Ericsson AB announced Sunday that it's run a 1Tbit/s trial for Telstra Corp. Ltd., using a previously installed 995km link between Sydney and Melbourne.The test had 1Tbit/s channels running alongside 40Gbit/s and 100Gbit/s channels, Telstra said in Ericsson's press release. Telstra is an announced customer for Ericsson's SPO 1400 packet-optical transport system (P-OTS) for the metro and its MHL 3000 for 100Gbit/s long-haul transport.Why this matters
What would OFC/NFOEC (which began Sunday in Anaheim, Calif.) be without some terabit? It's true 400Gbit/s is the next speed grade for optical and Ethernet standards. But this trial hints that 1Tbit/s could be within reach when the time comes; the test might have been run under partially idealized conditions, but it ran on an existing network, not in the lab. It also shows that some carriers are interested in seeing what 1Tbit/s can do. It wouldn't be surprising to hear more such announcements out of OFC/NFOEC this week, considering Ericsson and others were showing off the technology last year. (See Ericsson Builds a Terabit.)For more

Keep up with all our OFC/NFOEC coverage at http://www.lightreading.com/ofc-nfoec.— Craig Matsumoto, Managing Editor, Light Reading