Tag Archive for Alcatel-Lucent

| January 28, 2014
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Alien Super Channels Set Record

Alien Super Channels Set RecordResearchers have used alien technology to demo a broadband technology that can hit 1.4 terabits per second. That is enough to send 44 high-definition movies in just one second over the existing fiber network in London according to TechEye. A team from BT (BT) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) developed new infrastructure.

British Telecom logoThe BBC explained that the researchers used a new “flexigrid” infrastructure. Flexigrid created an “alien super channel.” The alien super channel was made of seven 200 Gbps channels, to vary the gaps between transmission channels. Increasing the channels’ density resulted in a 42.5% increase in the efficiency of data transmission compared with current networks.

Like adding more lanes of traffic

Kevin Drury, optical marketing leader at AlcaLu, told BBC news that the test was aimed at reducing space between lanes on a busy highway. He claims it is like adding more lanes of traffic to flow through the same path. He said that while wide lines can encompass heavy data transfers such as streaming video, narrow lanes would be assigned for low-data transfers such as standard web pages.

increase in the efficiency of data transmissionThe test was conducted on a 255-mile (410km) fiber link between the BT Tower in central London and BT’s Adastral Park research center in Suffolk. BT thinks it could help it to meet consumer and business demand for increased bandwidth.

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Unfortunately, the mega-speed BT’s aliens developed is all backbone and core network stuff. It will not change the speeds we the people will get at home.

Am I the only one that has noticed that none of the new broadband speed records do not happen in the U.S.? The power of monopoly.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| August 1, 2013
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ALU Gets 31 Tbps

ALU Gets 31 TbpsDavid Meyer at GigaOM noted the latest tests by Alcatel-Lucent’s (ALU) venerable Bell Labs division. The lab has figured out how to increase the bandwidth of submarine cables by a factor of three. They were able to move traffic at 31 Terabits per second (Tbps).

Alcatel-Lucent logoAlcatel-Lucent says it has broken the record for the amount of data that can be pushed through submarine cables. They claim to have achieved 31 Terabits per second over a single fiber that’s 4,474 miles long. For comparison, the Register figured that the average 15 minute, low-res movie is about 100Mb in size. They calculate that the new cable could speed 40,632 flix across the Atlantic every second. That would be enough for 423 days and nights of non-stop video viewing – in just one second.

It is important to remember we’re talking about a lab test. The test took place at ALU’s Innovation City campus in Villarceaux near Paris. The GigaOm article notes that the researchers with Bell Labs squeezed almost 10 Tbps more out of the fiber than the 21.7Tbps that NEC (6701) and Verizon (VZ) managed last year. This is three times roomier than in today’s most advanced commercial undersea cables.

Transoceanic cable

transoceanic cableThe author points out that that’s just one fiber and a transoceanic cable may have eight pairs of fibers. Again, this is a lot of capacity. However, it’s also worth noting that Alcatel-Lucent’s tests required a signal amplifier every 100km along the line.

The article claims that ALU’s Bell Labs division has done this type of research since 1925 in New Jersey. This type of work is more critical to ALU than ever. In June 2013, Alcatel-Lucent announced its “Shift Plan”, which involves moving away from being a telecoms equipment generalist. They want to be a specialist in IP networking and mobile and fixed broadband access. Philippe Keryer, Alcatel-Lucent’s chief strategy, and innovation officer said in a statement:

Undersea fiber-optic transmission is integral to the digital economy, delivering vast amounts of video and data between countries, regions and continents. As our customers cope with increasing demand on their networks for data capacity and higher-speeds of transmission, our researchers are intensifying their application with tests like this to develop new technology solutions to transform global data networks.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM)Mr. Meyer explains the test used Bell Labs’s technique for squeezing 200Gbps through a single data channel. It used 155 lasers, each one carrying 200Gbps at a different frequency. This represents an enhancement to the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques that run at up to 100Gbps in today’s commercially deployed cable.

Normally such signals suffer from distortions and noise, which limit performance. But GigaOM understands that Alcatel-Lucent was able to resolve this by using an enhanced version of WDM. The enhanced WDM works by splitting light up into different wavelengths so that it can carry more data.

Long-haul high-speed networking

Increasing bandwidthThe pace of development in the long-haul high-speed networking field is impressive. It’s easy to see just how far we’ve come. GigaOM provided a quick look at some of the other recent developments in long-haul high-speed networking.

  • May 2011 a team of German, UK, and Swiss scientists successfully used Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to send data at a rate of 26Tbps over a 50km long single-mode fiber optic cable.
  • January 2012 a Japanese team working out of NEC successfully transmitted 4Tbps over a single “ultra-long haul” (10,000km) fiber optic cable without repeaters by making use of WDM just like Alcatel-Lucent.
  • May 2013 a more exotic approach with the UK test of hollow fiber optic cable that delivered speeds of 73.7 Tbps.

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Remember that the NSA has a submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter designed to tap undersea telecom cables on the bottom of the sea. This new speed record could be used to spy on more people.

 The Undersea Cables that Connect the World

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 30, 2013
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When GigE is not enough

When GigE is not enoughNew research at Alcatel-Lucent‘s (ALU) Bell Labs moves the speedometer up to 400 Gbps. Jordan Novet explains in the GigaOm article, A gigabit is not enough. New research takes us to 400 Gbps. According to the article, the Bell Lab researchers have figured out a way to cancel out the noise inside fiber data transmission. They cancel the noise, in the same way, your Bose noise-canceling     headphones work, by sending more information to counter the noise of the crying kid in 4-C on Flight 1501.

Phase conjugation sends “twin waves” of light down the fiber in opposing phases,The Bell Labs team calls this “phase conjugation.” According to Nature Photonics (rb- it will cost you $32.00 the read the actual article), this means sending two streams of data through a single fiber-optic pipe. Phase conjugation sends “twin waves” of light (information) down the fiber in opposing phases, rather than just one. Both streams are pulled back together at the destination to compare the streams and remove the noise. The clean output lets Bell Labs crank up the power to drive the signal at higher speeds further.

Mr. Novet explains that the pairing of signals, in essence, cancels out the ups and downs, peaks and troughs, in physics terms, of data. That means the signal-to-noise ratio improves, which lets fiber optic communications travel farther without more gear along the way to boost the signal. The researchers used this technique to do 400 Gbps across the record distance Fiber optic cableof over 7,900 miles.

Lead author Dr. Xiang Liu told BBC News, “This concept, looking back, is quite easy to understand, but surprisingly, nobody did this before.”

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Most of the articles are impressed with the distance the Bell Labs researchers were able to achieve. Phase conjugation may eventually allow telcos to deploy trans-continental links or undersea links without having to deploy mid-span signal re-generators.

Deep sea diverThe GigaOm article points out that speeds faster than 400 Gbps are not unheard of. I have covered the increasing speeds here, here, and here. GigaOm points out that researchers have managed to send data at speeds exceeding 100 terabits per second, although it wasn’t clear how far the speeds could be sustained. Last year Verizon clocked in at 21.7 terabits per second across more than 900 miles of broadband with the help of NEC’s “superchannels.”

The Bell Labs researchers have taken a different tack.  This is a huge deal because it looks like it’s possible to get higher speeds without replacing hardware at the bottom of the sea.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| April 4, 2013
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France Gets a 400 Gbps Fiber Link

France Gets a 400 Gbps Fiber LinkDavid Meyer at GigaOm chronicles the latest jump in real-world networking. According to the article, Orange and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) have lit a 400 Gbps fiber link across the French countryside. This link is the first working deployment of long-distance 400 Gbps wavelength fiber connectivity.

France Telecom- OrangeIn keeping with Bach Seat’s policy of covering real-world networking, GigaOm says this is the first field implementation. Struggling network gear maker Alcatel-Lucent and France Telecom-Orange (FTE) have deployed a long-distance terrestrial 400 Gbps optical fiber link that uses 44 such wavelengths to move an amazing (for now at least) 17.6 terabits per second (Tbps) of aggregate traffic.

GigaOM speculates moving this amount of traffic will be popular with telecoms operators. Telco networks are always facing a capacity crunch, mainly thanks to the explosion in the cloud and online video.

Alcatel-Lucent’sThe 275 miles (450km) link between Paris and Lyon, relies on Alcatel-Lucent’s 400 Gbps Photonic Service Engine. The article reports that the first tester is the French educational and research network Renater. The early use cases for this bump up from now-standard 100 Gbps wavelength technology will most likely be found in business and research, for services such as video on demand and telepresence that will make good use of the boosted bandwidth.

“This link transports the bulk of France’s scientific data that passes through our network,” Renater MD Patrick Donath said in a statement. “This pilot phase also aims to test the latest switching equipment supplied by major OEMs on a network running at this capacity and will enable us the anticipate the architecture of Renater’s network in the coming years.”

“A 400 Gbps network is an important step forward for the networks and research projects of tomorrow.”

Related articles
  • Submarine Capacity Quadruples (dailywireless.org)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 3, 2012
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DT Does 512 Gbps Data Transmission

DT Does 512 Gbps Data TransmissionDeutsche Telekom set a new data transmission speed record. They set the record by pumping 512 Gigabits per second over 456 miles. DT used a single 100 GHz wavelength channel over optical fiber according to at GigaOm. The Berlin-based T-Labs OSIRIS (Optically Supported IP Router Interfaces) research project sent 512 Gbps down each channel of a production network from Berlin to Hannover and back again. The usable data rate was 400 Gbps, overhead takes up the rest.

What is DWDMSince each fiber strand can carry up to 48 wavelengths in the case of the T-Labs system. T-Labs’ new tech should mean a staggering 24.6 Tbps (terabytes per second) max throughput for each optical fiber. “When using all of the channels of an optical fiber … the new process permits a throughput of up to 24.6 Tbit/s (24,600,000,000,000 bit/s) to be attained on the maximum of 48 available channels,”  T-Labs Manager Heinrich Arnold told TechWeek Europe. GigaOm says that “a collection of 3,696 CDs could thus be transferred over a single optical fiber at the same time” using the new technique.

T-Labs says existing networks don’t need cable replacements to take advantage of the new speeds The firm achieved the new bandwidth record by using new technologies developed with Alcatel-Lucent (ALU). The new AlcaLu gear was installed in the terminal stations at either end of the fiber.

QAM 16The BBC says that much of the speed gain came through improvements to the software used for forward error correction (FEC). TechWeek Europe says DT also used other creative transmission technologies. They used two carrier frequencies, two polarization planes, 16-QAM quadrature amplitude modulation. “You can imagine it as squeezing and tilting the entire set-up around to get more capacity out,” Mr. Arnold told the BBC.

But there are still an awful lot of copper-based networks in existence, The high value of copper makes copper-based networks vulnerable to copper theft. Also, despite advances in Copper such as ADSL2+ and VDSL2 (which I wrote about here and here) fiber is a much more “future proof” material.

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Ronnie Reagan thumbs up for high speed data

Ronnie thumbs up for high-speed data

Do the screaming hot network happy dance, the usable per-channel bit-rate is 400 Gbps, 4x the maximum bit-rate in today’s 100 Gbps per channel state-of-the-art networks, which is a huge capacity boost. This is more than double the 186 Gbps record set by researchers in the US and Canada last year (Which I wrote about here). This tech will most likely be deployed by the Telco’s and Cableco’s who need to support an FTTx strategy, it’s gonna be a long time until these speeds reach most enterprises.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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