Janet has completed a 100Gbits/s network trial, conducted over a 103km section of fibre between core network points of presence (PoPs) in London and Reading in April.
The fibre infrastructure and facilities were provided by Verizon Business, the supplier and operator of Janet's UK backbone network, with Nortel providing the 100Gbits/s optical technology and test equipment.
Jeremy Sharp, head of strategic technologies at Janet, said: 'While introducing 40Gbits/s technology was an important move that will support traffic growth over the next few years, it's envisaged that 100Gbits/s circuits may be required within the next two to three years in the busiest parts of the network.
'This trial is an important preparatory step towards doing this.' The Nortel 40G/100G adaptive optical engine technology used in the Janet trial automatically corrects for signal degradations due to fibre impairments that particularly manifest themselves at the higher speeds of 40Gbits/s and 100Gbits/s.
It is also designed to operate with compatible performance to today's 10Gbits/s networks, while increasing capacity ten-fold.
The system requires no expensive network re-engineering and can use existing assets, including in-ground fibre.
'With the Nortel-supplied 40Gbits/s already in operation on major long-distance routes, demonstrating the network's upgrade potential to 100Gbits/s and the ease with which it can be done shows how Janet can achieve a ten-fold increase in its network capacity without needing to lease and light fibres,' said Jamie Jefferies, leader of Metro Ethernet networks, EMEA, Nortel.
The trial consisted of a combination of existing 10Gbits/s and 40Gbits/s test traffic, with wavelengths set on either side of the 100Gbits/s traffic within a 50GHz grid.
External polarisation dispersion (PD has the effect of limiting fibre bandwidth) was added and exercised, and demonstrated the extra performance that the coherent optical receiver in the adaptive optical engine delivers.
Greater than 25ps dispersion was added, which resulted in error-free performance over the link.
