Sweden-based Telia Carrier launched a 400 gigabit Ethernet (GbE)-ready network that is based on Cisco’s cloud-scale routing platform. The network powers Telia’s global backbone network that reaches 120 countries.

The network uses Cisco’s NCS5500 series routers, which it first unveiled in mid-2015. That platform was initially developed to support 100GbE per port for wide area network (WAN) aggregation. Cisco last year added 400GbE capabilities to the platform. Telia last year installed more than 10,000 new 100GbE ports using the Cisco platform.

Kevin Wollenweber, VP of networking for Cisco’s Service Provider Business, explained in an email to SDxCentral that Telia Carrier was the first customer to order and receive the new 400GbE capable line cards for the routers. "Telia Carrier is able to upgrade its existing systems and prepare for the move to [400GbE] while still using its existing line cards and investments," he noted.

Telia Carrier is a fully-owned subsidiary of telecom giant Telia. Telia Carrier CEO Staffan Göjeryd noted in a statement that recent standardization efforts around 400G platforms are set to “disrupt the optical networking market.” The IEEE released 400GbE standards in early 2018.

Wollenweber said that the platform update pairs well with Cisco’s recently launched 8000 router series platform. That platform was unveiled late last year as part of Cisco’s boldly named “Internet for the Future” technology strategy. It uses Cisco’s Silicon One programmable architecture and new operating system.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins explained that the platform is targeted at helping service providers reduce the cost of building and operating internet-scale networks, which becomes especially relevant as operators prepare massive 5G rollouts in 2020. “The technology that we brought forward … will enable 5G to realize the potential that has been talked about for the last six or seven years,” Robbins said, adding that Cisco spent nearly $1 billion over the last five years developing the new technology.

Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, noted at that time that the 8000 series “certainly is light years ahead of where Juniper is, and from a speed perspective [Cisco] is on par with Nokia or maybe slightly ahead.”

Dell’Oro Group noted in a recent report that Cisco remained the revenue leader for 100GbE sold into the data center space for the third quarter of last year. Though it did note that rival Arista was the top vendor in terms of volumes sold.

Cisco has been aggressively introducing various 400GbE updates across its network platform. The vendor in 2018 announced 400G switches that targeted hyperscale cloud providers, large enterprise data centers, and telecommunications providers moving to 5G. That move followed similar pushes from competitors Arista and Juniper.

Cisco quickly bolstered its efforts by acquiring California-based semiconductor company Luxtera for $660 million. Luxtera focused on silicon photonics to build integrated optics capabilities for hyperscalers, enterprise data centers, and service providers. Cisco said it would integrate those capabilities across its intent-based networking (IBN) portfolio.

Dell’Oro Group forecasts that the adoption of 400GbE connections is not likely to gain traction until later this year. It cited a lack of demand and higher costs associated with the technology compared to 100GbE connections. However, the analyst firm had previously stated that it expects more than 15 million 400GbE switch ports to have been shipped by 2023.

“The combination with long haul optical transport is an important use case that we expect see in large-scale internet and private backbone networks starting in 2021,” explained Shin Umeda, VP at Dell’Oro Group, in an email to SDxCentral.