Alcatel-Lucent Expands its 100G Reach

Alcatel-Lucent announced a series of improvements to its single-carrier, 100G coherent technology that enables optical waves to travel up to 30% farther, even over poor quality fiber, while opening up many more use cases for 100G optical transport links.


The gains, which are achieved using improved signal processing algorithms developed by Bell Labs for overcoming impairments in the fiber, are being delivered in a 100G eXtended Reach (XR) card for the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS). The platform is now able to transmit a combination of 10G, 40G and 100G rates on different wavelengths of an optical fiber for up to 2000 kilometers and beyond -- representing up to a 30 percent increase in reach.


Whereas initial deployments of 100G have been in point-to-point trunks over the highest quality fiber, the new card enables more complex use cases, include 100G over meshed topologies, "alien" lines where other vendors are present, or ultra long haul spans.


Australia's Nextgen Networks is one of the first customers.


"We currently have more than 40 customers using our current 100G single carrier, coherent optical solution and we've used this experience to create a premium offering with improved performance, well before our competitors have even delivered their first-generation product. We are encouraging the acceleration of 100G by alleviating the distance and underlying fiber barriers and allowing any service provider in the world to deploy 100G precisely where they need it, with no trade off in capacity," stated James Watt, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Optics Division.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com