SURF, the collaborative organization for IT in Dutch education and research, and Nokia have completed an 800G trial over an existing fiber link connecting research facilities at Nikhef, CERN, and SURF in anticipation of CERN’s upgrades to its Large Hadron Collider.
A higher capacity network is needed to upgrade the CERN particle accelerator. This will enable better research and grow data sets by approximately a factor of five, which could fuel new discoveries in fundamental physics beyond 2029.
Based on Nokia’s photonic service engine technology, the transmission will help accelerate the massive data exchange between the CERN particle accelerator and the NL Tier-1 (NL T1) research IT facilities at SURF and Nikhef, the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics. By reaching 800 Gbps per channel on older fiber varieties, Nokia and SURF prove that existing infrastructure still has tremendous potential and that legacy optical fibers can meet future capacity demands of the vast data streams of international scientific research instruments.
The SURF network is also well connected to other research networks and experiments worldwide, including the LHC Optical Private Network (LHCOPN). The LHCOPN provides access to data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. For this trial, CERN, Nikhef, SURF, and the ATLAS LHC experiment have collaborated to include real production workflows that are expected when the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is operational.
Leverage and extend
The trial was conducted over a 1648 km point-to-point fiber link connecting Amsterdam and Geneva, crossing Belgium and France. The fiber link is part of the SURF-network, which connects national research and education institutes in the Netherlands, such as Nikhef.
Nokia’s sixth-generation super-coherent Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) was deployed on the Amsterdam-Geneva link, in combination with SURF's line system and equipment from a third party on an older fiber link.
According to Nokia and SURF, the trial showed how the partners achieved 800 Gbps transmission using 16QAM-shaped PCS modulation. Together, Nokia and SURF demonstrated the capacity and performance of their solutions and the potential for SURF to increase the capacity and efficiency of its existing network.
Meeting future needs
Set to become operational in 2029, SURF is preparing its network for CERN’s LHC upgrade to the HL-LHC. The LHC's discovery of the Higgs boson has already opened up a new understanding of the universe. Participants expect the future HL-LHC will reveal even deeper insights into the cosmos's fundamental building blocks.
This upgrade will not only provide more insightful research results and improve the potential for discoveries, but it will also produce enormous amounts of scientific data. The HL-LHC is expected to generate data at a rate of five times the speed of its predecessor.
This will rely on advances in SURF’s high-performance network, as demonstrated in this trial, to enable fast and reliable data transfer to the NL T1 for further scientific exploration.
“This trial is an important milestone for us as we prepare our network for the future demands of scientific research and education, including upgrading CERN’s particle accelerator,” said Ron Augustus, Chief Innovation Officer and member of the Board at SURF. “By emphasizing testing and adopting advanced technology, SURF ensures optimal service and support for its research partners' innovative, data-heavy projects and applications.”
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