Network and equipment vendors have been playing a pivotal role in the expansion of the 5G network, helping telcos monetise 5G-Advanced services and integrate artificial intelligence (AI)-native architecture into their current infrastructure. Girish Bhatia, Head of Solutions Engineering, Ciena India share his views on the key business highlights of 2025, the evolving Make in India strategy and future focus areas…
What was your organisation’s standout strategic highlight in 2025? How is your portfolio helping Indian telcos monetise 5G-Advanced through FWA and network APIs?
In 2025, Ciena continued to solidify its market leadership in next-generation optical transmission with its leading WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) solution, which enabled the transmission of 1.6 Tbps through a single optical channel for many of our customers, including Constl (demonstrating 1 Tbps per channel over 1,450 km in a field proof of concept) and FLAG (1 Tbps per channel in subsea deployments). These commercial deployments of 1.6 Tbps network capacity represent a major leap in network performance that directly addressed exploding bandwidth demand and paved the way for networks to support 800 gigabit Ethernet services. They also position Ciena as a foundational enabler for AI-driven networks.
Additionally, Ciena plays a critical role in helping hyperscalers build networks that match their application-specific needs. We are strong proponents of the managed optical fibre network business model in India, a collaborative approach where Ciena works with both service providers and hyperscalers to jointly design and deploy networks. Under this model, service providers design, build and manage networks tailored to hyperscalers’ technical requirements.
Before telcos monetise 5G services such as fixed wireless access (FWA), the underlying transport network must be able to handle massive bandwidth, low latency and dynamic traffic patterns. Ciena is focused on building the high-performance, programmable transport foundation that such services require, enabling telcos to leverage network application programming interfaces (APIs) to unlock new digital services and revenue streams.
We also encourage our telco customers to combine scalable infrastructure with automation and programmability. For instance, Ciena’s Navigator Network Control Suite accelerates service delivery, provides advanced network management and control and reduces operational costs.
As the Bharat 6G Mission progresses, how are you integrating AI-native architectures into current hardware to transition from simple network optimisation towards autonomous, self-healing systems?
The Bharat 6G Mission aims to make India a global leader in 6G technology, innovation and deployment by 2030. Ciena believes it can contribute by building networks that provide ubiquitous connectivity. Ciena and Blue Planet uniquely provide the industry’s most complete and trusted path to autonomous networking – combining world-class, programmable infrastructure with AI-ready operations support systems and multilayer domain control, backed by our deep service expertise.
Aligned with the Bharat 6G push towards AI-native, self-healing, autonomous networks, our modular, open, standards-based solutions allow telcos to manage risk and advance towards autonomy at their own pace. Autonomous networking is a closed-loop cycle, which begins by connecting highly instrumented network infrastructure that delivers rich, real-time telemetry. Using this data, it then senses what is happening across layers and domains of the network, leveraging AI to detect issues, predict congestion or failures, and trigger proactive and reactive responses. Using agentic AI, autonomous networking then applies reason to automate workflows and make intent-driven decisions that align with service-level agreements and business objectives. Based on this, the network then acts autonomously, executing AI-driven decisions to optimise network performance. To help accelerate the autonomous networking journey, Ciena and BP’s services can help determine a telco’s ideal strategy and make it a reality through our broad set of professional services and transformation expertise.
How has your Make in India strategy matured under the design-led PLI scheme? To what extent does your Indian manufacturing base serve as a global export hub for core telecom equipment and indigenous IP?
We continue to deliver products tailored to our customers’ requirements and remain committed to supporting local needs. But the real story of Ciena’s “Make in India, Make for the World” commitment is innovation. Our R&D centre in Gurugram is our largest outside North America, with more than 2,000 employees, 60 per cent of them in engineering and R&D roles, contributing directly to our global product portfolio. Our India engineering teams have filed over 200 patents and are integral to developing next-generation solutions, including our recent data centre out-of-band management capability built in partnership with Meta. When global hyperscalers and network operators deploy Ciena technology, they are deploying technology with Indian innovation embedded in it. This is something we are really proud of.
Looking towards 2027, how are you balancing the demand for massive capacity with “green engineering” practices to meet India’s net zero mandates amid global supply chain volatility?
At Ciena, we do not see massive capacity growth and “green engineering” as competing priorities – they are inseparable. We design our products to support networks for the long term, prioritising modularity and reducing power per bit while offering services to extend product life and increase recyclability. This approach enhances our products’ energy efficiency, minimising material use and physical footprint and reducing waste. For example, WL6e boasts a major improvement in spectral efficiency and a 50 per cent reduction in space and power per bit compared to the previous generation. Pursuing technological innovation responsibly is important to us, and Ciena is making strong progress towards achieving its greenhouse gas reduction targets.
