[Image: Nokia]
The Finnish multinational telecom giant Nokia and the US-based fiber infrastructure provider Zayo announced that, in a recent field trial, they achieved a new North American record for 800 Gbit/s single-wavelength transmission. In the trial, the team sent a single 800G wavelength across a 1,866-km link from Los Angeles, CA, to El Paso, TX, error free and without the need for signal regeneration.
In a separate test, the companies achieved an even higher-capacity, 1 Tbit/s transmission across a shorter 1,004-km connection from Los Angeles to Phoenix, AZ, again without regeneration.
Coherent optics, low noise and error correction
The two firms attributed the successful test to a combination of Nokia’s most recent generation of coherent optics and what Zayo engineering SVP Aaron Werley, in a blog post, referred to as Zayo’s “ultra-clean, long-haul fiber optic network.” The trial employed Nokia’s sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine Super-Coherent (PSE-6s) optical engine, augmented by a custom algorithm that, according to Werley, “improves the optical signal-to-noise ratio.” The team also improved forward error correction to enable better reconstruction of the signal at the receiving end.
The 1,866-km test took place across 23 spans over a C+L wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) line system. While the fiber chain included multiple in-line amplifiers, Werley stressed that no signal regeneration was required across the entire transmission length. That’s important, Werley said, because regeneration—a “more invasive and digitally complex” error-correcting process involving terminating the signal, rebuilding it and regenerating a clean signal to be sent further—increases latency and cost.
Drawing on metaphors from American football, Aaron Werley, Zayo senior vice president of engineering, compared long-haul 800G communication without regeneration to a direct “long bomb” thrown deep for a touchdown—as opposed to repeated, less efficient plays relying on short-range “pitch passes” between regenerations. [Image: Zayo]
Zayo operates what the company calls “the largest and most modern 400G network,” and has been actively investing to build its optical-network capacity to “support transport of new 400GE and 800GE services.” In a joint press release, the companies maintained that the successful North American long-haul trials showcase the combined ability of Zayo’s long-haul network and Nokia’s new-generation coherent optics to provide “high-capacity solutions to keep up with soaring global traffic demand resulting from an increasingly digitalized world.”
Also at Nokia: Targeting defense business with NFS
In a separate announcement also tied to the North American market, Nokia unveiled a new business unit, Nokia Federal Solutions (NFS), that will focus on “delivering secure and innovative solutions to the US federal government.” The specific areas the unit will emphasize, according to Nokia, include “IP Routing, Optical Networking, Microwave, 5G, Private Wireless and Tactical Private Wireless.”
The company said the new NFS unit will “leverage Nokia’s global expertise and industry-leading technology portfolio underpinned by Nokia Bell Labs” to provide these services. Tommi Uitto, the president of mobile networks at Nokia, characterized the launch of NFS as “an important step in the development of our defense business.”
