SoftBank and Cisco Launch Energy-Efficient Optical Network in Japan

TOKYO, Japan — SoftBank Corp. announced Thursday it is installing optical transmission equipment across metropolitan network infrastructure in Japan in partnership with Cisco Systems.

According to the companies, the equipment reduces power consumption by approximately 90 percent compared with SoftBank’s existing systems.

Installation was completed in Osaka in September, the company said. SoftBank plans to complete nationwide installation by 2027.

The equipment eliminates the need for optical-to-electrical signal conversion between network segments.

SoftBank's existing metro network uses routers, transponders, optical multiplexing equipment, and optical amplifiers.

The newly installed equipment features Cisco routers capable of 400-gigabit Ethernet and OpenZR+ optical transceivers.

SoftBank announced the development of an optical multiplexing device with a capacity of 6.4 terabits per second, which operates without external power.

The device is paired with Cisco QSFP-DD OLS optical amplification modules, which attach directly to routers.

According to SoftBank, this configuration reduces power consumption by more than 90 percent compared to its existing metro network optical multiplexing and amplification equipment.

The routers use Cisco’s Silicon One Q200 chip, which SoftBank says offers seven times the switching capacity of the company’s previous routers while consuming about half the power.

Metro networks connect backbone transmission systems to base stations and network endpoints.

SoftBank completed the installation of optical equipment across its core network infrastructure in October 2023.

The system uses Segment Routing IPv6, according to the company.