SEASON Demonstrates Greener Optical Networks Through All-Optical Traffic Aggregation
The SEASON project has demonstrated a new approach to optical network design that can significantly reduce energy consumption and operational costs while maintaining high performance.
Instead of relying on traditional electrical traffic aggregation, SEASON introduces all-optical aggregation enabled by coherent point-to-multipoint (P2MP) transceivers. Using digital subcarrier-based multiplexing, a single high-capacity optical channel can serve multiple low-rate users directly, eliminating unnecessary optical-electrical-optical conversions.
This innovation simplifies network architectures, reduces equipment requirements, and cuts power usage—an important step as the ICT sector accounts for a growing share of global energy consumption. Results presented in a recent submission to OFC 2025 show that coherent P2MP transmission achieves comparable signal quality to conventional point-to-point systems while offering substantial energy savings.
Comparison between SEASON’s all-optical aggregation using coherent P2MP transceivers (a) and traditional electronic aggregation (b).
By removing electrical aggregation routers, networks can save around 200 W per node, leading to potential annual OPEX reductions of up to €1 million in large-scale national deployments. These findings reinforce SEASON’s commitment to building sustainable, high-capacity optical networks for future digital infrastructures.