Coriant, Orange Claim C-band Transmission Record

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Coriant, a global supplier of SDN-enabled end-to-end transport networking solutions, and Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, today announced the completion of a multi-terabit field trial showcasing the latest advances in ultra-high-capacity optical communications technologies. In this record-breaking field trial, advanced technology researchers from Coriant and Orange successfully demonstrated the highest ever C-band transmission capacity using 16QAM (24 Tbps) and 64QAM (38.4 Tbps) modulation formats in a live networking environment. The companies also achieved a record-setting transmission reach of 762 kilometers using 32QAM modulation (32 Tbps) and 64QAM (38.4Tbps) in the same live environment, more than twice the distance of any previous field records for 32QAM, and the first ever regional transmission for 64QAM. These achievements represent an important milestone in the research and development of highly scalable, spectrally-efficient optical networking technologies optimized for future network growth.

The field trial, part of an ongoing technology collaboration, was conducted across a live G.652 fiber link in the Orange transport infrastructure connecting the cities of Lyon and Marseille in France. Surpassing previous industry records, the error-free super-channel transmission speeds and distances were achieved using advanced high-order modulation techniques, next-generation Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes developed by Coriant, advanced optical system features, and Coriant’s next-generation flexi-rate prototype technologies. Spectral efficiencies achieved during the field trial for the 24 Tbps (24x1Tbps/PM-16QAM), 32 Tbps (32x1Tbps/PM-32QAM), and 38.4 Tbps (32x1.2Tbps/PM-64QAM) super-channels were 5 bits/second/Hertz (b/s/Hz), 6.67 b/s/Hz, and 8 b/s/Hz respectively.

The trial, which took place in May, also marked the first ever demonstration of terabit super-channel transmission across a live network in France, as well as the first ever field demonstration of full flexi-rate and flexi-grid transmission – ranging from QPSK to 64QAM.

Throughout the course of the field trial, Coriant, Orange and others worked closely to successfully implement a wide variety of test scenarios aligned to current and future optical transmission applications. These test scenarios included a mix of transmission speeds and modulation formats such as QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 32QAM, and 64QAM. The flexi-rate applications demonstrated during the field trial were enabled by commercially-viable prototype technologies and Coriant CloudWave™ Optics, a versatile suite of software-programmable photonic layer technologies that brings a new level of flexibility, efficiency, and scalability to next-generation optical transmission networks.

“Innovative technologies such as software-programmable flexi-rate, flexi-grid, and super-channels will become increasingly important as demand for more agile and scalable optical transport networks continues to grow,” said Uwe Fischer, Chief Technology Officer, Coriant. “Our collaboration with Orange in the SASER Project with all the SASER partners has played an important role in advancing the state of research in these key technologies, while laying the groundwork for continued innovation in Coriant’s current and future product portfolio, including our CloudWave-enabled 400G flexi-rate offering.”

This field trial was conducted in cooperation with the Celtic-Plus SASER (SAfe and Secure European Routing) project and the IDEALIST (Industry-Driven Elastic and Adaptive Lambda Infrastructure for Service and Transport Networks) project, among others.

Coriant
Orange (NYSE: FTE)