Nokia unveiled new shelf hardware in its Photonic Service Switch (PSS) offerings designed to fit more than three times the networking equipment compared to prior versions.

The 1830 PSS-hc includes both the vendor’s PSS-10hc and PSS-4hc offerings, and is designed as an upgrade to its 1830 PSS services.

The Finnish firm said the high-capacity shelf offers up to 60% lower power consumption per bit, enabling carriers and operators to save money while upgrading their networks.

It provides 12 Tb/s per slot and can support both embedded and coherent optical engines. The unit also features advanced power management capabilities as well as front-to-back airflow, enabling it to operate more efficiently.

“In the era of AI, operators need to scale bandwidth faster and more cost-effectively than ever,” Ron Johnson, SVP and GM of optical networks at Nokia, explained. “With this evolution, operators can rapidly deploy high-speed services to keep pace with growing customer demand.”

Nokia’s 1830 PSS-hc launch comes as the vendor is supporting a host of network upgrades across the globe to help carriers build out their bandwidth to support 5G and AI workloads.

The firm has supported projects, including a private 5G network for a mining equipment testbed in Finland and a 5G standalone network with Rakuten Mobile in Japan, among a host of others.

With its new shelf hardware, Nokia said the 1830 PSS-hc will help other network operators deliver high-speed services across the cloud, AI, and mobile services.

Customer trials will start later this year before being made commercially available in 2026.

Vivek Gaur, VP for engineering at Colt Technology Services, said the 1830 PSS-HC will build on the prior generation 1830s already used in its network.

“We anticipate the new enhancements to address our increasing capacity demands by utilizing advanced optical engines while retaining the existing operational framework,” Gaur added.

The 1830 PSS-hc launch comes amid Nokia's aggressive push into AI infrastructure. That push saw the firm secure perhaps its biggest deal of the year so far in a tie-up with ambitious data center operator Nscale.

Nokia won the rights to supply networking technologies for Nscale, which is among the central operators in the European leg of OpenAI’s Stargate buildout.

In a conversation following the announcement of the deal, Paul Alexander, Nokia's VP and country general manager for UK&I, told SDxCentral that its Nscale partnership would position the company as a crucial architect of future AI networks.