The massive bandwidth demands driven by artificial intelligence (AI), user-generated content, augmented and virtual reality, cloud computing and streaming video means that network providers need to step up with more capable and faster networks.
In its response to these demands, US comms giant AT&T said it has achieved a significant technology milestone demonstrating that its US-wide software-centric network is ready for the future , having completed testing of a 1.6 terabit-per-second single-carrier wavelength across its commercial long-distance network.
The trial aimed to demonstrate AT&T’s intent to lead the industry in providing next-generation speeds, enabling customers to take full advantage of AI and helping them to transform how they do business.
It took place over a 296-km route spanning Newark, New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on AT&T’s existing long-haul fibre network. In what it claims as an industry first, the 1.6Tbps wavelength, four times the speed of current 400Gbps wavelengths, carried two IEEE standards-based 800 Gigabit Ethernet1 end-to-end circuits.
Mike Satterlee, AT&T vice-president of network infrastructure and services, said: “Traffic on AT&T’s network continues to increase as consumers are using more connected devices. We anticipate network traffic growth to double by 2028, and the technologies demonstrated in this trial will play a key role in AT&T’s efforts to keep up with increasing customer demand to send data, watch videos and use streaming services.”
The single-carrier 1.6 Tbps wavelength was transported alongside existing live customer traffic on 100Gbps and 400Gbps wavelengths. The link offered “a full, uninterrupted data path” utilising a single light frequency across the entire fibre length between two points.
Open-sourced white box switches acted as network equipment during the trial. The white boxes were designed using the Broadcom Jericho3 packet processor chip and can provide up to 18 x 800G network interface ports all within a 2RU platform.
The DriveNets Network Cloud software-based solution is hardware-agnostic and runs open APIs on the white boxes to perform data and control plane functions, including routing at 800G. The use of white boxes and the disaggregation of the hardware and software controls costs and facilitates faster innovation.
The two 800GbE signals from the white box were multiplexed to 1.6 Tbps in WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent optical transponder from tech provider Ciena, which is claimed to be the first coherent optical solution to use a 200 Gbaud design and 3nm coherent DSP ASIC and to reach speeds up to 1.6 Tbps on a single carrier.
The WL6e technology is designed to reduce the space and power per transmitted bit by 50% compared with current 800G transponders. This trial was also the first to demonstrate WL6e at 1.6Tbps with standards-compliant 800GbE clients.
In the Newark and Philadelphia offices, 800G DR8 pluggable transceivers from Coherent were installed in the white box router and WL6e transponder to create cross-office connectivity between the packet and optical technologies.
Meanwhile, 800GbE client signals, provided by a Keysight AresOne-M 800GE test set, fed the white box through additional pairs of 800G DR8 pluggable client optics, allowing verification of end-to-end performance of the two 800GbE services from Newark to Philadelphia.
