Coriant runs 1-Tbps superchannel over Allied Fiber's network

Optical transport systems developer Coriant GmbH says it has successfully completed a trial of 1-Tbps superchannel transmission over 1,700 km using Allied Fiber’s fiber-optic ring connecting West Palm Beach to Jacksonville, FL.

The trial used Allied Fiber’s Technology Showcase, which is part of the operator’s open access, collocation, and dark fiber superstructure. Allied Fiber’s Technology Showcase sits within its Southeast Florida segment, which covers more than 360 miles throughout the state of Florida and is available to all third-party network operators (see "Allied Fiber opens southeast fiber-optic network route").

The live trial of the Coriant hiT 7300 multi-haul transport platform, using the company’s FlexiGrid technology, aimed to show network operators how the Coriant system works together with the Allied Fiber infrastructure to enable connections between access networks, including fiber and wireless, through to long-haul carrier, content, and enterprise networks by interconnecting through the Allied Fiber system.

The terabit field trial used commercially available hardware and pre-commercial software over Allied Fiber's new Corning fiber-optic cable. The trial demonstrated 1-Tbps superchannel transmission in a 368.7-GHz grid over the 1,700 km. In addition, it showed a greater than 35 percent improvement in spectral efficiency, the vendor asserts.

The trial also demonstrated the flexible allocation of the 1-Tbps superchannel by placing it in three separate locations within the C-Band, thus maximizing the usability of existing fiber resources. This capability comes with an improved spectral efficiency of 3.4 bps/Hz and provides a maximum fiber capacity of 13 Tbps over a distance of 1,700 km on field-installed fiber using commercial-grade equipment.

"We are pleased to team with Allied Fiber to demonstrate the value that next-generation optical networking technologies can bring to broadband users," said Pat DiPietro, CEO, Coriant via a joint press release with Allied Fiber. "We are committed to helping our partners like Allied Fiber meet the capacity requirements of residential and business end-user services with systems capable of seamless and efficient scalability to 1 terabit per channel and beyond."

"We are excited with the results of the trial with Coriant on our network-neutral infrastructure," said Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber, via the same press release. "It highlights how our new Corning SMF 28e+ fiber has performed carrying 1-terabit transmission, which should be encouraging news for all network operators looking to light their own transport route both for the capabilities of the technology and for the availability of the long-haul dark fiber to run it on."

Coriant says it is a strategic supplier of optical transmission equipment and management systems to Allied Fiber for their mutual customers. The company also provides specialized optical networking support services including design, logistics, installation, commissioning, local pre-deployment system testing and maintenance.

In a conversation at the Lightwave Optical Innovation Summit, Newby said that Allied Fiber is open to conducting similar trials via his network’s Technology Showcase capabilities. In fact, optical transmission equipment vendors had inquired about such possibilities at the Summit once the announcement with Coriant became public, he revealed. Newby expressed confidence that additional trials with other equipment vendors would follow in the future.

This is not Coriant's first publicly announced terabit superchannel field trial. The company conducted a similar demonstration using infrastructure from Australia's National Broadband Network (see "Coriant trials terabit superchannel over Australian NBN").

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.