Elisa Oyj Launches World’s First 800ZR Coherent Services with Juniper Networks, Pioneering Finland’s Mobile and Fiber Infrastructure

Juniper’s coherent networking solutions enhance Elisa’s network performance, scale and flexibility in a sustainable way, while assuring the best user experiences now and into the future

Juniper Networks® (NYSE: JNPR), a leader in secure, AI-Native Networking, and Finnish telecom and digital service provider Elisa Oyj today announced the world’s first deployment of 800Gbps Ethernet services over 800ZR coherent transceivers. Elisa is deploying 800Gbps technology within its backbone network, enhancing the development of mobile and optical fiber networks in Finland. The first deployment is in the Helsinki metropolitan area’s backbone network, using Juniper Networks™ PTX Series Routers and an early release of Juniper’s JCO800 coherent optics. Developing and future-proofing the backbone network is crucial, as it lays the foundation for expanding a more sustainable, robust, scalable and capable mobile and optical fiber network throughout Finland.

Elisa provides a range of digital services, including mobile and fixed network connections, information and communications technology (ICT) and online services. It serves both consumer and corporate customers, with operations primarily in Finland and Estonia, while expanding its digital services globally. As a market leader in Finland, Elisa is known for its innovation in 5G and digital solutions and is planning to develop its fiber network capacity towards 100G speeds in the upcoming years.

By pioneering 800G coherent deployments, Elisa will significantly increase the capacity of individual backbone fiber. A robust backbone network will allow Elisa to meet customers' rising data demands for several years to come. The backbone network is also crucial to Finland's access to secure transport, linking the country to international networks. It is essential for maintaining reliable access to global communication and data exchange channels and ensures that critical digital services, information flows and cross-border data exchanges remain stable and resilient.

News Highlights:

• Juniper’s Converged Optical Routing Architecture (CORA) solution is based on IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM). The solution enables IP traffic to be sent more efficiently and effectively over fiber networks through the use of coherent pluggable optic technology. Each IPoDWDM service uses a single coherent transceiver plugging directly into a router port, replacing multiple network elements traditionally required for IP to DWDM conversion. Traditional (gray) and coherent 800ZR/ZR+ optics conform to the same router port form-factor (QSFP-DD), providing operators new levels of flexibility to choose, based on use case, between optic types on a port-by-port basis. The Juniper 800ZR+, 0dBm coherent pluggable technology used in the Elisa deployment converts IP traffic into ultra high-performance DWDM-ready wavelengths for optimized transport over DWDM networks or open line systems (OLS) using a single coherent pluggable optic. This architecture reduces the number of network elements, lowers costs and simplifies deployments.
• In Elisa’s deployment, Juniper’s CORA leverages the Juniper PTX10002-36QDD Packet Transport Router and an early release of the Juniper JCO800 coherent pluggable optic. Its compact, energy-efficient system design reduces power consumption and cooling demands, directly lowering both operational costs and carbon footprint. With the PTX10002’s high-density port configurations, combined with JCO800 Coherent Optical Transceivers, space utilization is optimized allowing Elisa Oyj to expand network capacity without increasing the footprint of the 800G IPoDWDM upgrade. This approach minimizes the environmental impact tied to hardware deployment, maintenance and disposal, enabling Elisa to meet rising data demands sustainably whilst elevating network performance.
• The PTX10002-36QDD Packet Transport Router, the world’s first production 800G router, is cloud-optimized and built upon Juniper's Express 5 ASIC. It supports high-capacity configurations with ease, delivering operational simplicity, energy efficiency and performance. Designed for dense 100GbE, 400GbE, and 800GbE connections (supporting both gray and coherent optics), it scales to meet growing demands, particularly as AI and machine learning clusters expand.

Supporting Quotes:

“The enormous success of 400ZR/ZR+ pluggables has ignited widespread industry demand for IP-over-DWDM solutions, which are transforming the way that networks are designed and implemented. IP-over-DWDM’s potential to create lower cost, higher efficiency networks has stirred enthusiasm for the next generation of coherent pluggables, including 100ZR QSFP28 and 800ZR/ZR+ QSPF-DD. Elisa’s pioneering 800ZR collaboration with Juniper Networks is a proof point that will encourage wider adoption of standards-based 800G coherent pluggables in IP-over-DWDM networks.”
- Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst Optical Components, Cignal AI

“Elisa is delighted to collaborate with Juniper to prepare Elisa's backbone network to meet the growing needs of its customers, now and in the future. This 800G coherent backbone connection allows us to increase the speeds and capacity of our optical fibre and mobile networks. As AI and cloudification progress, more and more data will be transferred between data centres, requiring us to continuously develop our backbone network.”
- Kalle Lehtinen, Chief Technology Officer, Elisa Oyj

“Juniper is proud to serve Elisa Oyj with our innovative 800G coherent CORA solutions as they lead the way to a truly notable and exciting achievement, the world’s first 800Gbps coherent ZR service deployment. This milestone underscores our shared commitment to advance digital infrastructure throughout the world, while ensuring a robust, sustainable and future-proof network for Finland’s expanding data demands and exacting user expectations.”
- Steffen Gienger, Vice President, Service Provider, EMEA, Juniper Networks

About Elisa Oyj

Elisa’s mission is a sustainable future through digitalisation. We are a pioneer in telecommunications and digital services and in 5G. We provide sustainable solutions for over 2.8 million consumer, corporate and public administration customers in our core markets of Finland and Estonia, as well as in over 100 countries internationally. In Finland, Elisa is a market leader in telecommunications and our international cooperation partners include Vodafone and Tele2. Elisa is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki. In 2023, our revenue was EUR 2.2 billion and we employed 5,700 people in more than 20 countries. Elisa is rated as one of the most sustainable companies in the world. elisa.com

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks believes that connectivity is not the same as experiencing a great connection. Juniper's AI-Native Networking Platform is built from the ground up to leverage AI to deliver the best and most secure user experiences from the edge to the data center and cloud. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Juniper, Junos, and other trademarks listed here are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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