Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) said it completed a trial of a 1 Tbps optical link over a 995 km route between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, on its existing optical network with Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC).
During the experiment, Alessandro Pane, head of Ericsson R&D Optical Transmission, said it illustrated that Telstra's "existing optical cable plant could simultaneously Tbps channels along with 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps channels on the same fiber."
This experiment builds on the existing relationship between the Australian telco and Ericsson.
In February, Telstra became the latest service provider to move to 100G optical. For that deployment, Ericsson is supplying its SPO 1400, its packet optical transport platform (P-OTP) for its metro network and the MHL 3000 for long-haul applications with 100 Gbps service support.
The service provider tested a 1 Tbps line card in the MHL 3000.
Similar to other service providers moving to 100G optical such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Telstra said with the Ericsson equipment it will be able to reduce total cost of ownership by reducing the number of network elements and equipment space and consolidating operations and maintenance for the network with reduced power consumption.
While Tbps optical networking is still in its nascent stage, this experiment and others provide some blueprint for other telcos considering similar experiments.
The experiment and its existing agreement with Ericsson for 100G also represent one of the major growth trends for the optical industry. A recent Infonetics Research report said that while the optical market declined in 2012 due to ongoing declines in SONET gear, the ongoing migration to 100G will drive an uptick in optical spending in 2013.
For more:
- see the release
Special report: The 10 hottest wireline technologies in 2013
Related articles:
Telstra strengthens its optical network ties with Ericsson
Reliance outsources network operations to Ericsson in $1 billion agreement
Optical growth in 2013 driven by 100G, says Infonetics
NSN takes its optical unit private