. Whether it’s helping a cooperative expand services into the broadband space or enabling a regional ISP to modernize its network, Adtran brings people, technology and expertise together to deliver lasting value.

My favorite part about working with these partners is that we all know each other. You can just pick up the phone and you know that person is going to be familiar with the issue and with the other partners involved.
- Dan Marcure, CTO at JCE Co-op

The strength of our partnerships lives in our shared purpose. Our global partner ecosystem comprises over 300 partners – each bringing expertise aligned with the journey service providers are on – by design. We’re rooted with key consulting engineering firms, like Vantage Point Solutions, which not only develop concepts and deployment designs but also help ISPs win major grant funding in both private and public sectors.

Our reselling community extends this expertise by advising on the best-fit solutions and timing of delivery, which can be a game-changer for rural ISPs. Core Telecom Systems collaborates regularly with both Vantage Point Solutions and Adtran to position technology at the right place and time, with the right inventory and perfectly spaced lead times.

This tripod of partnerships has created a sturdy and lasting resource JCE Co-op can not just rely on, but thrive with.

From a frustrating vendor lock-in to the open systems of Adtran

The broadband industry never stands still. Platforms that once led the market eventually hit their limits, leaving providers searching for a path forward. Escalating costs, lagging performance and reactive support often make that decision inevitable.

Adtran stands apart by anticipating market needs and designing solutions with foresight. Our SDX OLT platform, for example, enables providers to offer up to ten times the speed of competing cable services at a fraction of the cost. The result is a foundation that not only solves today’s challenges and those of the next generation, but also gives ISPs the opportunity to truly compete, offer better value to subscribers and create a clear path for growth.

When JCE Co-op in northwest Illinois began facing end-of-life issues with its legacy platform, lackluster services and ignored feature requests, the team saw an opportunity to rethink its approach. Adtran’s open, scalable technology, combined with a reputation for dependable support, offered the future-ready path JCE Co-op needed. The most exciting part, says CTO Dan Marcure, is that “when you bring an idea to Adtran, they actually come back with new elements to the idea, and work to make it a reality.”

With Adtran, JCE Co-op found not just new technology but a partner that could adapt technology to their growth. Transparent pricing, proactive collaboration and forward-looking design made the transition seamless and strategic.

One of the greatest pleasures of working with Adtran is how receptive they are to our ideas. Many vendors listen and take notes, but that’s the last you hear of it. Adtran listens, follows up and brings back solutions that show they truly understood what we needed to succeed.
– Dan Marcure, CTO at JCE Co-op

This responsiveness defines how Adtran works with every customer at every level. The goal isn’t to sell a solution, but to solve challenges together.

Three partnerships are better than one

At Adtran, partnership means more than a shared purchase order – it's a collection of expertise working on a shared goal. Customers consistently tell us how much they value having a partner that not only contributes but actively works with other key partners to finish the job at hand. Many vendors often work only with consultants or only with resellers, and their collaboration models are often murky and ambiguous.

For JCE Co-op, collaboration extended across Adtran’s ecosystem. Vantage Point Solutions, a premier engineering and consulting firm for the broadband industry, helped secure a whopping 14 funding awards totaling $94 million and played a key role in network planning. Their work to capture capital, resources and network design was critical. Vantage Point has firm confidence in Adtran technology because it’s reliable.

Kevin Kloehn, VP of customer relations at Vantage Point Solutions, says: “When we collaborate with Adtran, we know exactly what we’re going to get: a high-quality product backed by a strong engineering team with an equally strong customer focus. We never have to second-guess that decision. Adtran has always been a reliable, customer-focused partner, and that consistency is what makes them stand out in the industry.”

The collaboration didn't stop there. Core Telecom, while nationally present, leveraged its proximity in St. Louis to provide rapid fulfillment, warehousing and integrated cabinet solutions that kept builds on schedule, even during supply chain challenges. Core’s deep understanding of Adtran technology ensures JCE Co-op can rely on all three partners seamlessly, creating a dependable support network when it matters most.

Such a noble goal requires a noble execution of teamwork. We must all operate like we’re one organization. We’re excited to see JCE Co-op accomplish so much with us and our partners.
- Jeremy Harris, VP of North America sales at Adtran

Longevity proves confidence

Partnerships which last prove how deep they are. Providers that choose Adtran often see not only network growth but a new level of assurance in their long-term strategy.

JCE Co-op began its broadband journey with about 2,500 members. Within three years, that number grew to more than 8,000. By leveraging the Mosaic One software suite, the SDX fiber access platform and the Intellifi® home Wi-Fi app, JCE Co-op has accelerated brand awareness and take rates like never before.

Today, long-term vision continues. JCE plans to add 3,000 subscribers per year over the next three years – growth powered by reliable partnerships and future-ready platforms.

Across the industry, many of Adtran’s relationships span decades. Our partners stay with us because we evolve with them, delivering the technology, expertise and service reliability they can rely on as part of their business strategies.

Teamwork makes community impact stronger

The impact of strong partnerships extends far beyond operations. Broadband providers working with Adtran are transforming lives in the communities they serve.

For JCE Co-op, that meant enabling new opportunities for work, learning and connection in rural Illinois. With Adtran’s Intellifi® platform, members can now manage their home networks directly, while operators gain the insight to resolve issues faster. The co-op’s investment in Adtran's proactive fiber monitoring solution has improved network resiliency, allowing faster identification and resolution of outages, which were critical across leased fiber routes.

JCE Co-op also helped establish a fiber training program at Morrison Technical Institute with the Fiber Broadband Association to offer VR-based learning experiences that allow students to explore splicing and network maintenance. These programs bring the much-needed expertise to the industry while also helping new generations grow their careers in telecommunications. Furthermore, these initiatives strengthen the local workforce and enhance brand recognition across the community, reflecting a shared commitment to progress.

Partnering is a strategy – choose wisely

Strong partnerships create resilience. They ensure supply chains are reliable, projects stay on schedule, multiple experts are available and solutions evolve with real-world challenges. Working with Adtran doesn’t feel like working with a vendor – it feels like being part of a team equally invested in success.

Partnership also means trust:

Trust that when you call, there is a team of experts ready to help
Trust that your feedback is heard and acted upon
Trust that the solutions you deploy today will scale to meet tomorrow’s needs

A haven for the long term

Customers don’t switch vendors lightly. It often takes years of unmet needs and stalled innovation before that decision is made. But when the time comes, they look for more than a new product – they want a partner they can trust to stand beside them through every challenge and milestone, supported by an ecosystem of expertise.

Every collaboration reinforces our belief that when people and purpose align, innovation follows. That’s the foundation of every Adtran partnership: accessible, collaborative and grassroots.

Adtran has earned this trust. Through longstanding relationships, responsive support and a shared vision for the future, we help providers not only keep pace with change but lead it.

Because true partnership doesn’t end at deployment. It grows stronger with every connection built together.

What’s next for Wi-Fi? Looking ahead to CES 2026

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:16:00 Z

As CES returns for 2026, Wi-Fi is poised for a major evolution. With new standards rolling out and intelligent use cases emerging, this year could mark a turning point in wireless connectivity. Here are five trends shaping the future of Wi-Fi.

1. Wider rollout of Wi-Fi 7 – real-world speed and reliability boosts

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) continues to gain momentum in both consumer and business markets. Thanks to advances in next-generation Wi-Fi chipsets incorporating AI features, expect Wi-Fi 7 to deliver greater reliability, lower latency and more efficient multi-device performance.

2. Wi-Fi management gets smarter – AI/ML-driven optimization and analytics

Network operators and smart home management platforms are increasingly using AI and machine learning to optimize performance and improve the subscriber experience. Wi-Fi is evolving into an intelligent, adaptive system ideal for the explosion of connected devices in homes, businesses and communities.

Edge AI will deliver real-time intelligence on devices.

3. Smart homes and edge AI – Wi-Fi as the backbone, AI adds the smarts

The number of connected devices will skyrocket, both inside and outside the home, driving the need for extended range, better outdoor coverage and simplified IoT connectivity. Edge AI will deliver real-time intelligence on devices, enabling faster responses to security alerts, energy optimization and easier cross-platform IoT integration, while keeping data local for improved privacy.

4. Beyond speed – focus on reliability, stability and real-world performance

New Wi-Fi developments prioritize resilience: stable connectivity across many devices, improved performance in high interference environments and seamless roaming. This is critical as homes, offices and public spaces continue to increase network load.

5. Looking ahead: Wi-Fi 8 – future proofing the network

Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn), still in development, focuses on ultra-high reliability, enhanced mesh connectivity and better real-world performance in congested environments and AI-centric workloads. CES 2026 will likely preview products designed with Wi-Fi 8 readiness in mind.

Whether for smart homes, office upgrades or next-generation connected devices, the coming evolution of Wi-Fi marks a shift toward smarter, more scalable and more reliable wireless networks.

Why APAC operators are turning to MicroMux™ for energy-efficient scaling

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 11:11:00 Z

If you talk to network teams across Asia-Pacific, one thing becomes clear very quickly. Sustainability is no longer treated as a side issue. It’s moved out of policy documents and into boardrooms, budgets and procurement strategies. It’s now directly influencing how networks are built, expanded and operated.

And the operational reality is only becoming more demanding.

Power is expensive. Space is limited. Cooling is under constant strain. Meanwhile, demand continues to climb through fiber rollout, mobile backhaul, cloud growth and AI workloads. Operators are under pressure to deliver more capacity without the option of letting power use, footprint or operating cost grow at the same rate.

The pressures operators face

Across the region, operators are navigating a similar set of constraints:

Electricity prices remain among the highest globally in markets such as Japan, Singapore, Australia and the Philippines. Power consumption has become a design constraint rather than an operational detail.
Environmental commitments are shaping technology choices. From Japan’s GX policy and Australia’s net-zero goals to Singapore’s Green Plan 2030 and India’s energy-efficiency mandates, sustainability targets now translate directly into network design requirements.
Data center and edge capacity continues to expand rapidly in cities such as Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Mumbai, pushing transport networks to scale without becoming energy bottlenecks.
In geographies including Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands, physical distance still defines operations. Reducing truck rolls is critical both economically and environmentally.

These pressures are driving real choices in rack layouts, refresh cycles and architecture decisions. Increasingly, the focus is shifting away from building outward toward building more efficiently.

Why compact optics are gaining momentum

For years, scaling a network meant scaling infrastructure. New shelves, new line cards, higher power draw and a greater cooling load. Capacity growth and footprint growth were tightly linked.

That model is now breaking down.

More network capability is moving into optical modules small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. As designs evolve in that direction, the impact becomes measurable:

Lower power consumption per transported Gigabit
Reduced heat generation per rack
Fewer systems to install and maintain
Faster upgrades with less disruption

There’s also a direct sustainability effect. Smaller hardware uses fewer raw materials, ships at lower volume and generates less packaging waste. When capacity growth happens inside a pluggable rather than through new platforms, the supply-chain footprint shrinks naturally.

Operations change too. Every avoided site visit cuts emissions, time and cost. Architectures that prioritize remote configuration and modular upgrades deliver sustainability gains alongside operational efficiency.

Compact optics are breaking the old model of scaling through bigger hardware.

Putting numbers behind the shift

The efficiency case is not theoretical. Operators are already seeing:

Up to 80% lower energy consumption compared to traditional transponders
Cooler racks with reduced cooling demand
Fewer switches and CPE devices in the network
As little as 3W of power to convert a single 10GbE port into ten fully managed 1GbE services

Every watt saved matters. Every rack avoided matters. Every engineer journey avoided matters.

MicroMux™ in practice

Adtran’s MicroMux™ technology shows how compact optics can be used as part of an intentional architecture shift. By moving aggregation and density into pluggable optics, operators can scale without inflating infrastructure overhead.

In practical terms, MicroMux™ helps operators:

Reduce energy and hardware footprints
Limit material use and packaging waste
Minimize packaging and shipping emissions for a smaller supply-chain footprint
Lower Scope 1 emissions by reducing truck rolls
Improve Gbit-per-watt efficiency for long-term growth

The bigger picture

Across APAC, sustainability is no longer a reporting exercise. It shows up in architecture reviews, vendor evaluations and investment decisions. Compact optics are now central to scaling responsibly.

Because the future of sustainable networking isn’t built on bigger hardware. It’s built on smarter optics.

Explore how MicroMux™ can help you scale smarter

MicroMux™ is part of our broader MicroMux™ Series, which includes solutions for edge, aggregation and core scalability.

Will rocketing costs send data centers into orbit?

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:55:00 Z

AI is driving data center energy consumption to levels most operators didn’t plan for. Power costs are rising, grid access is becoming increasingly constrained, and cooling budgets are growing in lockstep with model size. At the same time, land availability, water use and emissions targets add even more friction.

The commercial case for space-based data centers

The dawn of the reusable rocket era has made the notion of orbital compute plausible. Launch costs are falling and innovators are eyeing the unique advantages of space. Satellites in sun-synchronous low Earth (LEO) orbit can harvest up to eight times more solar energy than Earth-based systems, offering near-continuous power and reducing the need for massive cooling infrastructure. Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, has even suggested that this new way of hosting compute resources will soon “beat the cost of terrestrial data centers.” This is backed up by industry analysts, who predict that by the mid-2030s, launch costs could fall below $200/kg.

Orbital data center research

Pioneering R&D is already in progress. Google’s Project Suncatcher is on the verge of testing satellites fitted with its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) that relay data to Earth via free-space optical links. Meanwhile, Starcloud plans to launch its first GPU cluster, Starcloud-2, in 2026, positioning itself as an early entrant into an emerging market.

But terrestrial facilities won’t be replaced anytime soon. Radiation-hardened hardware, high-bandwidth optical networking, free-space optical reliability, thermal regulation and long-term orbital station-keeping all remain formidable challenges. Even once these obstacles are overcome, space-based compute will still be reserved for energy-intensive or latency-tolerant workloads, with Earth-bound networks handling the vast majority of traffic.

Orbital data centers may be tomorrow’s solution, but today’s challenge is terrestrial efficiency.

Distributed models reshape terrestrial networks

The more immediate concern for hyperscalers is the evolution happening on the ground. To bypass grid bottlenecks, operators are increasingly adopting a distributed strategy – splitting massive AI clusters across multiple data centers to spread power demand and ease local infrastructure pressure.

In this model, data center interconnect (DCI) stops being a passive transport link and becomes a true extension of the compute fabric. Horizontal scaling only works if those facilities operate as one cohesive system, which places enormous pressure on the efficiency of the optical transport layer itself. As clusters become more distributed, power per gigabit becomes the new critical path for AI expansion.

An optical transport portfolio designed for the AI era

Optical transceivers now account for a growing share of total data center energy use. That’s why our DCI portfolio, which includes our FSP 3000 open line system, is built to enable power-efficient optical transport while maximizing throughput. By cutting watts per bit, simplifying scaling and enabling more sustainable high-capacity interconnects, our solutions ensure operators can meet AI demand while reducing overall energy consumption.

Scaling AI efficiently on Earth

Orbital data centers may one day help manage future AI workloads, and it’s exciting to watch the early R&D projects begin to take shape. But the challenge here on Earth is far more urgent: lowering power consumption while increasing throughput across terrestrial networks. Those who stay ahead will be the ones who drive down power consumption across every part of their infrastructure – compute, cooling and transport. Because in a data-driven world defined by AI, energy efficiency isn’t just an advantage – it’s the only viable way to scale.

To learn how our portfolio of open optical transport solutions helps operators scale AI workloads with the speed, capacity and efficiency today’s networks demand, visit adtran.com.

Africa’s route to open and energy-efficient DCI

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:30:00 Z

Paul-Francois Cattier of the Africa Data Center Association describes Africa as the “world’s first digital-native continent,” citing that more than half of its 1.3 billion inhabitants were born after the year 2000. This statistic underscores the need for Africa’s digital infrastructure to evolve so that its young population can communicate, collaborate and do business more easily and cost-effectively.

Carrier-neutral data centers are the backbone of this transformation. Facilities such as Rack Centre in Lagos, Teraco in Johannesburg and Open Access Data Centres (OADC) in Nigeria, South Africa and the DRC are fostering open interconnection environments where networks, content providers and cloud platforms can meet. Backed by major players including Digital Realty, Equinix, Africa Data Centres and MTN, these ecosystems are expanding rapidly to provide the neutral, interconnected hubs needed to power Africa’s growing digital economy.

But as these facilities scale up, a bottleneck has emerged: data center interconnect (DCI).

Why DCI demand is surging

Fintech is driving a wave of connectivity investment, from digital banking to lending platforms. Cloud adoption is climbing as enterprises move workloads closer to users, and AI applications are putting extra pressure on already-stretched networks. To keep up, data center hubs need secure, high-capacity transmission systems. Yet lacking sufficient local infrastructure, traffic often gets routed through Europe, adding latency and cost.

Structural issues slowing DCI deployment

Power: Many utility grids are fragile with outages common, so DCI platforms must be power-efficient and resilient to disturbances.
Fragmentation: Africa still lacks sufficient Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and co-located hubs.
Skills: The transmission engineering talent pool is thin, stalling multicountry deployments.
Mobility: Restrictive visa regimes make cross-border deployments harder.

The friction these and other issues introduce has made investment more complex and slowed rollout in some regions.

Designed for openness, efficiency and growth, our DCI solutions deliver the capacity and security Africa’s rapidly growing digital economy demands.

The path to faster, more resilient networks

Africa’s data center boom is driven by the same forces accelerating digital transformation globally, but with added urgency from a region that needs to catch up fast. Success depends on infrastructure that’s energy-efficient, reliable and built for conditions on the ground. We recently partnered with NEC XON to help address the technical and practical challenges of African DCI deployment.

Our open, energy-efficient data center interconnect technology is built for high-density workloads, low latency and hybrid cloud architectures. It also enables tailored deployments that address diverse network conditions and growth scenarios typical in African markets.

Key solutions and benefits

Our FSP 3000 platform has an open architecture that enables interoperability and scalable growth.
Our 400ZR/OpenZR+ technology provides energy-efficient metro optics for IP-over-DWDM connectivity.
Our TeraFlex™ solution offers high-capacity inter-metro transport that maximizes existing fiber assets.

These platforms are complemented by automation and low-touch provisioning, which simplify operations and lower costs, along with Layer 1 encryption featuring post-quantum readiness to safeguard sovereign compute and data integrity.

NEC XON’s on-the-ground capability to design, deploy and maintain systems across Africa plays an equally crucial role. Customers get secure, sovereign interconnects optimized for energy efficiency and all backed by a partner with a proven regional footprint. This helps operators and data center providers overcome grid fragility, fragmented interconnection and skills shortages to scale faster and more reliably. Together, we’re delivering the DCI infrastructure needed to unlock Africa’s next wave of digital growth.

Learn more about how our open optical networking solutions power DCI worldwide at adtran.com.

Scaling IPoDWDM? Start with optical visibility and automation

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:35:00 Z

As coherent pluggables move into routers, the biggest risk in IPoDWDM isn’t the optics – it’s operations. The shift complicates how teams troubleshoot and maintain control across layers. When the optical domain loses visibility to the end points of the optical connection, faults take longer to isolate and misconfigurations become harder to catch. The fix is straightforward: retain optical-layer control and end-to-end visibility, expose essential parameters from router optics and standardize workflows across domains.

Why optical visibility matters

The rise of router-hosted pluggables moves the physical demarcation point away from the optical shelf, creating a visibility gap unless addressed. To manage end-to-end transport effectively, the optical layer must see every wavelength, whether it originates from a transponder, a muxponder or a router. That includes real-time data like per-channel power and service health. Without this insight, transport teams are blind to potential issues.

A successful model starts with a strong foundation at the optical layer. This includes:

Health and performance monitoring of amplifiers and ROADMs
Per-channel visibility using an integrated optical channel monitor (OCM)
Fiber diagnostics through OTDR to localize faults like cuts and reflections
An open, programmable optical domain with ROADM nodes enforcing wavelength admission control so only configured traffic enters the network fabric

While the optical controller needs to see router-hosted optics, it doesn’t need full control. A narrow set of parameters is enough to verify plan adherence, ensure deterministic and consistent provisioning, and monitor network health such as frequency, launch power or general performance indicators.

Keep operations consistent across old and new services

Most networks aren’t greenfield. IPoDWDM often runs alongside legacy OTN and wavelength services, so operational consistency is critical. Whether a service terminates on a router or a transponder, transport teams need a unified way to model services, map resources and manage faults.

Start by defining clear end-to-end ownership and extending existing workflows to include IPoDWDM. Integrate optical-layer performance guarantees into your tooling to prevent fragmentation across domains. This approach keeps processes predictable and avoids silos as technology evolves.

A simple fault-handling flow that works

Disaggregation doesn’t have to mean fragmented fault management. Optical layer alarms, such as those raised by OCM or OTDR, can be correlated with alarm and performance data from the router pluggables. OTDR and ROADM state help localize physical faults, while path protection can kick in if configured. Once the system reroutes, automation verifies signal stability and restores operating levels.

Architecture choices: point-to-point vs ROADM

Architecturally, point-to-point deployments benefit from compact terminals with integrated OCM and OTDR, making it easy to automate turn-up and move to exception-based operations. In ROADM networks, a route-and-select model supports colorless add/drop and helps prevent misconfigurations. Where traffic is static and budgets are tight, wideband filters can be used, but frequency and power control should remain in the optical plan.

These operational considerations play out differently in point-to-point OLS designs and in ROADM/optical-bypass topologies, shown below.

REAL AI – from reactive to responsive

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 12:21:00 Z

In our first REAL AI blog, we introduced a phased journey for service providers – starting with reactive support. Today, we focus on a pivotal shift: evolving from reactive to responsive support. It’s a transformation that turns support centers from firefighting units into proactive service hubs, improving both customer experience and operational efficiency.

Reactive support today: Driving blind

In today’s broadband operations, support often begins only after a subscriber reports a problem. A frontline human agent takes the call and starts troubleshooting – but with limited visibility and fragmented tools. Data is scattered across dashboards, device logs, billing systems and more. Support teams must hunt for clues, relying on tribal knowledge to stitch together a diagnosis. Expertise becomes a bottleneck. New personnel face steep learning curves and even seasoned techs struggle to interpret disconnected systems.

Without clear insights, support may resort to trial-and-error fixes, escalate too soon or dispatch a technician for issues that could’ve been resolved remotely. It’s like driving at night without sensors – reacting only when an obstacle appears. No early warnings. No guidance. The result: longer downtimes, repeated explanations, rising costs. Subscribers are frustrated. Support teams are overwhelmed. And operations remain stuck in a reactive loop.

Responsive support tomorrow: Driving with insight

Responsive support still begins with a subscriber reporting an issue – but now, support teams are equipped with AI-assisted tools that surface the right data, in the right context, at the right time. Guided workflows and anomaly detection help pinpoint root causes. In-context actions – like rebooting an ONT or running a speed test – are just a click away. Even novice agents can deliver expert-level outcomes without relying on years of tribal knowledge.

It’s still human-driven, but smarter – like driving with lane departure warnings and blind-spot alerts. The agent stays in control, but now with systems that reduce guesswork and accelerate resolution. Responsive support doesn’t replace human judgment – it enhances it. Subscribers get faster, more consistent service. Support teams gain productivity and confidence. And operations become more efficient, without losing the human touch.

The REAL AI approach

The subscriber: Guided self-diagnosis with Intellifi®

For subscribers, responsive support starts with empowerment. The upcoming Intellifi® enhancement guides subscribers through self-diagnosis and resolution. It collects experience data, analyzes anomalies, determines root causes and prescribes remedies – all through an intuitive workflow. This isn’t just convenience – it’s intelligence at the edge. And every interaction feeds the learning loop, helping the system understand what subscribers experience and how they respond to fixes.

AI-assisted tools surface the right data, in the right context, at the right time.

The frontline agent: Expert-level outcomes with Mosaic One Care

Human agents using Mosaic One Care no longer need to hunt through fragmented systems. They get a unified view across in-home and access networks – including third-party RGs (via TR-69 and soon TR-369), ONTs and OLTs. Anomaly detection highlights what could be wrong, and the Action Center offers direct remedies like rebooting ONTs or running speed tests. For a well-known call center, integrating Mosaic One Care via its API turned a process that used to take minutes into one that now takes seconds – dramatically improving efficiency for frontline tech support.

And with the upcoming Mosaic One Clarity upgrade, customer support won’t just get anomalies – they’ll get root cause analysis and recommended actions, explained in plain language. This enhancement accelerates resolution and improves accuracy. Even novice personnel can deliver expert-level outcomes, backed by tools that surface the right data at the right time.

The Tier 2 engineer: Deep diagnostics with Mosaic Subscriber Insights

When issues escalate, Tier 2 engineers turn to Mosaic Subscriber Insights (MSI). MSI provides deep cross-domain visibility across fiber, Wi-Fi, BSS and BNG layers, allowing engineers to diagnose complex problems with precision. It’s built for experts.

Delivering REAL AI with multiple AI technology approaches

Adtran’s responsive support capabilities are powered by two complementary flows: Reasoning and Learning. Together, they form the intelligence backbone of REAL AI, delivering expert-level outcomes at scale while continuously improving over time. The Reasoning Flow is the engine behind every AI-assisted interaction. It’s fast, scalable and understandable, built not on opaque models, but on human-curated logic. Think of it as a vast troubleshooting library that detects anomalies, traces root causes and prescribes remedies across both in-home and access domains.

This reasoning flow avoids the need to run every alarm or config change through a large language model. Instead, it uses structured logic to answer three key questions: What’s out of place? Why is it happening? And what can be done to fix it? The result is a repeatable, low-cost, and grounded approach that empowers support teams to act with confidence – whether rebooting an ONT, escalating a ticket or resolving an issue remotely.

The learning flow ensures the system gets smarter over time. Researchers and AI agents mine data from tools already in use – Care, MSI and Intellifi® – to refine anomaly detectors, improve root cause chains and enhance remedy recommendations. Agentic AI helps automate parts of this loop, spotting new symptoms, developing hypotheses and proposing updates to the reasoning flow. This feedback loop not only improves support outcomes – it supervises the quality of the AI’s reasoning itself.

Why REAL AI is different

Reactive support is slow, fragmented and frustrating. REAL AI changes that, empowering every user in the support chain with AI-assisted tools that surface the right data, in the right context, at the right time.

Subscribers use the upcoming Intellifi® app enhancements to self-diagnose and resolve issues. Frontline agents rely on Mosaic One Care for anomaly detection and rapid action, and with the Mosaic One Clarity upgrade, they will benefit from root-cause analysis and recommended remedies. Tier 2 engineers use Mosaic Subscriber Insights to resolve escalations with precision. Each tool not only assists – it learns, feeding a loop that improves outcomes and supervises AI reasoning.

REAL AI is more than a framework – it’s a philosophy. Built to Reason. Designed to Explain. Ready to Act. Always Learning. This is how we move from reactive to responsive support. And it’s just the beginning.

Written with the assistance of REAL AI

Celebrating APAC momentum and our 2025 Partner Award winners

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:40:00 Z

2025 marks a pivotal moment across the Asia-Pacific region. The market has shifted. Data centers are multiplying, enterprises are moving network resources closer to the edge and AI workloads are scaling faster than networks can keep up.

The future belongs to those who can deliver high-capacity, low-latency optical-ready networks right now – and our partners are doing exactly that.

Three themes that defined our 2025 summit

Collaboration that scales: Adtran provides the platforms, innovation and technical foundation. Our partners bring proximity, deep customer trust and service execution. Together, we deliver the full value chain required in today’s accelerated digital economy.

Innovation with purpose: AI is driving unprecedented data demand, fundamentally changing how networks are designed and managed. We’re leading with 50G PON, IPoDWDM and next-generation open optical transport, enabling capacity growth without compromising latency, sustainability or cost-efficiency.

Growth that compounds: The APAC region is entering a multi-year investment cycle in optical and access infrastructure. With shared enablement, coordinated go-to-market strategies and co-delivery models, we’re scaling opportunities together.

Market trends shaping APAC network strategy

AI-driven traffic patterns are shifting east-west inside metros, increasing demand for high-fiber, low-latency transport.
Data center interconnect capacity is expanding across Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Australia and India, driving strong demand for 100G/400G/800G DWDM and coherent pluggables.
50G PON is emerging as the next foundational access layer for enterprise fiber, broadband and 5G/6G backhaul.
Latency is becoming a business advantage rather than a metric, especially in financial services, cloud gaming, robotics and distributed AI.
Energy and rack efficiency are shaping procurement decisions, accelerating the move to open IP+optical architectures and ZR/ZR+ pluggables.

These emerging trends are shaping operator and enterprise decisions, and we’re working closely with our partners as they execute in this environment.

Together, we’re delivering open, scalable, intelligence-driven fiber networking solutions that will help drive prosperity across APAC for decades to come.

Why we introduced the APAC Partner Awards

At this year’s APAC Partner Summit, we hosted an event to celebrate partners who go beyond selling equipment to focus on designing real outcomes for customers. Our APAC Partner Awards highlight companies that provide support from architecture to operations, invest in capability and talent and create sustained growth rather than focusing on short-term wins.

Our 2025 APAC Partner Award winners

APAC Partner of the Year:

Japan – NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation

APAC Excellence Awards:

Japan – Marubeni Information Systems Co., Ltd. – APAC Partner Excellence Award
Singapore – Apeiro Networks Pte Ltd – Service Partner of the Year
Singapore – Terrabit Networks Pte Ltd – Vertical Expertise Partner of the Year
Australia – Datacom Systems (AU) Pty Ltd – Technical Innovation Award
Australia – CoverTel Pty Ltd – Environmental Innovation Award
India – Telogica Limited – Commitment Award
India – Targus Technologies Private Limited – Growth Award

What makes these companies stand out?

In short, they embody Adtran’s shared ONE values.

Ownership: They take responsibility for outcomes.
Nurture: They build capability and customer confidence.
Excellence: They deliver with precision and measurable impact.

These are not just partners, but co-creators of progress and growth.

Looking ahead to 2026

Through our expanded APAC Partner Program, we’re advancing co-innovation, joint go-to-market initiatives and partner enablement tied directly to measurable growth. Together, we’re delivering open, scalable, intelligence-driven fiber networking solutions that will form the backbone of future digital economies, helping drive prosperity across APAC for decades to come.

To us, you’re not just partners, but co-creators of progress and growth. Thank you to everyone who joined us in Bangkok and contributed to this milestone event. We’re already looking forward to next year’s summit – an opportunity to share knowledge, explore new opportunities and celebrate our mutual successes.

Learn more about our APAC Partner Program and how we’re shaping the future of connectivity together.

When simplicity matters: Inside the SDX 6000 Series

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 10:58:00 Z

As networks evolve to keep pace with rising bandwidth demands, service providers are building on decades of progress in access network design. Chassis-based OLT systems have long delivered reliable, flexible multi-service access for fiber networks worldwide. Today, as service providers move toward all-fiber environments, new architectures are emerging to complement those proven systems. Many service providers are looking for ways to extend that same performance and reliability through more compact, energy-efficient and easily scalable platforms.

The Adtran SDX 6000 Series advances the ongoing network evolution by bringing next-generation performance, flexible deployment options and long-term scalability while maintaining the operational simplicity service providers value most. Each model is purpose-built for PON, right-sized for efficiency and engineered to simplify every step from planning to turn-up.

Simplicity that sells itself

The SDX 6000 Series builds on proven OLT architectures while simplifying how fiber networks are designed, deployed and operated. Chassis-based OLT systems often require numerous components just to get a network up and running. SDX streamlines this approach by cutting the number of parts needed per site to fewer than five – about 75% less. That means easier planning, faster purchasing and simpler deployment. With fewer components to manage, service providers eliminate inventory headaches, accelerate rollouts and reduce total cost of ownership. The payoff: faster turn-ups and immediate savings from day one.

Technicians love the SDX 6000 Series because it makes their jobs easier. With fewer spares to carry and manage, they can move faster and stay focused on what matters. And the simple design is easy for everyone to understand. With fewer parts to learn, training time and deployment errors decrease. Each SDX OLT is a compact, self-contained, plug-and-play system, temperature-hardened for reliable operation in central offices or outdoor cabinets. SDX OLTs rack, power and connect in minutes, and with Mosaic One's automated setup and management, turn-up is faster and more repeatable than ever.

Simplicity is only the beginning. The SDX 6000 Series also delivers unmatched scalability to grow with your network needs.

Scalability on your terms

The SDX 6000 Series delivers a true pay-as-you-grow architecture. Need to expand capacity fast? Pick the 4-, 16- or 48-port unit to meet immediate network demands. The flexible, modular design supports granular scaling on your terms with no excess hardware or unused ports and no vendor lock-in. Each unit integrates seamlessly with existing systems, so scaling becomes as simple as adding another SDX OLT – quick, efficient and cost-effective.

From the start, the SDX family of OLTs has been engineered to support a full spectrum of deployment scenarios, from small-scale rollouts to large-scale, high-density builds – delivering flexibility and long-term value in every deployment.

As networks expand, scalability is only part of the story. True growth also depends on how efficiently those resources perform once deployed.

Efficiency that adds up

Efficiency isn’t just a feature – it’s the foundation of the SDX 6000 Series design. Optimized to do one thing exceptionally well – deliver PON – it includes only the essential functions with no extras. Each unit combines the right amount of line card functionality, high-capacity non-blocking aggregation switching (no bottlenecks), onboard control resources and power – all in one compact device. This streamlined design builds on the reliability of chassis-based systems and delivers new levels of simplicity, scalability and power efficiency to today’s all-fiber networks.

For example, the SDX 6330 – a 48-port OLT – sets a new benchmark for power efficiency, consuming just over 4 watts per port in a compact 2.5RU form factor while delivering high-capacity services without compromise. For service providers focused on sustainability and cost savings, these efficiencies reduce both operating expenses and environmental impact.

These advantages don’t just improve today’s operations. They set the stage for what’s next in fiber access.

The future is purpose-built

Fiber networks are advancing fast – and so is Adtran. The SDX 6000 Series gives service providers a simpler, smarter and more sustainable way to evolve. Whether expanding coverage, cutting operational costs or preparing for 50G PON, this platform extends the success of your current network efficiently and confidently.

Ready to simplify and scale your network? Learn more about the SDX 6000 Series.

Five highlights from ITSF 2025

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:13:00 Z

ITSF 2025 delivered packed rooms, sharp questions and the kind of conversations you only get when timing experts meet in person. One theme in particular stood out during the conference: how to ensure resilient timing beyond simple backup. Here are five key pieces of advice we shared with visitors at our booth.

1. Fuse your timing, don’t just switch it

If there was one topic at this year’s ITSF that came up again and again, it was this: relying on a single satellite source is never a safe plan for critical infrastructure. Modern timing systems need to combine multiple references, measure and compare them in real time, score their quality, detect jamming or spoofing, and decide when to hold over or re‑track quickly. All of this should happen behind the scenes, so timing clients stay oblivious to the drama. This layered approach is the foundation for zero-trust timing – assuming every source can fail or be compromised.

2. Authenticate with Galileo OSNMA

Many visitors came to our booth focused on the risks of spoofing and meaconing. Some of the most energizing conversations for me were around Galileo OSNMA, which adds authentication to civilian GNSS. Just before the event, we announced first‑in‑timing support across Oscilloquartz platforms, delivered via firmware update on supported receivers. That means operators can strengthen defenses without a hardware swap, while layering in our Syncjack™ probing to spot replay attacks more reliably. For networks that need to verify their time sources, authentication is a big step forward.

3. Sub‑nanosecond is practical with White Rabbit

We showed how White Rabbit is now a license‑based software upgrade on our existing grandmasters, so teams can add sub‑nanosecond precision – down to picoseconds – without a forklift refresh. That makes it a practical option for finance, data center and research networks seeking higher accuracy and simpler operations. Our on‑site demo highlighted how to fan out sub‑ns timing at scale and still make day‑two operations straightforward for the people who live with the network. We also demonstrated interoperability with our friends in CREN White Rabbit consortium.

4. Optical cesium makes holdover simpler and longer‑lived

Strong holdover is still the best way to buy time when satellite signals are unreliable or unavailable, but many visitors to our booth wanted to know how they could replace aging magnetic cesium. Our new OSA 3200 SP and OSA 3250 ePRC extend our optical pumping cesium family to more budgets. With a typical ten‑year lifetime, they provide practical anchors for critical PNT needs and for modernizing legacy systems.

5. SFP grandmasters take precision into tight spaces

Edge sites keep getting tighter on space and power. That’s why it was great to see the reaction to our OSA 5401XG SyncPlug™. It drops PTP and NTP straight into 10Gbit/s‑only hosts from a compact SFP, with multi‑band GNSS, spoofing detection and PRTC‑B compliance. For teams trying to extend assured timing into hard‑to‑reach locations without adding a new box, it’s a smart lever that turns an empty SFP slot into a precise time node.

Session snapshots

Beyond the booth, our team sparked some important conversations. Bartek Kropiewnicki’s talk “Next‑gen time: resilient, redundant and ready for the GNSS crisis” captured the layered approach perfectly: fuse diverse sources, apply policy‑driven selection, test continuously and design for graceful degradation. Our joint poster session with Synch Industries complemented this by exploring what it takes to build a GNSS‑secured national time system, from architecture and fiber‑based PTP distribution to governance and phased rollout.

Addressing today’s challenges

Holdover buys time, but complete assurance needs fusion plus analytics to determine the right moment to switch to extended holdover. With OSNMA authentication, White Rabbit precision, optical cesium and a 10Gbit/s SFP grandmaster, we gave visitors a toolkit to strengthen timing where it matters most. As the industry moves toward zero-trust architectures to counter daily jamming and spoofing threats, these tools give operators practical ways to harden timing.

If you couldn’t make it to ITSF this year and you need advice on how to map your current timing posture and prioritize next steps, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Oscilloquartz experts. We’re ready to share guidance on strategies and deployment patterns tailored to your network.

Meet Adtran’s REAL AI engine and start your journey to phased AI adoption

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 12:07:00 Z

1970s: “That’s not real AI – that’s just heuristics. Real AI is an expert system.”

1990s: “That’s not real AI – that’s just an expert system. Real AI is machine learning.”

2010s: “That’s not real AI – that’s just machine learning. Real AI is neural networks.”

2025: “That’s not real AI – that’s just neural networks. Real AI is LLM models with RAG and MCP tools.”

I’m sure we’ve all heard or even said this kind of thing. It’s not easy to separate the goal of artificial intelligence from the latest implementation. We get swept up by the hopeful promise of each new technology wave, chasing the hype instead of the outcome. And because we struggle to crisply define human intelligence, we don’t maintain clear sight of the goal of artificial intelligence. It’s easier to say: “I’ll know it when I see it.”

That’s why the latest advancements with generative AI have so many industries excited. Tools like ChatGPT make AI approachable to the general populace in a way that no previous AI technology has. We know it because we see it. However, even though we think we’re seeing AI in action, the fact remains that 95% of projects using generative AI have yet to produce a return.

Don’t get me wrong – generative AI, and especially agentic AI, have me very excited about the future. But at the rate things have been moving lately, I’m sure next month there will be some new technology standing on the shoulders of these giants, reaching even greater heights.

How can you keep pace with the relentless evolution of AI and still create value?

Real artificial intelligence doesn’t specify a technology; it describes humankind’s aspiration for innovation. We want to take human roles, human tasks, human processes and have systems that perform them. You could say that any innovation throughout history has had this goal. Real AI must embody the hallmarks of human intelligence, regardless of the underlying technologies.

As we consider various human processes, we can boil down human intelligence into some key characteristics: whether that involves driving a car, assembling fire extinguishers in a factory, developing front-end GUI software or troubleshooting a subscriber’s internet. These processes require human expertise and collaboration to be performed accurately and safely. The proper action requires first sound and informed reasoning. However, only experts who have learned their craft have the basis for reasoning through related tasks. Experts explain the output of their work to other participants in the process, as well as teach novices to perform their role in the future. REAL human intelligence bears these four interrelated characteristics: Reasoning, Explaining, Acting and Learning.

REAL artificial intelligence must also bear these same hallmark characteristics of intelligence. REAL AI Reasons like a human, Explains its reasoning in human terms, Acts on that reasoning and Learns through this process to improve its reasoning.

In the past, AI technologies performed limited reasoning, explaining and acting with moderate success. But they’ve struggled mightily with scaling learning. Expert systems represented human expertise remarkably well, but harvesting that expertise met with insurmountable challenges. Machine learning and neural networks found more success modeling physical systems, but they scale with difficulty due to the massive number of samples required to train them.

What if, alongside the reasoning, explaining and acting provided by AI, we could also have it natively learn from experts?

Industries like the automotive industry are figuring this out – and they are establishing strong patterns the rest of us can follow. I still remember the days when I drove, completely unassisted (yep, dating myself a bit there). But then cars introduced blind spot and lane departure warnings, making me a better driver. These capabilities assisted me, but I still drove completely on my own. Some car makers used these new capabilities to collect data about traffic conditions and my behavior, which in turn enabled them to provide capabilities like lane assist and adaptive cruise control. Rather than a mere assistant, the car became a copilot and continued learning how to take on more of my tasks.

And now we’re seeing the fruit of this progressive learning – cars are driving on their own. Automated agents weren’t introduced into the driving process on day one, but artificial intelligence was first employed as an assistant to the expert, then as a copilot to the expert, and then finally as the expert driver. This gradual evolution was about developing trust and meeting drivers where they were comfortable. Each phase allowed humans to gain confidence while the artificial intelligence learned how to reason, explain and act better, ultimately taking on a human’s role in a human’s process.

IPoDWDM: The end of transponders?

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 10:32:00 Z

IP‑over‑DWDM (IPoDWDM) is reshaping transport networks by placing coherent pluggables directly in routers. This reduces complexity and removes an equipment layer by moving the transponder function into the router, but it doesn’t make transponders or muxponders obsolete. They remain useful because they solve specific problems that appear in real deployments.

Bridge older equipment and mixed environments

Most networks aren’t greenfield. Many installed routers lack native support for coherent optics or hit power, thermal or software limits. Transponders and muxponders bridge these gaps and decouple optical upgrades from router refresh cycles. This enables operators to:

Integrate older routers into IPoDWDM architectures and extend their useful lifetime
Use mixed configurations with a router‑hosted pluggable on one end and a transponder on the other
Add coherent interfaces where native support is missing

Multiplex to higher optical rates

When the optical layer runs at 400Gbit/s but installed routers top out at 100Gbit/s client ports, muxponders preserve router investments while moving the line system forward. This empowers operators to:

Aggregate 4×100G router interfaces into one 400G wavelength
Evolve the optical line system independently from router upgrades
Keep capacity planning consistent across heterogeneous router estates

Pure IPoDWDM works well for clean builds – but legacy gear, SLA needs and mixed environments keep transponders relevant.

Deliver wholesale private lines with SLA assurance

Wholesale models require a clearly defined hardware demarcation point along with quantitative SLA assurance to guarantee service quality. Transponders and muxponders make this possible in a practical and cost‑efficient way. They can even be deployed at customer premises, where they remain fully operated and monitored by the service provider, ensuring visibility, control and compliance without adding operational complexity. Operators gain:

SLA assurance via OTN digital wrapper with G.709 performance monitoring and end‑to‑end visibility in the optical controller
Low‑footprint CPE options with remote management and features such as encryption or service multiplexing
Better economics than packet‑emulated private lines, especially at low service counts

Maintain separation in disaggregated designs

Transponders and muxponders provide demarcation where required for regulatory or operational reasons. Muxponders also support grooming of different types of services including non-Ethernet services such as Fibre Channel or OTN enabling co-existence of different services and protocols. This modular approach lets operators introduce new services incrementally without redesigning the entire router infrastructure.

Transponders and muxponders still count

Pure IPoDWDM works well for single-purpose, homogeneous builds. But once you have to deal with legacy equipment, need to multiplex to higher rates, or operate a wholesale model that requires a clear handoff point and SLA assurance, transponders and muxponders still matter.

Adtran named Company of the Year

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 10:12:00 Z

Our roots in Southern Thuringia go back to the mid-1990s, when ADVA Optical Networking – now part of Adtran – opened its first production facility in Meiningen. Today, the site is one of our most important operations and R&D centers and home to our recently launched Terafactory. This state-of-the-art hub is designed to strengthen supply chain security, boost production autonomy and minimize our environmental footprint – all while bringing manufacturing closer to our European customers. That commitment has now been recognized with the Company of the Year Award from the South Thuringia Chamber of Industry and Commerce – part of the MuT initiative celebrating responsible and sustainable business leadership.

Local impact, global responsibility

The award has been covered by regional media, which highlighted the significance of our work in Meiningen and its impact on the local economy.

That impact goes beyond production – it reflects our broader commitment to marrying global reach with local responsibility. That’s exactly the kind of long-term, joined-up thinking South Thuringia is celebrating with this award. From advanced automation to solar-powered systems, we’re increasing efficiency while meeting our obligations to reduce emissions companywide.

From solar-powered systems to childcare spaces, we’re building a future that’s efficient, inclusive and locally rooted.

As part of Europe’s broader energy and digital transitions, the site is a model for how industrial investment can be more sustainable while creating real public value. The campus has also been carefully designed as a modern, well-supported environment for skilled work with spaces dedicated to childcare provision and areas where employees can socialize in their free time.

People-powered growth

From precision manufacturing and product innovation to logistics and quality assurance, it’s the people working each day at our Meiningen facility who make it all possible. Their expertise and commitment enable us to deliver the industry-leading connectivity solutions that support Thuringia’s economy and expand the availability of high-quality jobs throughout the region.

And we’ll keep investing in skills, good jobs and resilient manufacturing so that the benefits of our technology continue to be felt in Thuringia, across Europe and in every community we connect around the world.

Source coherent pluggables from your OLS provider and get more than cost savings

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:20:00 Z

In the move toward IP-over-DWDM (IPoDWDM) architectures, the question of where to source coherent pluggable optics is central – after all, these modules are the most expensive part of the optical transport infrastructure. Should you buy from a distributor, a webshop, your router supplier or your optical line system (OLS) vendor? Luckily, the fact that you have chosen a disaggregated network architecture makes it possible to buy your pluggables from different sources and compare prices. But beyond the price point, there are important factors that make buying your pluggables from your OLS provider a smarter choice – including reduced risk, simpler operations and smoother long-term network evolution.

Proven performance with host-platform independence and reliable supply

Standards compliance alone doesn’t guarantee quality or performance in every network environment. With coherent pluggables, interoperability penalties and integration challenges are common, especially with recently introduced module types, making qualification testing essential before deployment. When the OLS provider supplies the optics, they can be tested and validated across various host platforms – including third-party routers – and within real-world optical line systems. This ensures they’re not only interoperable in theory but proven in practice across different host devices.

In contrast, vendors focused primarily on providing pluggable optics often lack the system-level knowledge and resources to support such testing, shifting the burden to the network operators. A high-quality OLS solutions provider factors in power levels, dispersion tolerances and OSNR margins, giving you confidence that performance targets will be met. Just as importantly, they maintain a robust, diversified supply chain with guaranteed availability and quality – something that’s difficult to achieve on your own but part of their everyday operations.

Planning and automation that work end-to-end

Open, disaggregated networks are only as good as their coordination. One major benefit of sourcing pluggables from your OLS vendor is that they’re already modeled in the provider’s DWDM planning tools. This enables accurate simulation, avoids margin stacking and guarantees performance in the network without the need to manually tweak parameters or reverse-engineer compatibility – everything just fits.

For example, some 400ZR+ modules offer advanced features such as spectral pre-emphasis – a capability not included in the OpenZR+ standard and absent from many off-the-shelf modules. Sourcing from a coherent solutions provider makes these enhanced functions available when your network design demands them.

Compatibility, performance assurance and operational efficiency are easier to achieve when optics, line systems and planning tools are part of the same ecosystem.

A single point of accountability

Fault isolation can be a real challenge in open environments. When coherent optics, optical line systems and network planning come from different vendors, it’s challenging to determine where problems lie. But when pluggables and the OLS are sourced together and have been tested in a shared lab environment, you gain a single point of accountability. This translates into faster support resolution, simplified RMA management and far fewer gray areas during escalations.

Today’s networks must scale across 100Gbit/s, 400Gbit/s and 800Gbit/s links – sometimes even within the same topology. The right OLS provider can supply coherent pluggables that evolve with your network architecture, including variants optimized for reach, power efficiency or spectrum use. This approach helps you avoid costly mismatches and deploy faster when new demands arise.

Mitigating the hidden costs of “open”

Open networking is a powerful model, but integration and interoperability don’t come for free. When pluggables are sourced independently, you may save on unit cost but pay more in terms of validation time, troubleshooting overhead and lifecycle support. Buying optics from your OLS vendor helps contain these costs, offering a smoother operational experience while preserving the openness and modularity you value.

Compatibility, performance assurance and operational efficiency are easier to achieve when optics, line systems and planning tools are part of the same ecosystem. That’s especially true when they’ve been pre-validated across multiple router platforms and fully modeled within the same network planning environment – as is the case with Adtran solutions.

Looking forward to the next installment

That wraps up part four in this series on IPoDWDM architectures. In part five, we’ll look at muxponder and transponder use cases. You may be asking yourself, “Isn’t the essence of IPoDWDM to eliminate muxponders and transponders?” Well, there are situations where including them in the architecture can solve problems – and we’ll make the case in our next blog installment.

To learn more about how our IPoDWDM technology helps network operators simplify and scale while managing the surge in AI-driven data demands, visit adtran.com.

From zero to quantum hero

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:13:00 Z

With quantum computing now grabbing headlines and fast becoming a reality, the question isn’t if it will disrupt encryption – it’s when. This step-change in computing power will lead to a fundamental change in how computers are used to solve problems, analyze information and protect data. We’re already seeing early proofs in the wild, for example, Volkswagen teamed up with D-Wave’s quantum computer to optimize the routing of taxis in Beijing in real time¹, and Airbus is using quantum computing to model new materials for aircraft².

Should Adtran be concerned about this development? Well, yes. The immediate risk is the impact on encryption. Shor’s algorithm³, developed in 1994, shows how a quantum computer could factor large integers and compute discrete logarithms efficiently, which would undermine RSA and ECC. In practice, attackers can harvest encrypted data now and decrypt it later, so our priority is to adopt quantum‑safe protections ahead of time.

Adtran has a long history of providing customers with the ability to encrypt traffic, and we’ve always taken a proactive approach to ensure that the encryption algorithms we employ exceed the minimum security demands at the time each hardware platform is released to customers.

Qubits, superposition and the quantum leap

To put it simply, quantum computing applies the principles of quantum mechanics to process data. Unlike traditional computers, which process 0 and 1 bits, a quantum computer processes qubits, a quantum mechanical bit that exists in a mixed 0 and 1 state due to superposition. This introduces the advantage of parallel processing, where the quantum computer can evaluate both the 0 and 1 states simultaneously. The level of parallel processing increases exponentially as qubits are added, which are mixtures of multiple states or symbols, beyond the 0 or 1 mixed state mentioned above. For example, a three-qubit register can be in a superposition of 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110 and 111 – hence, the incredible computing power available from the 1,225-qubit quantum computer from Atom Computing or IBM’s 1,121-qubit quantum computer⁴. This additional computing power can provide faster solutions to most problems that would take a classical computer years to solve, such as factoring large numbers. Because many encryption schemes rely on the difficulty of factoring large integers, the threat to encrypted data is clear.

Why quantum computing isn’t quite ready for prime time

It’s not plain sailing, though, as there are many challenges to the commercial application of quantum computing, such as computer stability. Qubits are extremely fragile entities, and any interaction with the surrounding ‘real’ world resolves the qubit into one of its possible states, for instance, 010 in the case of a three-qubit register (turning it into a classical symbol). This collapse leads to the loss of the parallel processing potential and introduces errors. To reduce these errors, quantum computers must operate at extremely cold temperatures. Ideally, they need to operate at absolute zero (-273.15°C, nature not being a respecter of whole numbers), but as this is unattainable⁵, any calculation performed by a quantum computer has to be performed as near to absolute zero as possible and repeated more than once so that statistics can be used to provide the final result.

There are available error correction methods, akin to forward error correction, where redundant qubits are used to check information integrity. Other challenges include the need for greater control effort as qubit counts rise, increased complexity in presenting problems to the quantum computer, the need for specialized quantum measurement devices, the necessity for highly sensitive amplifiers to convert the quantum signals into readable outputs and, ultimately, the requirement for a lot of electrical power.

Also, not all problems can be solved with the full benefit of the exponentially increased computing power of the parallel computing provided by a quantum computer. Tasks such as machine learning and certain optimization problems (for example, the traveling salesman problem) don’t benefit from it.

Crypto-agility ensures we can stay ahead of any algorithm that’s broken.

From our perspective, though, the factorizing of large prime numbers, which underpins cryptography, does benefit from quantum-accelerated calculation. Although this isn’t yet practical, the scale of the research investment around the world means it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a real threat. There’s also the risk that attackers could harvest sensitive data now and decrypt it later when quantum capabilities mature.

Companies such as IBM, Google, Microsoft and startups like Atom Computing and D-Wave are in an intensely competitive battle to produce a quantum computer with the highest qubit count. At present, this competition is being ‘won’ by Atom Computing with their quantum processor featuring a 1,225-site array and a 1,180 active qubit count. In the future, IBM plans a 4,158+ qubit quantum computer targeted for later this year and a 100,000+ qubit quantum computer by 2033 (perhaps to be taken with a quantum of salt), with similar plans for Atom Computing and Microsoft.

Adtran’s quantum-safe strategy: ready before the revolution

So, what’s Adtran’s response? Well, via Adva Network Security, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has been adopted across the entire optical networking product portfolio and is being introduced into the Ethernet access product line. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has now selected and standardized a PQC algorithm, the CRYSTALS-Kyber (2022) algorithm⁶ (FIPS 203), with another one to follow, the Hamming Quasi-Cyclic (2025) algorithm⁷. Relying on a single PQC standard isn’t ideal, as there’s always the risk of it being broken, which is why the introduction of a second algorithm – and likely more in the future – is so important. CRYSTALS-Kyber, now called ML-KEM, is being implemented by Adtran in the FSP 3000 AgileConnect™ and CloudConnect™ products.

In fact, Adtran was an early adopter of PQC with the McEliece algorithm back in 2017. Although McEliece has not been standardized by NIST, it remains under consideration by this body and has shown no weakness so far (currently at round four of the submissions process). In parallel, Adtran has provided support for the ETSI GS QKD 014⁸ specification on both the FSP 3000 AgileConnect™ and CloudConnect™ product lines. This standard describes a communication protocol and data format for QKD equipment to provide key information to an application, enabling interoperability with different QKD vendors via REST APIs.

Furthermore, the development of a so-called ‘crypto sub-module,’ an enclosed daughter board, will provide crypto-agility to ensure cryptographic algorithms can be swapped easily in response to changes in standards or, heaven forbid, the cracking of an algorithm!

References:
1. https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/research-project-successful-volkswagen-it-experts-use-quantum-computing-for-traffic-flow-optimization-16498
2. https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/digital-transformation/quantum-technologies
3. Shor, P.W. (1994). "Algorithms for quantum computation: Discrete logarithms and factoring". Proceedings 35th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science. pp. 124–134. doi:10.1109/sfcs.1994.365700. ISBN 978-0-8186-6580-6.
4. To put the computing advantage of a quantum computer in context as well as the equivalent computing power in terms of bits (the usual measure of the power of a computer): the equivalent for a 1,121-qubit quantum computer would be a 21121-bit classical computer! (Warning: your computer may crash if you try to calculate this value.) Of course, not all this quantum advantage is available to every type of calculation.
5. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-physicists-impossible-cool-absolute.html. Also, this fact is formally declared in the third law of thermodynamics.
6. Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism Standard
7. HQC
8. https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/QKD/001_099/014/01.01.01_60/gs_qkd014v010101p.pdf

Inside the edge: What should you look for in an edge cloud solution?

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:50:00 Z

Edge computing is all about processing data closer to where it’s generated, whether that’s a retail store, smart factory or remote office. For AI, IoT and latency-sensitive applications, sending everything to a centralized cloud can add cost, delay and risk. That’s why edge computing is gaining traction – and why choosing the right solution matters.

So, what should you look for in a good edge computing platform? In this post, we explore the solution-level features that help deliver performance, flexibility and lower total cost of ownership.

Deploy with zero-touch simplicity

Edge sites are often remote and numerous, so solutions must support true zero-touch provisioning. Bringing up a site should be as simple as plugging in cables and powering on. Day-1 setup, hardware swaps and scaling should require no manual config at the edge.

Run on flexible, off-the-shelf hardware

Unless your use case demands custom hardware, your edge solution should run on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. That ensures choice, lowers costs and avoids supply chain risks. Look for support for key features like SR-IOV, GPU acceleration and LTE connectivity out of the box.

Adapt to evolving workloads

Edge workloads – and the applications that power them – are evolving fast. Your platform needs to support a mix of VM and containerized workloads, running natively on hardware or orchestrated across a lightweight edge cloud.

Optimize total cost of ownership

Some solutions need upfront professional services just to get started. Others bake in key functionality and orchestration tools from the start. To understand total cost of ownership, factor in both Day-1 setup and Day-N operational costs, especially the cost of scaling and maintaining multiple sites.

Choose a platform built for the edge

To succeed at the edge, platforms must go beyond rebranded data center infrastructure. True edge-native platforms are built factoring in the specifics of edge needs. They need features like, resilient management support over patchy or low-bandwidth connections, centralized control of all aspects of edge to minimize truck rolls, streamlined backup and recovery, resilient hardware swaps and more – all without driving up resource use or complexity.

Pick a product, not a project

Edge environments are complex – hardware, virtualization, orchestration, networking and more. A packaged, pre-qualified product with options for common use cases is often a smarter choice than a flexible but barebones toolkit that requires costly customization to deploy.

Scale without re-architecting

A strong edge solution supports centralized management of hundreds or thousands of sites. The platform should scale horizontally and let you expand over time, without re-architecting, as your deployment grows.

These solution-level factors form the foundation of a successful edge strategy.

Empowering tribal communities through resilient broadband networks

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 14:36:00 Z

Affordable, reliable broadband is vital, not just for education, healthcare and economic opportunity, but for preserving culture as well. For tribal communities, closing the digital divide means more than just installing fiber. It demands solutions that reflect local needs, support long-term growth and respect tribal sovereignty.

Turning obstacles into opportunities

Yet tribal nations often face unique and persistent barriers to connectivity. Rugged, remote terrain and decades of underinvestment have left many communities without even the most basic broadband infrastructure. Navigating fragmented federal funding programs can be difficult without dedicated conjoined support, and there’s a growing demand for local ownership and control. Broadband deployments must also respect tribal sovereignty, respond to local priorities and build lasting skills within the community.

At Adtran, we’ve long empowered tribal nations to build resilient, future-ready and locally led broadband networks. From helping secure funding to tailoring deployments for each unique community need, our teams collaborate closely with tribal governments and partners to create meaningful, lasting impact.

Collaboration that drives real impact

A standout example is the Mescalero Apache Telecom (MATI) project in New Mexico. With support from federal funding programs, we helped MATI launch the first full fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) XGS-PON network built by a tribal nation. This high-speed network now delivers symmetrical Gigabit services to homes and institutions across the Mescalero Apache reservation.

What drives the success of projects like this isn’t just the technology – it’s building genuine, trust-based partnership. The Adtran approach includes early engagement, funding support, designing infrastructure around community priorities, and deep collaboration with local stakeholders.

For the MATI deployment, the network design was built around community priorities, with 29 anchor institutions connected from day one – including libraries, Head Start centers and healthcare facilities. The solution combines high-performance fiber access with intelligent management and precision timing to ensure reliability, scalability and security for years to come.

Beyond individual deployments, Adtran supports tribal communities through every step of the broader connectivity journey. Our broadband funding portal provides guidance on federal, state and local opportunities, while in-house experts support everything from application strategy to technical planning. This comprehensive support helps tribes transition from opportunity to action, accelerating deployment and mitigating risk.

Shaping the digital future together

Tribal nations now stand at a pivotal moment to shape their digital future. The real power lies in designing broadband networks with and for these communities. That means forging strong local partnerships, long-term planning and deploying technologies that support economic inclusion, cultural connection and digital independence. Adtran is proud to play a role in that journey.

Inside the edge: How do you manage edge cloud deployments at scale?

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 09:20:00 Z

Once your edge platform is deployed, keeping it running smoothly across distributed locations becomes the next challenge. Centralized control, automation and smart orchestration are key to minimizing complexity and operational overhead.

What if one four-letter word could transform your organization’s energy strategy?

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:33:00 Z

At Adtran, we’ve been thinking about ways to optimize energy usage for decades. Most recently, our strategic energy management (SEM) initiative, in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), enabled us to save $283,413 in just two years. How did we achieve this without any upfront investment? The approach can be captured in one simple acronym: BEEP.

Introducing the BEEP framework

BEEP is a clear, practical and repeatable checklist that helped us roll out SEM across our Huntsville campus. We’re now extending this to Adtran sites in Atlanta, Germany and beyond. Here’s a breakdown of the framework.

Benchmarking
We map our energy performance across buildings using tools like ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®. This gives us a baseline to prioritize quick wins and track progress over time.
Establishing energy standards
From HVAC scheduling to lighting retrofits, we aim for a consistent standard of energy performance. Aligning with the ISO 50001 standard helps us formalize those practices so they can be replicated across different sites.
Employee awareness
People are crucial drivers of any organizational change, so we use multilingual dashboards, regular goal-setting and live signage to keep energy top of mind across Adtran. The more visible the data, the more invested our team becomes.
Planning and evaluating energy conservation measures
Not every solution needs to be high-tech. We often focus on low- or no-cost measures, such as retro-commissioning and strategic audits. Every idea evaluated isn’t just for ROI, but for how well it fits our teams, company culture and long-term goals.

Scaling success across borders

As we expand SEM to our Atlanta operations and sites in Germany, our goal is to maintain the same energy-first culture we’ve nurtured at our Huntsville HQ while adapting to each location’s unique context.

It’s important that energy management teams start out with the same mindset: curiosity, accountability and a willingness to dig deeper. That’s how we found examples of energy wasted at our Huntsville HQ, such as unused servers. It’s fine after the fact to say that these should have been turned off earlier, but in large organizations, you often need to be actively looking at energy use across the company to catch waste that’s hiding in plain sight – energy that’s going to show up on your quarterly bill whether you benefit from it or not.

Beyond cash savings

At Adtran, our SEM program has helped us:

Strengthen employee engagement
Improve operational efficiency
Build lasting partnerships
Give back to our local community and encourage sustainability

Our success as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s two-year program demonstrates that strategic energy management can be a low-cost, low-risk, high-impact approach that any organization can adopt, regardless of size, sector or geography.

Whether you’re based in Atlanta, Anchorage or London, there are only two things you need to begin your SEM journey: a commitment to action and the ability to ask searching questions. Twenty years ago, that’s how I started my energy management career at Adtran. Today, I’m proud to report that this same mindset is still driving impactful change.

Inside the edge: What does your edge cloud platform need to deliver on day one - and beyond?

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 09:56:00 Z

AI, automation and real-time services are pushing compute closer to where data is generated. As the edge cloud market accelerates, organizations need infrastructure that’s not just powerful, but also agile, resilient and easy to manage at scale.

In an edge cloud solution, the edge platform is the operating environment that runs your workloads, orchestrates services, manages networking and keeps everything resilient and secure.

In this post, we explore the must-have features of a strong edge operating environment, one that supports scale, performance and adaptability right from day one.

Cloud-based features

A robust edge platform should offer the same foundational capabilities as a modern cloud environment, but optimized for distributed, resource-constrained locations. Key features include:

Resilient compute and storage to ensure high availability and data integrity, even in remote or intermittently connected sites
Elastic scalability as needed to grow seamlessly by adding nodes, without downtime or architectural changes
Multi-tenancy to securely isolate workloads and users, especially important for shared or service-provider environments.
Real-time visibility into node status, network health and resource usage to enable fast issue resolution and performance optimization.

Networking flexibility

Edge sites often involve complex network needs, from LAN/WAN routing to inter-workload traffic. Your platform should support a wide range of networking configurations out of the box, without requiring custom integration.

Look for:

Easy-to-define routing rules
Support for both physical and virtual traffic paths
Tools to simplify design across diverse edge sites

Workload versatility

Edge sites host a range of workloads with unique needs:

Network functions need support for high-speed I/O – SR-IOV, PCI passthrough
AI workloads typically require GPU access, container orchestration and elasticity
IT workloads benefit from over-subscription to maximize resource utilization

A capable edge platform should support all three without compromise.

Can a no-cost energy program really deliver lasting impact?

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:19:00 Z

When we set out to improve energy performance across our Huntsville campus, we didn’t start with a budget. We started with a question: Could we drive real savings and lasting impact without investing in capital projects?

Two years later, we got our answer.

Through a no-cost Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), we worked with Huntsville Utilities to change how we approach energy – from the mechanical room to the boardroom. The most powerful part wasn’t just the data. It was the mindset we built across our teams: focused, accountable and always looking for a better way.

The impact in numbers

In just 24 months, our team has:

Reduced our energy consumption by more than 3 million kWh
Cut operational energy costs by $283,413
Achieved DOE 50001 Ready recognition for our management system
Secured $20,000 in TVA rebates for energy-efficient upgrades
Improved overall energy efficiency by 9%, with no project cost

We made smart, small changes. We tweaked HVAC schedules, optimized lighting with LED retrofits and used economizer modes in cooler months. We installed dashboards to visualize usage trends and highlight progress. We communicated in multiple languages and made data visible across our buildings, so every employee could connect their actions to outcomes.

Accelerating growth across APAC with Adtran’s enhanced partner program

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 08:54:00 Z

Whether enabling 5G in dense metros or building mission-critical links in rural areas, our Asia-Pacific (APAC) region partners are showing what’s possible when deep technical expertise meets local knowledge and trusted support. Now, with the launch of our enhanced 2025 APAC partner program, we’re building on that foundation – strengthening collaboration, introducing new benefits and providing the capabilities our partners need to lead the next wave of connectivity.

Designed to support growth across APAC’s fast-evolving telecom landscape, the updated program introduces a three-tier accreditation model – Associate, Professional and Elite. These categories reflect real-world capabilities and unlock a progressive set of benefits.

What’s new in the 2025 APAC partner program?

All certified partners gain access to:

A business development fund (BDF) to co-invest in marketing, demo labs, training and customer engagement
A fully updated Adtran Partner Portal with integrated tools for training, co-branding and BDF tracking
A dedicated regional partner community to promote collaboration and best-practice sharing across markets
A streamlined training and certification path aligned with our end-to-end portfolio – from edge access and optical transport to cloud integration and precision timing

This is more than a program refresh – it’s a bold step forward. We’ve reinforced what makes our partnerships work: shared ambition, clear enablement paths and close collaboration. With stronger marketing support, streamlined training and early access to innovation, our partners are equipped to grow in step with the market.

Our partners design, deploy and support solutions that connect communities while powering economic and societal progress.

How does our APAC partner program help solve connectivity challenges?

Data demand is exploding worldwide, in tandem with the need for more power-efficient, intelligence-driven solutions. That’s why our 2025 APAC partner program provides access to Adtran’s complete solution set, which includes our FSP 3000 open optical transport systems, SDX Series access products, Mosaic software and Oscilloquartz precision timing.

These technologies power next-gen broadband and cloud connectivity – but it’s our partners who deliver the outcomes, designing, deploying and supporting solutions that connect communities while powering economic and societal progress.

A partner-first ecosystem

Whether you’re already working with us or just exploring the possibilities, our 2025 APAC partner program is your gateway to shared growth. Find out how to get involved and help shape the future of fiber, cloud and edge connectivity at https://www.adtran.com/en/about-us/partners.

Mission-ready timing for a GNSS-denied world

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:47:00 Z

A few weeks ago, we spoke with a financial institution racing to stitch together a backup timing system. They were spooked by outages, GNSS jamming incidents were on the rise and their compliance team was on edge about meeting MiFID II and NIS2 requirements. So they were piecing together parts from different vendors, hoping the system would hold if the satellite signal ever dropped.

And we understand the concern. Fortunately, the resilient timing capabilities many organisations are now trying to build already exist.

You don’t need to build what already exists

At Adtran Oscilloquartz, we’ve spent years developing and deploying the technologies these teams are now scrambling to assemble – from optical cesium to Satellite Time and Location (STL) and White Rabbit. Our optical cesium clocks are field-deployed today, delivering sub-100ns accuracy and more than 100 days of holdover without GNSS. Together, these technologies offer resilient, production-ready alternatives for a GNSS-denied world – and support compliance with regulations like NIS2.

You don’t need to be a survivalist, stockpiling parts and hoping for the best. You don’t need to build your own. You just need to know it’s already out there – production-ready, proven and simple to deploy.

The language gets in the way

Most people aren’t looking for an enhanced primary reference time clock (ePRTC). They’re looking for a way to stay operational when GNSS goes down.

Terms like ePRTC make perfect sense to those of us in telecom. But for teams in finance, defense or energy, they can obscure more than they clarify. That’s why we lead with outcomes, not acronyms.

Think of it like a generator for time. When the grid goes down, your generator kicks in. Our holdover clocks do the same for timing – maintaining accuracy for weeks, even months, with no satellite signal.

Can your timing infrastructure hold ±100ns for 14, 40, 55 or even 100+ days without satellite? Can it recover quickly? Can it detect and mitigate jamming and spoofing? That’s the conversation that matters.

You don’t need to build your own. You just need a solution that works.

Drop in what you need, when you need it

And the good news is, you don’t have to rip everything out and start again. Our platforms are built to integrate with what’s already there – whether that’s PTP, NTP, SyncE or something else. We support everything from sovereign time scale generation to GNSS-backup-as-a-service (GBaaS), helping organizations modernize and secure their timing infrastructure without unnecessary disruption.

That includes our latest optical cesium clocks – the OSA 3200 SP and OSA 3250 ePRC – engineered for long holdover, low maintenance and a 10-year lifespan. With compact form factors and a lower price point, they bring secure, high-precision timing to a wider range of sectors than ever before.

This isn’t a pilot. It’s happening.

Across critical infrastructure, organizations are deploying these solutions now. In the US, our systems form part of an L3 Harris upgrade for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), enhancing national aviation resilience. Similar projects are underway with energy providers, financial exchanges and government networks worldwide. These aren’t trials; they’re live deployments delivering real-world resilience today.

Most organizations don’t want to know how every component works. They just want to know: Will it keep us running if GNSS goes down? Will we stay compliant? Can we avoid disruption?

The answer is yes. Whether you’re facing regulatory deadlines, cybersecurity risks or degraded satellite signals, we can help you drop in what you need today – and scale out over time.

You don’t need to build your own. You just need a solution that works.

Let’s stop reinventing secure time – and start deploying it.

Choosing the right OLS for IPoDWDM - Part 2: ROADM-based architectures

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 10:40:00 Z

As data consumption grows and networks evolve, selecting the right open line system (OLS) for IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) is more important than ever. Among the available options, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM)-based architectures stand out for their flexibility and ability to reduce power and cost by avoiding unnecessary regenerations.

The point-to-point (P2P) OLS solutions discussed in the previous blog are ideal for simple IPoDWDM topologies and low-capacity scenarios. They offer straightforward planning and minimal operational overhead. On the other hand, more complex topologies – such as longer rings, chains or hybrid mesh-ring networks – benefit greatly from the flexibility and optical bypass capabilities that ROADM architectures provide.

ROADMs are devices that direct individual wavelengths through or into a network node. This enables more dynamic routing, simplifies scaling and avoids unnecessary optical-electrical conversions, helping to reduce cost and power use. Choosing between a point-to-point or ROADM-based architecture means balancing operational simplicity with potential savings in capex and energy – a decision shaped by network design, traffic patterns and operational preferences.

Eyes on industry - 10 minutes with Daniel Burch of Oscilloquartz, Adtran

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:31:00 Z

Daniel, what’s the state of the timing and synchronization market globally, especially here in the Americas region?

It’s my privilege to have served this industry for many decades, and the pace of change has never been this fast. We’re moving from a static, fixed mode of synchronization to one that’s dynamic and flexible, with a growing need to integrate timing into networks down to the processor in end-user equipment.

These changes call for a new understanding of how timing can be distributed across the enterprise with built-in resilience to disruption of traditional references like GPS signals. Most now recognize the dangers of relying solely on GPS, so we focus on giving customers alternative solutions aligned with their budgets and risk profiles.

The threat is global. We’ve seen signal jamming and spoofing affect not just GPS but also systems run by the EU, Russia, China and others. We need to treat all these satellite signals with caution, adopting a “zero-trust” approach until timing systems verify signal accuracy and filter out bad actors.

Operators across sectors now share a common threat: those who aim to disrupt finance, telecoms, broadcast, power, public safety and defense operations. Some disruptive events are unintentional, while others are designed with malicious intent. It’s not just causing airplanes and ships to veer off course – it’s also about disrupting communications, financial transactions and shutting down public safety radio systems.

So the market is going through a period of innovation and renewal, with a strong focus on resilience. Legacy timing systems can’t deliver the reliability or security today’s networks need. That’s why we’re helping customers modernize with technology built for survivability and self-healing.

Oscilloquartz is uniquely qualified here. We offer the broadest range of timing solutions on the market – from thumb-sized clocks to atomic units that can ride out over 100 days of jamming events. And we back this with deep expertise in engineering, support, communications and manufacturing. The talent in the Americas region alone represents centuries of combined experience.

What makes Oscilloquartz products so special?

Adtran and Oscilloquartz listen closely to customers, developing products and services that lead the industry in innovation and value.

Take our optical pumping technology – it replaces the magnetic cesium clocks that have been around since the 1950s, delivering longer life, modular components and reduced operating costs. We’ve now introduced two compact, lower-cost models – the OSA 3200 SP and OSA 3250 ePRC – offering all the advantages of optical cesium at the price point of a legacy solution.

Then there’s White Rabbit. We’ve enabled it across multiple platforms, and even legacy systems can add it with just a software upgrade. Customers have already seen excellent results in lab tests.
We also integrate Iridium’s LEO-based STL service across our portfolio, hardening both new and legacy clocks against GPS jamming and spoofing.

Even better, we can add Satellite Time and Location (STL) technology to any legacy network clock, regardless of manufacturer. And with our Mosaic management system, customers can monitor and manage the entire synchronization layer – ours and others alike.

From thumb-sized timing devices to optical cesium clocks, we offer the broadest timing portfolio on the market.

Why would someone want to do business with Oscilloquartz?

Two reasons: products and people.

Our innovation pipeline continues to deliver new solutions that improve reliability and security, while also supporting legacy needs. And our team brings real-world experience – many of us have been in customer roles ourselves. That means we listen and tailor solutions to actual needs, not internal roadmaps.

What’s the advantage in being part of Adtran?

Both Adtran and Oscilloquartz deliver complete, end-user-ready solutions. We’re not component suppliers for someone else’s system – we own the full relationship and back it with shared support teams who understand real deployment challenges.

We also share a deep heritage. Oscilloquartz has over 75 years in synchronization. Adtran has supported global networks for five decades. That reputation matters.

There’s also unity in R&D. We’re not split between priorities – we invest in platforms that benefit our customers across transport, timing and user delivery. It’s what we call “core to the door.”

And it all integrates with Mosaic, our management system that monitors everything from timing to transmission in one view. That’s something no one else offers.

How have Oscilloquartz products and people delivered wins in the Americas region?

We’re winning every power utility RFP we pursue, and we’ve secured major business with leading US data center firms. In Canada, momentum is growing through customer referrals. In South America, our optical pumping clocks and time scale solutions are now being used in national research and metrology labs – including deployments contributing to UTC as maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).

We’re gaining traction across power, defense, communications, broadband, data centers, government, labs and transport. That reach comes from having solutions for every budget, backed by great support.

I sometimes say, “beat a path to our door” – and lately, that’s what customers have been doing.

BEAD’s broadband shake-up: What providers need to know

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:43:00 Z

The fiber-first playbook: torched

Just when state broadband offices finally laminated their “fiber-first” playbooks, NTIA’s June 6, 2025 BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice punt-kicked the rulebook into the Potomac. The notice axes the fiber preference, strips out climate, labor and affordability mandates, rescinds every provisional award and orders a fresh “benefit-of-the-bargain” round where any technology that can deliver speeds of at least 100/20Mbit/s and latency of 100ms or less – licensed or unlicensed fixed wireless, LEO satellite, DOCSIS, you name it – may slug it out for the $42 billion stash. Even the “non-deployment” buckets (device programs, adoption grants, dead-zone cell sites) got zeroed out – every dollar must now chase physical build-out.

Oh, and every provisional sub-grant just vanished: all ISP filings nationwide must be yanked and re-submitted under brand-new, cost-first scoring.

States, stripped of their scoring tools, face a 90-day knife-fight

State broadband czars – fresh off rewriting application forms for the third time – now have 90 extra days to redo Final Proposals. That’s mercy and misery all at once. The new mission of each state broadband office: shepherd a tech-neutral cage match and still hit four-year build deadlines. Every extra foot of conduit, every tower lease, every launch window suddenly matters, and vendors able to ship radios next week instead of next quarter will own the conversation.

A broadband brawl in the making

What happens next? Picture trenchers racing fiber the old-fashioned way while spectrum-savvy WISPs promise “done by Thanksgiving” installs and LEO constellations swoop in like teens at a shopping mall food court – all competing for every unserved location. Thanks to a surprise clause, LEO bidders must swallow the cost of the Starlink-style user kit, letting them flash rock-bottom bid prices. Expect sub-grantee bids that lunge below cost, joint-venture mashups (fiber backbone plus wireless last-mile) and latency bake-offs worthy of Top Chef: Ping Edition.

It will be a busy summer for telecom lawyers. Expect lawsuits to be filed within weeks. With mapping errors, latency claims and rescinded awards in play, docket clerks should grab extra coffee.

Open-architecture gear and fiber-plus-wireless software put Adtran on the front foot.

Markets move fast, supply chains groan

On the money front, private equity is salivating. Lower regulatory drag plus head-to-head price wars mean valuations shift from “fiber miles planted” to “homes passed per dollar.” Expect sales-leasebacks, spectrum-capacity swaps and maybe even satellite-capacity futures as Wall Street arbitrages the new cost-per-bit math. Supply-chain chiefs, meanwhile, are eyeing fiberglass shortages and fretting that every microwave radio still flows through the same few Southeast-Asian fabrication plants.

Meanwhile, the FCC is limping – but no longer paralyzed

The agency now has a bare-bones quorum after the Senate confirmed Olivia Trusty (R) on June 17, 2025, by a 53-45 vote. She joins Chair Brendan Carr (R) and Commissioner Anna Gómez (D), filling the third seat left vacant when Nathan Simington (R) and Geoffrey Starks (D) stepped down in early June. With three members, the FCC can once again approve mergers, refresh pole-attachment rules and referee the BEAD-related disputes the new NTIA guidance is sure to spark. Two seats remain open and the partisan balance now tilts 2-1.

Bottom line: broadband’s Thunderdome

BEAD 2.0 isn’t a tweak – it’s broadband’s Thunderdome. Many technologies enter; only the most cost-efficient (and litigation-proof) survive. With domestic manufacturing, open-architecture gear and software that treats fiber and wireless like equals, Adtran walks into the arena with a well-sharpened multitool. Grab popcorn, GIS shapefiles and latency probes – the next 90-plus days will be wild.

When tankers collide: How to defend against GNSS disruption at sea

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 12:44:00 Z

On the night of June 15, 2025, the oil tanker Front Eagle transmitted a series of impossible positioning signals – at one moment jumping dozens of miles in seconds. Soon after, it collided with another tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, which caught fire.

According to a Financial Times visual analysis, at least 170 ships transiting the same choke point during a two-hour window showed scores of sudden position “jumps” – the tell-tale signature of GNSS spoofing. The incident has reignited debate about the rising threat of electronic interference in global shipping, especially in regions where geopolitical tensions are high.

This GNSS interference heat map shows real-time jamming and spoofing events from the Middle East to East Asia. The same emitters that rattle airliners also wash over busy sea lanes. Though indeed problematic for aviation, cyberattacks are arguably more consequential when it comes to shipping. That affects everything from supply chains and oil prices to the risk of major environmental disasters.

Timing: The foundation of GNSS and a growing point of vulnerability

When we think of GNSS/GPS, the image that comes to mind is a pulsing dot on a map, perhaps moving along a pre-plotted route. To a receiver on the ground, GNSS is a series of precise timestamps beamed from different satellites that arrive a billionths of a second apart. These signals are then used to calculate the latitude and longitude data we see represented in graphical format on our screens. However, when a GNSS jamming device or technology that counterfeits (spoofs) timestamps is used nearby, map positions can suddenly disappear or become wildly inaccurate.

Fixing GPS vulnerability with timing you can trust

In a recent blog post, we highlighted the growing importance of backup timing for the aviation industry. It is equally, if not more urgent, that global shipping adopts many of the same solutions. Vessels can even be fitted with enhanced primary reference time clocks (ePRTCs) that teach bridge devices to prioritize that timing source over satellite signals alone. While ePRTCs don’t replace GNSS navigation, they provide a stable time base that supports alternative navigation methods when satellite signals are compromised, helping ships maintain a smooth and reliable track line.

What’s more, the same solution functions as an alarm. When a GNSS message claims a microsecond has passed but the ship’s clock says it was only half that, receivers can reject the data before it reaches the helm. Ships don’t appear to teleport around the map and Automatic Identification System (AIS) messages remain readable.

When GNSS falters, ePRTCs kick in with a stable time base for alternate navigation.

Follow these steps to combat GNSS interference in shipping lanes

Install an ePRTC: Use a cesium clock paired with a multi-band GNSS receiver to deliver nanosecond-level accuracy for extended periods when satellite input is unavailable or unreliable.
Blend timing sources: Feed the clock with GNSS when it’s clean, and PTP over port fiber when docked. Oscilloquartz technology also enables ePRTC operation using trusted phase sources like PTP – even when satellite signals are unavailable.
Train for timed failover: During routine drills, block GNSS input to the ePRTC for ten minutes to ensure ECDIS, AIS and radar overlays stay in sync. If they do, the ship is well protected.

The digital-age equivalent of a spare compass

Roughly 20% of the world’s oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Whether one or both vessels involved in the recent collision in the area were misled by spoofed signals or simple human error, the lesson is the same: a resilient timing layer helps reduce the chances of disasters occurring.

Threats to navigation in some of the world’s most important commercial waterways are growing, but thankfully, effective countermeasures do exist. For more information about how our comprehensive portfolio of timing and synchronization solutions helps safeguard maritime systems when GNSS fails, visit oscilloquartz.com.

Choosing the right OLS for IPoDWDM - Part 1: Point-to-point links

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 13:30:00 Z

Why focus on point-to-point first?

As demand for high-capacity, energy-efficient transport grows, IP-over-DWDM (IPoDWDM) is becoming central to modern optical architecture. But realizing its full potential depends on making the right foundational choices. Point-to-point OLS architectures offer a straightforward entry point into IPoDWDM. They simplify deployment, minimize operational complexity and provide an immediate path to disaggregated, router-integrated optics. For operators with simple topologies – like linear interconnects, low-capacity rings and chains or dense mesh networks – point-to-point can deliver faster results with less planning overhead.

That said, even in these scenarios, the choice of OLS matters. The wrong design can lead to higher long-term costs, limited scalability or unnecessary operational burdens.

What makes an OLS suitable for point-to-point IPoDWDM?

In these deployments, routers equipped with coherent pluggable transceivers connect directly over optical links. The OLS must support the required optical connectivity with as little operational effort as possible, provide a long lifetime in line with fiber lease and network design cycles and integrate seamlessly into the router automation environment. Key attributes include:

Automated deployment, including span loss equalization with no need for optical expertise
Support for all relevant transceiver speeds and output powers, including emerging formats such as 1.6T and both low- and high-output optics
Full remote access to diagnostics, including IPoDWDM channel and fiber monitoring
High reliability to ensure long-term network stability
Compact footprint and flexible deployment options

Trade-offs: simplicity vs. scalability

The primary benefit of point-to-point architectures is simplicity. A standardized one-size-fits-all approach removes the need for detailed optical design, complex wavelength assignment or specialized planning tools. Installation and capacity upgrades are plug-and-play, and provisioning can be tightly integrated with the router’s own automation stack, removing the need for a separate optical controller or management system.

But simplicity comes with trade-offs. As traffic grows or topologies evolve, point-to-point designs can become expensive to scale. Every new router link requires additional terminations, transceivers and power. At some point, especially in rings or larger mesh networks – any medium to high-capacity scenario – optical bypass becomes the more efficient path.

So, when is point-to-point the right fit?

The model is ideal in the following scenarios:

Traffic patterns are stable and well-defined, such as in linear interconnects or dense mesh networks. It also works well for rings, chains, and larger mesh topologies where capacity growth is expected to remain moderate.
Operational teams are IP-centric and lack in-house expertise to manage optical complexity.
Operational simplicity is prioritized over potential capex efficiencies that might come from more complex optical architectures.

What to look for in a point-to-point OLS

If you’re deploying IPoDWDM using a point-to-point architecture, you should prioritize low-touch provisioning and automation as well as compatibility with current and next-gen optics (400G, 800G, 1600G). Operational visibility through embedded monitoring is also crucial, as are factors such as amplification and open, standards-based integration with router management systems.

A dedicated, interoperable point-to-point IPoDWDM solution

Our FSP 3000 IP OLS is purpose-built for point-to-point IPoDWDM use cases. It delivers plug-and-play optical connectivity for IP-centric networks with up to 1.6T of capacity (extendable to 16 channels) in a compact 1RU form factor. Variants are available for higher channel counts and extended spans, and all support full automation, fiber monitoring, amplification and open APIs. What’s more, it’s designed for seamless integration into router-based environments.

With support for 100G to 800G pluggables – and built for the emerging 1.6Tbit/s per-wavelength standard – our FSP 3000 IP OLS empowers operators with an easy-to-install platform that ensures long-term flexibility.

Looking ahead: From point-to-point to ROADM

Point-to-point OLS deployments offer a low-complexity route into IPoDWDM, making them ideal for early-stage rollouts or stable topologies. But as network demands grow and topologies become more dynamic, new requirements emerge. In Part 2 of this series, we’ll explore ROADM-based architectures and how their flexibility, colorless configurations and advanced wavelength management can support the next evolution of IPoDWDM networks.

To find out how our IPoDWDM technology helps service network operators looking to simplify and scale while managing the surge in AI-driven data demands, visit adtran.com.

Accelerating fiber for all: Highlights from Fiber Connect 2025

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 10:41:00 Z

Fiber Connect 2025 was all about moving faster, scaling smarter and reaching further – but at its heart, it was about people. People building networks. People connecting communities. People using broadband to learn, work and thrive. As FBA Chair Ariane Schaffer put it: “This is about the faces behind it all.” Whether it was a live 50G PON demo or a conversation about smarter in-home connectivity, we were there to show how better technology can make a meaningful difference.

Showcasing the future of fiber

We used our time at the show to spotlight three key technologies driving real-world progress and empowering providers to serve people better:

Mosaic One: Our AI-powered, cloud-based platform simplifies operations, sharpens marketing and enhances the subscriber experience – giving providers better visibility, better decision-making and better outcomes for the people they serve.

ALM with deep PON assurance: We showed how our fiber monitoring solution delivers end-to-end visibility, from the network core to the subscriber edge. With deep PON assurance now built in, it offers even greater insight into fiber health and performance – enabling fewer faults, faster fixes and a more reliable service experience.

50G PON: We previewed what’s next for service delivery with a live demo of our SDX 6400 Series 50G PON OLT. While deployments are just beginning, 50G PON is already opening the door to new opportunities for higher-capacity broadband.

We also introduced FiberCX, a new web platform built into our Mosaic One ecosystem. It’s designed to help broadband service providers take control of their digital storefront, making it easier for even small teams to manage their online presence, launch targeted promotions and deliver a more engaging subscriber experience.

During our pre-conference session with EPB, Vantage Point and Corning, we explored how providers can grow, sustain and evolve their networks – and still take a vacation or sleep at night. It all came down to one key theme: building smarter from the start.

Smarter Wi-Fi for smarter homes

As fiber rolls out to more communities, attention is shifting from getting homes connected to making those connections count. That means delivering stronger in-home coverage, streamlining support and ensuring a broadband experience that genuinely improves daily life.

In a panel on the future of smart homes, Robert Conger explored how cloud-managed, AI-driven Wi-Fi – combined with high-performance software-defined gateways – can create tailored, high-performance environments that support everything from home security to intelligent climate control. He also joined a discussion on strengthening middle-mile infrastructure, where he shared insights on how smarter network design can help deliver smoother, more scalable broadband that communities can count on.

Hawaiian Telcom’s response to the devastating Maui wildfires also came into focus, highlighting how broadband infrastructure plays a vital role in public safety and resilience – especially during emergencies.

It takes more than tech to close the gap

Rolling out fiber successfully means dealing with more than just the network. Planning, permitting and community engagement all play a critical role in getting homes connected. At Fiber Connect, I spoke in sessions focused on how providers can better engage stakeholders, from refining messaging to acting on customer feedback. The goal: to help attendees build trust, raise awareness and deliver services faster and more affordably.

One of the most powerful moments came during the Women in Fiber luncheon, where the FBA announced a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to support early childhood literacy. This initiative enables children under five to receive free books each month – and FBA members are helping bring it to more communities.

A triple honor at the FBA Awards

Three members of the Adtran team were recognized at this year’s Fiber Broadband Association Awards, highlighting the depth and impact of our contributions across the industry.

Paul Breakman was named Advocacy Allstar for his efforts in broadband policy, securing funding and helping shape more equitable, future-ready rollouts across the country.
I was grateful to receive the Photon Award for volunteer service, in recognition of my continued involvement with FBA initiatives and my work on the Conference Committee.
Amanda Scherer was honored as a finalist in the Fiber Under Forty category for her work helping service providers get more from Mosaic One and improve subscriber engagement.

These awards speak to more than individual achievement. They reflect how Adtran is supporting real-world progress and deeper collaboration across the broadband ecosystem.

Away from the sessions and awards, there was plenty of time to catch up with friends, partners and new faces. From the barbecue to the karaoke night, it was a reminder that the fiber community isn’t just growing – it’s getting stronger, together.

Thanks to everyone who visited our booth, joined a session or stopped to say hello. Fiber Connect is always about more than technology – it’s about the people behind it. If we missed you this time, we hope to catch you at Fiber Connect 2026.

Meet FiberCX - the web platform built for broadband

Thu, 29 May 2025 08:25:00 Z

For many regional service providers (RSPs), getting the right web platform in place can be a major headache. Traditional web tools rarely support broadband-specific features out of the box. Instead, RSPs are forced to patch together costly integrations just to offer address-based lookup, e-commerce or subscriber communications – ending up with a tangle of systems that’s expensive and hard to manage, drags down the customer experience and places extra strain on internal teams.

More than just a CMS

FiberCX changes this. Designed from the ground up for RSPs, FiberCX brings together everything you need to market services, take online orders and manage multiple brands or sites, all from a single, easy-to-use platform. Key broadband workflows come built in, so you don’t need expensive plug-ins or custom development.

Who is FiberCX for?

New RSPs: Everything you need out of the box – from address-based service lookup to pre-registration and online ordering, all at low cost.
Growing RSPs: As you expand from WISP to FISP, FiberCX makes it easy to display services with address search and coverage maps.
Lean teams: Run a broadband-specific site without relying on expensive bolt-on tools or an in-house web expert.
Multi-brand operators: Manage multiple sites, blogs and promotions from one place with centralized control.
Electric and utility providers: If you’re entering the broadband market, we’ve built this with you in mind.
Experience-focused teams: Optimize your site with a simpler, broadband-specific design that puts the customer journey first.

Broadband-specific apps, ready to go

What sets FiberCX apart from standard website builders? Native web apps designed for broadband, including:

Address search and online buy flow: Customers can check service availability and place orders by simply entering their address – with support for retargeting and abandoned cart marketing built in.
Editable pricing cards and broadband labels: It’s easy for shoppers to compare options and understand speeds.
MyBundle integration: For providers partnering with MyBundle, support for bundled services is available from day one.
Serviceability mapping: Customers can see current and planned coverage.
Capital credits search: Customers can easily look up capital credits, solving a long-standing pain point for co-ops.
Promo banners and alert bars: Updates or promotional offers can be instantly shared across sites.
SEO, security and more: Everything you need for backend site management is built in – from search engine optimization and site security to fast, reliable performance.

A platform that evolves with you

FiberCX is designed to grow alongside your business. New integrations and features roll out regularly, with the 2025 roadmap set to add:

Mosaic One analytics and marketing tools: Leverage Adtran’s Mosaic One platform to track site performance, measure engagement and run more targeted campaigns.
GoCare chat integration: Enable real-time customer support.
Customer referral tools: Turn your subscribers into advocates.
Deeper e-commerce integrations: Streamline payment engagements with your customers using your preferred billing system vendor.

Getting started with FiberCX is easy. Choose from a complete out-of-the-box package, a custom design or bring your own web layout for integration. We’ve made onboarding as frictionless as possible, so you can stay focused on growing your network, enhancing your customer experience and serving your community.

Want to see FiberCX in action?

If you’re heading to Fiber Connect this year, stop by Booth 305. Our team will be on hand to walk you through the platform and answer any questions. You can also fix an appointment with us at our dedicated Fiber Connect 2025 hub.

See you in Nashville from June 1 to 4.

Breathe new life into old clocks - and keep your network running

Wed, 28 May 2025 08:19:00 Z

Old clocks aren’t necessarily your network’s weakest link, but their aging components might be. When a legacy clock starts showing its age, the first instinct might be to replace it entirely. But that’s rarely the most cost-effective or practical solution, especially when those clocks still distribute timing reliably. A smarter approach is to perform targeted upgrades that keep your network running reliably without unnecessary downtime or disruption.

Don’t throw that old clock away … yet

Many central offices still rely on BITS shelves built around two elements: a primary reference clock (PRC) with its own GPS antenna and a main shelf containing input, output, management and rubidium holdover modules. After decades of service, the most common points of failure are rubidium oscillators and proprietary antennas.

Rather than ripping out shelves that still distribute timing effectively, it makes sense to replace only the weak links. Our OSA 5422 or redundant OSA 5430 can drop in for the failed PRC and antenna, restoring a rock-solid reference and adding multi-constellation GNSS and PTP synchronization. This avoids truck rolls and downtime, extends the life of your existing infrastructure, and adds many of the timing capabilities your next-generation packet build will require.

The Canadian hydropower example

A major hydropower operator in Canada recently showed how modernizing rather than overhauling a timing network can be a win-win. Like many utilities, the operator needed to transition gradually from time division multiplexing (TDM) to packet-based synchronization. Instead of replacing all their older clock shelves, they deployed our OSA 5422 and OSA 3350 with optical cesium alongside their existing infrastructure.

The legacy system remains in service, while our Oscilloquartz solutions provide a state-of-the-art reference with enhanced precision, reliability and resilience against GNSS vulnerabilities. The deployment also supports compliance with stringent industry regulations and bolsters overall grid security.

Why this strategy makes sense

Cuts costs and avoids downtime: Focusing on the “sync source” avoids major rewiring and keeps disruption to a minimum.
Adds modern capabilities: New GNSS receivers support multiple constellations (including LEO), deliver robust holdover and enable IEEE 1588-based synchronization.
Supports gradual migration: When networks are near retirement, full upgrades often aren’t justifiable. This approach delivers long-term value without waste.

A smooth transition to PTP-based services

Globally, Adtran Oscilloquartz solutions are already enabling the deployment of new 5G services and offering critical protection for defense and aerospace applications. They’re also advancing the frontiers of assured timing for metrology and enabling cutting-edge scientific research. What’s more, the same flexible technology can distribute precise timing across partially PTP-aware – and even PTP-unaware – networks, supporting a smooth, cost-effective transition to modern synchronization infrastructure.

For more on how our comprehensive timing and synchronization portfolio is enhancing networks worldwide – while extending the life of legacy clocks in data centers, power grids, telecoms and beyond – visit www.oscilloquartz.com.

Optimizing IP over DWDM: Four key strategies

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 13:04:00 Z

The way networks are built is changing. With growing demand for bandwidth and efficiency, service providers are rethinking their optical transport strategies. IP-over-DWDM (IPoDWDM) has emerged as a key approach to reducing complexity, improving scalability and optimizing cost. While cloud folks have been using this approach for years, most service providers are still struggling to find the right implementation strategies to fit their more complex environments. So, how do you implement an IPoDWDM architecture that balances performance, flexibility and long-term viability?

In this blog series, I’ll explore the critical aspects of IPoDWDM network design – from architecture strategies and selecting the right open line system (OLS) to managing IPoDWDM in a multi-vendor environment. I’ll break down key considerations for building a future-ready optical transport network and share insights on how to make IPoDWDM work for your business.

Four essential steps for effective IPoDWDM implementation

To arrive at the best possible network architecture, we recommend focusing on these four strategic areas:

Evaluate optical bypass to reduce power dissipation and improve scalability.
Leverage transponders and muxponders together with CPEs for high-speed wholesale services.
Implement a consistent management and operational approach for existing services and architectures alongside new IPoDWDM services.
Adopt an open and disaggregated multi-vendor approach supported by partnerships across the IP and optical space.

Now, let’s look at each of these areas in more detail.

Optimizing network efficiency with optical bypass

Optical bypass avoids sending transit traffic through IP routers at every node, significantly cutting power usage and hardware costs. At low capacities, routers can be interconnected directly in a daisy chain, connecting each router to the next hop-by-hop – an approach sometimes called a digital ROADM, where routers act as simple pass-through nodes. While this can simplify network architectures, it becomes less efficient as traffic and the number of interconnected nodes grows. Every router forwarding all data means increased power consumption and more transceivers. That’s where optical bypass makes a real difference – it scales more effectively, remains more cost-efficient at higher traffic levels and allows easy integration of legacy services without the need for parallel networks.

Celebrating 50 years of OFC - and looking ahead to what’s next for optical innovation

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 10:09:00 Z

What began as a technical conference focused on early fiber experiments has grown into a global forum that reflects – and often drives – the most important developments in optical networking. Since 1975, OFC has charted the evolution from Megabit-per-second transmission over multimode fiber to today’s Terabit-per-second globe-spanning networks.

The 50th anniversary is a moment to reflect on how far the industry has come – and to ask what comes next. The challenges ahead are considerable, but so is the pace of innovation.

AI’s dual role in optics

Artificial intelligence will be central to many OFC discussions, both as a driver of new network demands and as a tool to simplify operations. We’ll see continued focus on optical interconnects for AI clusters, but also on how AI can help automate, optimize and even ‘self-heal’ networks in real time.

Resilient infrastructure

With growing climate risks, geopolitical uncertainty and rising fiber density, network resilience is more critical than ever. Monitoring and sensing are evolving fast, and compact tools like Adtran’s ALM are making it easier to detect physical issues before they impact service, from fiber cuts to temperature anomalies.

IP-over-DWDM and scaling transport

Coherent ZR(+) pluggable transceivers and IPoDWDM will also be central to this year’s OFC. The optical line system is crucial to leveraging IPoDWDM and ZR(+) coherent pluggable innovations. It must enable IPoDWDM networks that are highly efficient, scalable and easy to operate without requiring deep optical expertise. Our recently launched FSP 3000 IP OLS has been designed to streamline IPoDWDM interconnects. This compact open line system (OLS) supports wavelengths up to 1.6Tbit/s, and – with zero-touch provisioning, automated procedures and integrated fiber monitoring technology – it helps operators scale efficiently with minimal operational complexity.

What we’re bringing to OFC 2025

We’re heading to San Francisco with a full lineup of demos and speaking sessions. On the show floor, visitors will be able to explore our latest innovations spanning high-capacity open optical networking, 50G PON, advanced fiber monitoring and innovative pluggable transceivers.

Among others, visitors will be able to see our recently launched FSP 3000 IP OLS, which in this demo will be delivering 100Gbit/s and 800Gbit/s wavelengths along with integrated power management and monitoring technologies in a compact 1RU form factor, as well as the AccessWave50™, our new auto-tunable SFP56 pluggable transceiver enabling seamless 5G mobile fronthaul evolution to 50Gbit/s.

Our FSP 3000 Core OLS will feature in both the OIF interoperability demo – showcasing multi-vendor coherent pluggable transceivers from 100Gbit/s to 800Gbit/s, including our 100ZR+ QSFP28 – and the OFCnet demo, which will connect Sunnyvale and San Francisco.

IP-over-DWDM, ZR+ pluggables and intelligent monitoring are redefining the optical edge.

At our booth, visitors will also be able to see in action our ALM fiber monitoring platform, which provides compact, always-on visibility into fiber health, and our FSP 3000 M-Flex800™, our ZR/ZR+ host for IP-to-DWDM solutions leveraging 100Gbit/s to 800Gbit/s coherent pluggable technology.

Also, visitors shouldn’t miss the chance to see the latest additions to our MicroMux™ family: MicroMux™ Edge BiDi QSPF+ for bidirectional 10Gbit/s up to 40km and the MicroMux™ Quattro for 4x100G in a single QSFP-DD.

Across the conference program, Adtran experts will contribute to short courses, panels, workshops and technical sessions – covering everything from secure optical communications and quantum key distribution to high-capacity data center interconnects, autonomous service provisioning and self-healing, fiber sensing, optical transport SDN and next-gen access networks. With over 20 speaking and demo engagements throughout the week, our team will be sharing real-world insights on the future of optical networking.

The spirit of OFC

As always, OFC is about more than technology. It’s about the ideas that push boundaries – and the debates that spark new directions. We’re proud to be part of that journey and to be showcasing the ideas, insights and innovation that are defining the next era of optical networking.

Want to hear more about OFC’s legacy and what the future holds? In the latest episode of The Net Works podcast, Jörg-Peter Elbers and Roy Rubenstein join Gareth Spence to explore 50 years of optical innovation and share their insights on the big trends shaping OFC 2025. Listen now: https://soundcloud.com/thenetworks/24-50-years-of-optical-innovation-a-look-ahead-to-ofc-2025

Are cyberattacks putting global aviation at risk?

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 10:17:00 Z

Attacks on GNSS don’t just affect aircraft systems in flight. They also disrupt ground-based networks, which rely on GNSS for precise timing to keep aviation infrastructure in sync. From air traffic control centers to aircraft surveillance networks, a disruption in timing can quickly create ripple effects that compromise safety, efficiency and costs for airlines and airports.

GNSS cyber threats to aviation safety

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued a new safety bulletin warning of an alarming rise in cyberattacks targeting the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Since 2022, incidents of GNSS jamming and spoofing have escalated, affecting aircraft navigation and disrupting critical ground-based aviation infrastructure. These attacks disrupt both in-flight positioning and the precise timing essential for air traffic management and airport operations.

GNSS vulnerabilities: More than lost navigation

When people think of GNSS attacks as they relate to aviation, they often picture an aircraft suddenly flying blind. However, the impact extends far beyond the cockpit. GNSS timing ensures seamless synchronization across multiple critical functions, including flight coordination, communication links and airport operations.

GNSS threats generally fall into two categories:

Jamming does what the name suggests: it’s a signal blocker that floods receivers with noise, rendering GNSS systems ineffective. This form of attack is relatively easy to carry out, with off-the-shelf equipment available to disrupt signals over a wide area.
Spoofing tricks receivers with false signals, skewing timing and positioning data. Spoofing attacks are more insidious because seemingly valid signals may not be noticed until a great deal of damage has been done.

These attacks can lead to false terrain alerts, misleading aircraft positions and disruptions to surveillance systems. Even after an aircraft leaves an affected area, compromised GNSS signals can continue to cause navigation errors.

Resilient timing is the backbone of modern aviation – without it, positioning and navigation simply don’t work.

Why timing is the backbone of PNT

GNSS provides positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). Yet it’s timing that makes “P” and “N” possible. Without precisely synchronized clocks, an aircraft’s location can’t be calculated accurately. More importantly, modern aviation infrastructure relies on flawless timing to:

Align radar and aircraft surveillance data so multiple sensors can track aircraft positions
Coordinate airport operations for scheduling, departures and arrivals
Sync communications between controllers and pilots in real-time

If the timing link fails, all other parts of PNT fall apart, affecting both flight safety and ground operations.

Combatting GNSS attacks on aviation

To safeguard aviation from GNSS threats, the industry must adopt resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) strategies. This includes both assured PNT (aPNT), which strengthens GNSS-dependent infrastructure, and alternative PNT, which provides backup when GNSS is compromised. Advanced timing synchronization platforms, such as those from Oscilloquartz, provide a multi-layered defense against jamming and spoofing. Key strategies include:

Multi-layer detection: Real-time monitoring at the antenna, receiver and network levels can detect interference
Multi-source backup: High-grade atomic clocks and advanced synchronization solutions can provide up to 120 days of ultra-precise holdover
Multi-level fault-tolerant mitigation: End-to-end monitoring solutions, such as the Mosaic Sync Director, allow precise fault detection and rapid response

Strengthening aviation defenses

The EASA bulletin underscores how urgent it is to protect GNSS integrity. That means not just installing fail-safes on planes but also fortifying ground-based networks. By equipping airports, air navigation and surveillance networks with more resilient synchronization platforms, the entire aviation ecosystem gains an extra layer of crucial protection.

Oscilloquartz’s leading assured timing solutions deliver the robust sync backbone needed to safeguard aviation against disruptive GNSS attacks. With the right ground-based defenses in place, we can keep global air traffic moving safely.

Discover how our aPNT+ solutions can help airports, air traffic control and airlines build stronger defenses against GNSS threats.

2025: The launchpad year for 50G PON

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:25:00 Z

In 2025, 50Gbit/s passive optical network (50G PON) technology will shift from concept to reality, setting the stage for a new era in broadband connectivity. Forward-thinking service providers are already embracing the leap, positioning 50G PON at the heart of their plans to deliver ultra-fast, reliable internet services.

Broadband’s 50G boost

With downstream speeds of 50Gbit/s and scalable upstream options, 50G PON is built to meet the rising demands of a digital-first world. From immersive gaming and real-time industrial automation to telemedicine breakthroughs, it will deliver the bandwidth and reliability modern applications require.

And it’s a leap forward that goes beyond speed; it’s about redefining what’s possible in both residential and enterprise networks. For service providers, 50G PON offers a competitive edge today and a scalable, future-proof solution for the years ahead.

Key applications driving 50G PON in 2025

The versatility of 50G PON means it will serve as a foundation for a wide range of next-generation applications. Here’s what to watch for in 2025:

Residential services: From seamless 4K/8K streaming to ultra-low-latency AR/VR gaming and smart home connectivity, 50G PON will ensure homes are ready for the next wave of digital living.
Enterprise innovation: The demands of industrial automation, telemedicine and cloud-based services require networks with unmatched speed and capacity. 50G PON delivers the performance these applications need.
5G and beyond: As 5G networks expand, 50G PON will play a crucial role in supporting mobile backhaul and small cell deployments, ensuring the high-speed connectivity users expect.

These use cases highlight why 2025 is such a pivotal year – it’s when the promise of 50G PON begins to take shape in everyday life.

The ability to integrate 50G PON with existing GPON and XGS-PON networks offers efficient and cost-effective scalability.

What service providers can expect

Adtran’s customers are already paving the way for 50G PON adoption, taking a practical approach that balances current investments in 10G technologies with a forward-looking eye on 50G. This coexistence strategy ensures that operators can protect their existing infrastructure while rolling out premium services for their subscribers.

The ability to integrate 50G PON with existing GPON and XGS-PON networks, thanks to solutions like Adtran’s SDX 6400 Series optical line terminals (OLTs), means service providers can scale efficiently and cost-effectively. This seamless upgrade path will be critical as operators begin their transitions in 2025, with many eyeing this as the start of a broader shift to multigigabit services.

Growth projections underline the momentum

Industry forecasts reinforce the significance of this transition. LightCounting’s 2022 report predicted that shipments of 50G PON equipment would grow rapidly, with sales expected to outpace those of 25G PON by 2025.

This early projection, now coming to fruition, was based on factors such as widespread backing from major operators, the larger market scale of 50G PON deployments and its early ITU standardization in 2021.

Why 2025 is the year to watch

The industry is ready, the technology is here, and the demand is undeniable. Analysts predict rapid growth in 50G PON deployments beginning in 2025, thanks to economies of scale and strong backing from key players in the telco ecosystem. This year will be a springboard for a decade of growth and innovation, where 50G PON will not only coexist with 10G technologies but also chart the course for a fully connected future.

Looking ahead with Adtran

At Adtran, we’re excited to help service providers make 2025 the year of 50G PON. With our flexible, ultra-scalable solutions, we’re empowering operators to deliver next-generation broadband services to meet the ever-growing needs of residential and enterprise customers alike.

As we step into this transformative year, one thing is clear: 2025 isn’t just the start of a new chapter, it’s the beginning of a whole new story in broadband connectivity.

Turning energy savings into brighter futures

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:21:00 Z

What if your energy savings could help light up classrooms and empower the next generation? At Adtran, we’ve turned that vision into reality. Through the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Energy Right Solutions Incentives program, we saved 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity, earning recognition as TVA’s top participant for Strategic Energy Management (SEM).

This achievement gave us the opportunity to reinvest 20% of the cash equivalent of our savings – $95,000 – back into our community. After a company-wide vote, we chose Buckhorn High School in Huntsville, Alabama – a place close to our headquarters and our hearts.

What does 3 million kilowatt hours really mean?

Big numbers are impressive, but let’s make them tangible. Saving that much energy is equivalent to:

Powering 422 homes for a year
Driving 5.1 million miles – enough for more than 1,800 cross-country road trips
Recycling 716 tons of waste instead of sending it to a landfill

But this impact is more than just numbers – it’s a direct investment in sustainability and the future of our community.

How we saved 3 million kilowatt hours

Achieving these savings required a strategic approach and strong collaboration. At our Huntsville campus, we implemented a range of energy efficiency measures, from automated LED lighting to optimizing HVAC systems with automation and sensors. Small yet impactful changes – like consolidating building resources and covering unused rack spaces – helped us achieve significant energy reductions.

By partnering with TVA and Huntsville Utilities, we set ambitious targets and achieved significant results. These efforts enabled us to fund energy-efficient upgrades at Buckhorn High School, improving air quality and the learning environment for 1,300 students and faculty.

Through strategic energy management, we’ve saved enough energy to power 422 homes for a year and reinvested $95,000 into our community.

Why partnerships power sustainability

Energy optimization isn’t something you tackle alone. Collaborations with organizations like TVA have shown us that partnerships are essential for addressing global sustainability concerns.

At Adtran, we’re committed to going further. We were among the first companies to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), aligning our goals with global efforts to reduce both direct and indirect emissions. In parallel, we’re driving innovation in energy-efficient telecommunications technologies that not only lower power requirements but also accelerate digitization across industries, creating broader sustainability gains.

Start your energy management journey today

We’ve seen how strategic energy management can transform communities and empower future generations. Whether it’s saving energy at home, optimizing resources at work or collaborating on global solutions, every step counts.

We’re all partners when it comes to overcoming the global climate challenge, so let’s work together to build a better world through strategic energy management. Where will your energy optimization journey begin?