ADVA Optical Networking trials low-latency 100G as part of 100GET program

By Stephen Hardy -- ADVA Optical Networking (FSE: ADV) says it has joined with other members of the German 100GET (“Gigabit Ethernet Transport”) program to successfully trial a comparatively low-cost, low-latency 100-Gbps transmission format based on a direct detection approach.

The trial took place over a metro network of “a tier-one European carrier” whose identity ADVA Optical Networking declined to reveal. However, the original announcement of the 100GET program, which launched in 2008, stated the program would include a demonstration in Deutsche Telekom’s Open Environment for Advanced Carrier Ethernet Technologies (OCTET) testbed (see "ADVA helps define 100G in the metro through 100GET initiative").

The 100GET effort, funded by government agencies in Finland, France, Germany, and Sweden, aimed to create and demonstrate various 100-Gbps technologies. ADVA’s subproject, 100GET-Metro, sought a lower cost, less complicated 100-Gbps technology for metro networks than alternatives such as the dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) with coherent detection format that is the focus on the Optical Internetworking Forum’s 100G long-haul ecosystem effort. ADVA Optical Networking says the demonstration leveraged off-the-shelf components and a DPSK-3ASK modulation format.

The company has long stated its intention to release a “low cost” 100-Gbps product for metro and enterprise applications in addition to a coherent detection offering. In fact, ADVA CEO Brian Protiva told Lightwave late last year to expect such an announcement in the first half of 2011. Asked by Lightwave today if the 100GET technology would form the basis of this product, an ADVA source responded via email, ”We believe there is a market for non-coherent 100G solutions that address enterprise, metro, and regional applications. We will bring a commercial offering to market using the lessons learned from this trial.”

Berlin’s Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute, also participated in the 100GET-Metro project, as did Agilent Technologies, Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg, Universität Dortmund, University of Kiel - Christian Albrecht University, and VPIsystems. Overall, the 100GET projects were orchestrated by CELTIC (now Celtic-Plus), a European research-and-development consortium. Other system vendors in the project included Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia Siemens Networks (see "Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom report 100GET results").

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