GlobalConnect tests 400G coherent transmission with metro

GlobalConnect, which owns a 42,000 km fiber network and 18,000 sqm high-security data center space in Northern Europe, competed a field trial demonstrating 400 Gbps coherent transmission over a 50 gigahertz (GHz) fixed grid metro transport network concurrently with pre-existing 10G channels.

The trial was conducted over a live GlobalConnect optical link in the Oslo metropolitan area using the Infinera Groove G30 Compact Modular Platform. The trial demonstrated seamless interoperability with deployed metro transport infrastructure. The error-free testing included multiple 300G and 400G alien wavelength transmission use cases over a live metro network link originally designed for and currently running 10G wavelengths using on-off keying (OOK) modulation technology.

The companies said the field trial showcased the ability to boost the capacity of a 10G-engineered OOK-based network by going from 10G to 400G per wavelength, thus increasing the fiber capacity to 32 terabits on an existing 50 GHz fixed grid metro network.

“With the explosive growth in data traffic and acceleration of digital transformation, optical network flexibility and scalability remain critical to our ability to be responsive to our customers’ evolving communications needs,” said Anders Kuhn Saaby, CTO, GlobalConnect. “We remain committed to advancing our fiber infrastructure with cutting-edge technologies to keep pace with growing capacity demands and allow us to expand our addressable market.”

The Infinera Groove G30 is an open, disaggregated networking solution designed to be compatible with third-party optical line systems and diverse network environments, including conventional 10G-engineered non-coherent metro networks designed with OOK, a legacy transport technology that poses limitations for upgrading to higher-capacity wavelengths.

https://www.infinera.com/press-release/Infinera-and-GlobalConnect-Complete-Successful-400G-Coherent-Transmission-Field-Trial