CALGARY, ALTA – Think a 100G network is fast? That’s so two years ago. Shaw Communications, in conjunction with Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent, announced today it has completed a successful field trial – the first in North America – of 400 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) data transmission over an existing optical link carrying live network traffic.
The trial ran over a 400-kilometre route between Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta using Shaw’s current transport network, designed for speeds up to 100 Gbps. Using Alcatel-Lucent’s 1830 PSS with the 400G Photonic Service Engine (PSE), Shaw says the technology doubled the capacity of its existing high-capacity network to 17.6 Tbps during the trial. That’s the equivalent of 266 million voice calls or the transmission of 88 Blu-ray discs in one second.
Shaw hopes the 400 Gbps trial will lead to potentially offering customers new services, such as high-capacity data center connectivity, and more economical service delivery of streaming video, telepresence applications, and gaming.
“With the growing appetite for services and the proliferation over many different devices, including tablets and connected devices, we were looking for next-generation technologies to help us build a world-leading infrastructure capable of keeping up with broadband demands,” said Shaw Communications president Peter Bissonnette in a release. “Alcatel-Lucent's 400 Gbps technology enables us to continue our leadership within the telecommunications industry and reinforce our commitment to maintaining leading-edge high-speed Internet capability.”
The 400 Gbps technology was developed by Bell Labs, the research organization within Alcatel-Lucent, to address the growing demand for network bandwidth. Shaw says it is the first service provider in North America to trial 400 Gbps optical technology. This follows Alcatel-Lucent’s recent successful trial in France with France Telecom/Orange, which connected the cities of Paris and Lyon by a superfast, high-capacity 400G link.
