Nortel may be struggling to find a suitor for its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) division, but that does not seem to matter much as Australian telephone incumbent Telstra announced it conducted a trial in July of the beleaguered vendor's 100 Gbps transmission equipment. And with this trial, there are a number of bold claims that it has been able to test "the longest distances ever attempted" for 40 and 100 Gbps networking. Telstra reported that it was able to transmit 100 Gbps over a continuous optical link between Sydney and Adelaide of 2,038 km, while simultaneously testing 40 Gbps capabilities over a 3,370 km looped-back segment of its fiber network between the cities.
The reason Telstra needs to consider 40 and 100 Gbps networking is quite simple: ongoing consumer adoption of video applications. The Australian incumbent says it's seeing continued adoption and usage of bandwidth-hungry services such as online video and business grade video conferencing. To sate the desire for video, Telstra will increase the capacity of its Sydney-to-Melbourne network link from 10 to 40 Gbps.
Telstra and Nortel aren't alone in their 100 Gbps networking desires, as this trial follows other trials by Verizon and Comcast. Since June there's been a bevy of 100 Gbps activity with Juniper launching a 100 Gbps network interface for its T-Series core routers, while Alcatel-Lucent debuted its 100 Gbps edge routing interface.
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