Nokia, in partnership with UAE provider Etisalat, has successfully completed a field trial of single-carrier terabit-per-second data transmission on a deployed fibre network.
The trial transmitted a record 50.8Tb/s using multiple wavelengths, each with a net information rate of 1.3Tb/s over a 93km fibre route. This comes as Etisalat invests in its core network infrastructure in the UAE region, in anticipation of the increase in traffic from high bandwidth services.
The field trial demonstrates that the existing network can support the higher optical wavelength bit rates that will be required to support high-bandwidth services such as 5G extreme mobile broadband, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and data centre interconnect (DCI) cloud services. Higher bit-rates-per-wavelength are designed to provide power and space savings, as well as improved network simplicity, increased spectral efficiency and capacity, and reduced cost-per-bit.
Leveraging a single optical carrier operating at 100GBd, the terabit wavelengths employed Nokia Bell Labs probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) to intelligently shape the signal to achieve maximum capacity for the specific fibre route. Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine 3, a coherent digital signal processor which uses PCS, is now shipping to customers as part of the company’s 1830 portfolio.
Esmaeel Alhammadi, senior vice president, network development at Etisalat, commented: ‘We are pleased to have partnered with Nokia Bell Labs to demonstrate that our optical network is capable of transporting a terabit-per-second over a single wavelength, and a total per-fibre capacity of over 50Tb/s. Increasing network capacity helps us to provide bandwidth-hungry services such as 5G extreme mobile broadband, fibre-to-the-home and DCI for enterprises.’
Sam Bucci, head of optical networking at Nokia, added: ‘The introduction of 5G will require a network that can support dramatic increases in bandwidth in a dynamic fashion. This trial with Etisalat is testimony to Nokia’s commitment to continue to invest in coherent and optical component technologies required to meet the 5G networking challenge at the lowest total cost of ownership for our customers.’
