Telstra’s transmission network in Melbourne could deliver speeds of up to 30.4 terabits per second per fibre pair after an upgrade program is completed.
Speeds of up to 400 gigabits per second over 61.5GHz of spectrum were reached during a Melbourne-based trial using technology from Ciena.
Telstra, Ericsson and Ciena partnered for the trial of Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai modem technology, which is controlled by the company’s Blue Planet MCP domain controller and Liquid Spectrum applications.
Telstra is rolling out the technology as part of an upgrade of its long haul, metro and regional networks, which forms part of the company’s Networks of the Future program.
“Over the next five years we forecast traffic on our network will grow by five times,” Telstra’s director of IP and transport engineering David Robertson said in a statement.
“We are investing in our network and developing these innovations to meet this growing demand by providing unprecedented levels of scale, automation and intelligence.
“This technology will be deployed in our domestic transmission network and we will look for opportunities to use it in Telstra’s international subsea cable network, which is the largest in the Asia-Pacific region.”
(The telco earlier this week detailed its investment in the Hong Kong Americas (HKA) cable and the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN); but subsea cables will connect Hong Kong to the west coast of the United States.)
‘Networks of the Future’ is a key component of the Telstra’s capital investment program detailed by CEO Andy Penn.
Ericsson is upgrading Telstra’s optical fibre networks under a three-year contract.