Telefonica demos 10-Tbps superchannel transmission with Infinera

Telefónica (NYSE:TEF) and Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) say they have successfully demonstrated the use of superchannels to transmit 10 Tbps on a single fiber. The “Terabit Technology Showcase” leveraged technology from both parties.

Specifically, the showcase combined Infinera’s FlexCoherent technology to create quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 16-QAM superchannels with Telefónica I+D’s Flexi-Grid standards-based GMPLS control plane. The 10 Tbps of capacity came in the form of ten 1-Tbps superchannels developed through Infinera’s technology. Meanwhile, Telefónica’s prototype Flexi-Grid GMPLS control plane was used to demonstrate rapid service deployment, robust protection, and ease-of-use. The two parties point out that GMPLS-based control plane are currently a focus of standardization within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards committees.

"Infinera’s 10-terabit superchannel transmission and flexible grid transmission have been successfully tested in Telefónica I+D labs,” said Juan Fernandez-Palacios, head of Core Network Evolution at Telefónica I+D-GCTO Unit. "This demonstration shows a promising path to higher capacity and cost-effective optical transmission beyond 100 Gbps."

"We are extremely pleased with the results of our Terabit Technology Showcase with Telefónica," said Dave Welch, co-founder, executive vice president, and chief strategy officer at Infinera. "This demonstration is another proof point that Infinera’s Digital Optical Network solution with photonic integrated circuits is the foundation of next-generation optical networks growing beyond 100G.”

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