Huawei flexes high-speed transport muscles in Monaco

Huawei has used this week’s WDM & Next Generation Optical Networks conference in Monaco to show off its high-speed transport chops. The company began the week with a series of 100-Gbps customer announcements, and is wrapping up the show with details of a pan-European 400-Gbps trial conducted with KPN International.

The customer announcements focused on Huawei’s success within the Commonwealth of Independent States. Rostelecom, MTS, and Beltelecom have all deployed Huawei’s coherent 100-Gbps technology, the company revealed (see, for example, "Beltelecom WDM network goes 100 Gbps with Huawei"). These deployments follow several similar roll outs in Europe with carriers such as KPN International, SFR, and TDC (see "KPN International deploys Huawei’s coherent 100-Gbps WDM system"). The platforms Huawei provided for all of these networks support OTN architectures that provide flexible service grooming and the horsepower to transmit over 2,500 km without electrical regeneration. The company says it has deployed more than 25 commercial and 50 trial 100G networks.

Which means it’s time to move to 400 Gbps. Huawei demonstrated a prototype 400-Gbps product at OFC/NFOEC this past March (see “Huawei offers next-gen tech guidance at OFC/NFOEC”). The recently completed field trial saw the construction of an OTN-based 400-Gbps network running 540 km from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf and back. To demonstrate the margin in the system, Huawei and KPN added 300 km in the end terminal station.

Huawei says the tests confirm the promise of the transmission method it plans to use. The next step is to continue testing with onboard DSP functionality.

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.