en.Wedoany.com Reported - Nokia has secured a multi-year contract with Orange Belgium to modernize the operator's transmission infrastructure by creating a unified optical network that integrates fixed and mobile connections across Belgium.

The project aims to enhance network resilience, improve scalability, simplify operations, and meet the continuously growing bandwidth demand driven by artificial intelligence applications, cloud computing, video streaming, online gaming, remote work, and enterprise digital services.

This transformation will replace separate fixed and mobile transmission systems with a unified optical transport network, enabling Orange Belgium to manage traffic more efficiently while accelerating the deployment of new digital services. The upgraded infrastructure will transport fixed and mobile traffic from user endpoints at speeds ranging from 1G to 400G and beyond via metro access and backbone networks to support related services.

A key milestone of the deployment is the first implementation of Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) platform within an Orange subsidiary for core optical transport. The deployment also includes Nokia's AI-based WaveSuite automation software, which will automate network management, improve operational efficiency, and reduce service deployment time.

The network will also integrate end-to-end synchronization management combined with Nokia's radio access network infrastructure, a GMPLS control plane for enhanced resilience, and thin transceiver technology powered by the latest high-capacity 1830 PSS platform. These technologies are designed to provide secure, reliable, and high-performance connectivity for consumer, enterprise, and cloud workloads.

Philippe Toussaint, Chief Technology Officer of Orange Belgium, stated that this investment supports its long-term strategy, as 5G, artificial intelligence, and quantum security are reshaping digital communications. The operator aims to build a future-proof infrastructure capable of supporting both consumer broadband services and enterprise digital transformation, while strengthening Belgium's digital economy.

In 2020, Nokia became the sole radio access network (RAN) supplier for Orange Belgium as part of the operator's nationwide 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G modernization, replacing Huawei equipment.

Nokia's competitor Ericsson provides the mobile core network for Orange Belgium, supporting 5G non-standalone (NSA) operation and enabling evolution to standalone (SA) 5G.

Nokia stated that the 1830 PSS portfolio is designed for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), packet optical transport, and optical transport network (OTN) applications. It supports metro edge, metro, regional, long-haul, broadband backhaul, data center interconnect (DCI), carrier Ethernet, and wavelength services.

The product family includes the compact 1830 PSS-4II for metro edge deployments, the 1830 PSS-8 and 1830 PSS-16II for metro and regional transport, the 1830 PSS-32 for large-scale regional and long-haul networks, and the 1830 PSS-HC, which provides high-capacity, energy-efficient coherent transport for metro, long-haul, and data center interconnect environments.

Nokia noted that the platform enables operators to maximize fiber utilization by leveraging its Photonic Service Engine (PSE) coherent optical technology, integrated CDC-F wavelength routing, C+L band WDM, and ultra-scalable OTN switching.

Other capabilities include carrier Ethernet transport, secure low-latency encrypted wavelength services, advanced multi-layer network algorithms, flexible bandwidth allocation, value-based SLA protection, reduced power consumption, and increased network capacity to address unpredictable traffic growth driven by AI and cloud applications.