Cisco at ECOC 2025 - Advancing Optical Innovation and Multi-Vendor Interoperability

Cisco is proud to showcase its latest routing & optical networking innovations and demonstrate leadership in multi-vendor interoperability at ECOC 2025 in Copenhagen. This event highlights Cisco’s commitment to open networking, industry standards, and cutting-edge technology for high-performance networks.

Event Details:

• Conference: 28 September – 2 October 2025
• Exhibition: 29 September – 1 October 2025
• Location: Bella Center – Copenhagen, Denmark
  

Cisco Presence & Locations

• Cisco Booth: C4136 (Hall C4)
  

Equipment on Display at Cisco Booth

At the Cisco booth, attendees can explore the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 1014 platform featuring advanced coherent pluggable optics. The NCS 1014 platform delivers scalable, high-performance optical transport solutions with advanced coherent optics and robust monitoring features.

NCS 1014: A compact 2RU modular optical platform supporting four line card slots and running IOS XR. Key components include:

• 3.2T Line Card (NCS1K14-QXP-K9): 3.2 Tbps QDD transponder with high-density C and L band coherent optics for ultra-long haul transport.
• 2.4T Line Card (NCS1K14-2.4T-X-K9): 2.4 Tbps DWDM transponder/muxponder with six QSFP-DD client ports and two trunk ports using CIM-8, supporting flexible baud rates and modulation.
• Metro Open Line System (MOLS) with EDFA2 line card for optical amplification, equalization, and monitoring.
• 16-Port Colorless Mux/Demux enabling flexible wavelength add/drop for efficient channel management.
  

Cisco Speaker Sessions

ECOC Plenary Speaker:

• Benny Mikkelsen – Monday, September 29th, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM (part of Opening Ceremony and Plenary Talks)

Market Focus Theater (in the exhibit hall) Tuesday, September 30th:

• 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM: “Building switches to be ready for the Terabit generation” – Mark Nowell
• 1:20 PM – 1:35 PM: “AI Driving Architectural Changes in the Datacenter and Beyond” - Tom Williams
• 2:20 PM – 2:35 PM: “CMIS – The Interface that Ties Everything Together for AI” – Gary Nicholl
  

Public Interoperability Demonstrations

Ethernet Alliance, Booth# C1419

Cisco is participating in the Ethernet Alliance interoperability event, showcasing its domain expertise and leadership in driving open standards and multi-vendor collaboration. Cisco has made significant contributions to multiple industry standards efforts including IEEE 802.3, OIF, LPO MSA, 100G Lambda MSA, QSFP-DD MSA, and OSFP MSA. Cisco initiated and co-led many of these projects as well as drove the technical direction to ensure customer interoperability requirements were met.

• We will be conducting interoperability testing on the Cisco 8122-64EHF-O platform, using various 400GE and 800GE OSFP modules to interop with other vendor devices.
• Cisco Platform: Cisco 8122-64EHF-O is a high-radix, programmable 2RU switch with 64x800G OSFP ports. Powered by a Cisco Silicon One™ G200 NPU forwarding at 51.2 Tbps, it supports SONiC NOS for addressing the needs of large-scale AI/ML networks with advanced load balancing and observability.
• Transceiver Modules for 8122-64EHF-O Interop: OSFP 400G, and 800G SR/DR/FR/LPO modules.
• Cisco Coherent Modules: 400G and 800G ZR/ZR+ QSFP-DD pluggable modules.

Details on Ethernet Alliance’s participation at: Link

Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), Booth #C3425

Cisco is participating in the OIF 2025 Interoperability Demonstration which shows multi-vendor interoperability collaborations. Cisco has made significant contributions to multiple OIF implementation agreement efforts and other industry standards including co-authoring OIF 400ZR project start and editor, actively driving 800ZR and 800G ZR+, co-authoring OIF 1600ZR project start, and was an OpenZR+ MSA founder member and co-chair.

Cisco participation contributes to the 100ZR, 400ZR/ZR+ and 800ZR/ZR+ multi-span optical links. The key Cisco products shown in the OIF interoperability demonstration include:

• 800ZR QSFP-DD/OSFP, 800G ZR+ QSFP-DD, 400G ULH QSFP-DD, 400G ZR/ZR+ QSFP-DD, and 100ZR QSFP28 coherent pluggables
• Cisco 8212-48FH-M – a 2RU fixed chassis router with 24 QSFP-DD 800G or 48 QSFP56-DD 400GE ports, Powered by Cisco Silicon One
• NCS 540 router – a 1RU temperature-hardened fixed chassis router with a combination of 24 x 10GE, 8 x 25GE, and 2 x100GE ports
• NCS 1001 Open Line System – a 1RU DWDM flex-grid line system optimized for point-to-point DCI application in a simple plug-and-play EDFA-based solution combined with the 32-Channel Mux/Demux patch panel that can support 800ZR, 400ZR, and 100ZR pluggable optics
• Cisco Crosswork Network Controller (CNC) – a multivendor, multidomain controller for the IP transport networks. CNC will be part of the CMIS demo to perform inventory and performance monitoring data collection from the pluggable modules on both the Cisco and Juniper routers.

For additional details on OIFs participation at ECOC: Link

Meeting Opportunities

Cisco’s comprehensive presence at ECOC 2025 underscores its commitment to advancing optical networking technologies, fostering multi-vendor interoperability, and supporting the evolving demands of AI and data center infrastructures. For more information on Cisco’s solutions or to book a meeting on site, visit us at Booth #C4136.