The trial took place in Villarceaux, Paris, at Alcatel-Lucent’s Innovation City campus, and saw the successful transmission of data at 31Tbps over 7200km – three times the capacity of the most advanced subsea cables, according to a statement from the company.
“Undersea fibre-optic transmission is integral to the digital economy, delivering vast amounts of video and data between countries, regions and continents,” said Philippe Keryer, chief strategy and innovation officer at Alcatel-Lucent.
“As our customers cope with increasing demand on their networks for data capacity and higher-speeds of transmission, our researchers are intensifying their application with tests like this to develop new technology solutions to transform global data networks.”
155 lasers were used in the trial, each operating at a different frequency and carrying 200Gbps over a 50GHz frequency grid.
This is designed to significantly enhance the performance of existing WDM systems which today operate at speeds of 100G.
The trial forms part of the company’s focus on research and development as announced in its Shift Plan earlier this year.
