A trial of a live core network link which spans more than 700km between Dublin and London carried out by BT and Huawei have achieved the fastest ever speeds of 2 Terabits per second (Tbps), according to BT.
Based on optical superchannel technology that was tested on a closed trial network in 2014, BT updated the technology to its fibre link carrying live customer traffic between Dublin and London.
The company said the technology and techniques pioneered in its labs, using Terabit superchannels and flexible grid infrastructures, will allow it to avoid a what it dubbed a ‘capacity crunch’, by extracting more bandwidth from its existing core optical networks. This can be achieved by increasing the spectral efficiency of a single strand of glass within the fibre bundles.
“BT scientists built the first commercial, single mode, optical fibre link back in 1984 and the BT Labs remain at the forefront of photonics research more than thirty years later,” said Howard Watson, CEO of BT Technology, Service and Operations. “The core network is the superhighway of the Internet. It’s important that our core networks keep pace with the growth in bandwidth demands driven by take-up of high-speed fibre broadband, HD content, 4G smart phones and tablets and in the future, 5G services.
“So we’re investing in our core, as well as in high-speed access technology such as fibre broadband, to make sure there is no capacity crunch and deliver the best possible speeds to customers.”
Additionally, BT announced that it has successfully transmitted speeds of 5.6Tbps over a single optical fibre running on its trial network between the BT Labs in Adastral Park and the BT Tower in London, beating the previous record of 3Tbps set in 2014. This speed is the equivalent of downloading almost 200 HD quality films in one second.
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