How far is 400G from real commercial deployment?

With the continuous growth of data traffic, the pressure of data transmission and bandwidth of the bearer network is also increasing. The transmission rate of the backbone network will be upgraded from 100G to 200G/400G and other higher rates. And 400G is the basic rate of the next generation OTN network after 100G. It is reported that domestic and international standards organizations have carried out the formulation of relevant series of standards, CCSA has completed the establishment of two core standards for long-distance 400G optical modules and systems, and mainstream international standards organizations have completed the formulation of medium-short distance 400G standards, and have launched 800G research.
There is no doubt that 400G+will become the mainstream application of the ultra-100G network. From the perspective of the backbone network, single-wave 400G is about to start and enter a long cycle. Wei Leping, Executive Deputy Director of the Communications Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Director of the China Telecom Science and Technology Commission, also pointed out last year that the 400G era has begun.
According to the analysis of Omdia, a market research organization, the data center (DC) took the lead in opening the transition to 400G and has been applied in 2019. It is expected that 400G sales will dominate the data center market by 2023.
Just how far is 400G from real commercial use?
Recently, Lv Kai, an engineer of China Telecom Research Institute, said that it is expected that the backbone long-distance 400G industry will have the capacity of large-scale deployment in 2024. China Unicom finally said that it would launch 400G new technology test network this year.

China Telecom: It is expected that the 400G industry will be able to deploy in scale by 2024

A few days ago, Lu Kai, an engineer of China Telecom Research Institute, said at the "2022 China Optical Communication High-Quality Development Forum - 400G Technology Special Session": "It is expected that 400G prototype or commercial equipment will appear in 2023, and the backbone long-distance 400G industry will have the capacity to deploy in scale in 2024. At that time, operators will promote network construction based on 400G business drivers."
China Telecom also carried out the 400G existing network test very early. In April 2017, it completed the 400G existing network test based on WSS all-optical scheduling in the second plane of Shanghai Telecom OTN, the largest and most complex local network in China.
On September 17, 2021, the 1970-kilometer-long China Telecom Shanghai-Guangzhou G.654. E project was officially completed, and the first domestic test of 400Gb/s ultra-long distance WDM transmission commercial equipment on the G.654E optical cable was completed by using the new optical cable, realizing more than 1900 kilometers of non-electric relay transmission.

China Unicom: launch 400G new technology test network in 2022

Tang Xiongyan, vice president and chief scientist of China Unicom Research Institute, said that in recent years, all operators have been carrying out the verification test of single-wave 400G WDM technology to promote the gradual maturity of the backbone long-distance 400G technology. The 100G interface on the customer side will continue to be applied on a large scale, and 400G will become the main interface on the customer side of more than 100G. In response to the sharp increase in metropolitan area traffic, metropolitan area optical networks will take the lead in introducing 400G and ultra-400GWDM technology.
China Unicom has also said many times about the time point of 400G commercial use. Finally, Wang Guangquan, director of the Network Technology Research Center of China Unicom Research Institute and professor-level senior engineer, said recently, "China Unicom will launch the 400G new technology test network in 2022."
As early as 2016, China Unicom deployed 400G existing network pilot projects in Shandong and Xinjiang: two 400G optical cables were built in Xinjiang and Shandong respectively, of which Xinjiang is 140 kilometers long from Hami to Balikun, and Shandong is 420 kilometers long from Jinan to Qingdao.
In April 2018, Shandong Unicom completed the first 400G wavelength division ring of China Unicom in Jinan. At present, Shandong Unicom has planned to deploy the ten-wave dual-carrier 400G in Jinan. The dual-carrier 400G scheme adopted by the current network can coexist with the 100G channel. In the later stage, it only needs to expand the 400G channel to upgrade the current network from 100G to 400G system, which can effectively relieve the pressure on slot and channel resources, and finally achieve the full network coverage.
In addition, China Unicom has also actively carried out the standardization, industrialization and experimental demonstration of G.654. E optical fiber in the joint industrial chain in recent years. G.654. E optical fiber can significantly improve the dead relay distance of ultra-high speed transmission system, lay the foundation for building ultra-high speed, ultra-long distance and large-capacity backbone optical network, and better serve the implementation of the strategy of "East to West".