Orange Poland, Nokia report 1.5-Tbps superchannel transmission

Orange and Nokia say they have combined to transmit a 1.5-Tbps superchannel over 870 km of Orange Poland's fiber-optic network. The superchannel, which comprised six carriers of 250 Gbps each, ran between Warsaw and Wroclaw and consumed 300 GHz of spectrum. The bandwidth/distance combination represents a new benchmark, the collaborators say.

The fiber-optic link featured a flexible-grid infrastructure and standard erbium-doped fiber amplification (EDFA) applied to 20-dB spans of standard single-mode fiber. A real-time transponder used in the trial demonstrated a spectral efficiency of 5 bits/Hz with the 250-Gbps carriers in 50 GHz using the 16QAM modulation format.

Orange and Nokia say the links could have supported 24 Tbps if 96-channel EDFAs were used.

"This ground-breaking milestone will be the basis for faster networks and a better user experience for our customers," said Christian Gacon, vice president in charge of Orange's transport networks. "Bandwidth demands are continuing to skyrocket, but we also need to keep our infrastructure costs in check. Reaching these new heights in optical transmission proves we can meet bandwidth demand while maintaining the lowest cost per bit so our business can continue to flourish."

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