40 Gbps link enjoys success in real-world trial
The world s first ultra long-haul (ULH) 40Gbps network has been demonstrated, claims a collaboration between US companies MCI, Ciena and Mintera. The 1200km link is four times faster than the highest-speed ULH routes deployed today.
The trial was conducted on MCI s 1200km ULH DWDM optical network, between Sacremento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT. This route was chosen because it contains a mix of fiber, including dispersion shifted fiber, long span fiber, and single mode fiber, illustrating MCI s claims of real-world scalability of its network.
The 40Gbps system was commissioned in less than an hour, and then performed error-free on the same optical fibers already carrying 10Gbps transmission throughout the trial.
This rapid installation demonstrates "plug and play" capability for the 40Gbps system, said the team. "No longer will customers have to wait months for a complete network build to receive bandwidth-intensive next-generation services," is MCI s claim.
"This sets the stage for MCI customers to easily migrate to bandwidth-intensive business applications like web services, multimedia content distribution, grid computing, and storage networking," said Jack Wimmer, MCI s VP of network architecture and advanced technology.
And Mintera president and CEO, Terry Unter, commented that the 40Gbps system "will allow service providers such as MCI to gain a significant bandwidth boost from installed infrastructure, thus delaying capital investments in equipping new dark fibers and, at the same time, permitting the deployment of new, bandwidth-intensive services."
Mintera, MA, produces systems that enable carriers to deploy 40Gbps links, without traffic interruption, on 10Gbps infrastructure. Ciena, MD, delivers network solutions, and its Corestream Agility optical transport, used in this trial, provided an automated backbone for the MCI network.
