AI confirmed the view: Yes — a very credible interpretation is that Nokia’s current AI scale-across architecture thinking is built around the 7220 IXR + SR Linux + coherent-lite layer, and at a later stage, very low-power LPO solutions for shorter optical fabric connections could also be introduced into the same environment.
Furthermore, regarding Nokia’s goal to bring coherent optics to the scale-across level (coherent lite launch H2/27) and the role of the current ICE-D, AI states: Yes — a very credible interpretation is that ICE-D currently serves as Nokia’s ultra-low-power intra-DC optical engine platform (LPO/CPO/retimed optics), while the actual coherent-lite architecture is still being standardized and commercialized over the next 1–2 years. Thus, ICE-D is likely not a replacement for coherent-lite, but rather its potential photonics base or “foundation layer.”
Nokia appears to be building a unified optical stack:
- intra-DC → scale-across → DCI