Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and DANTE (Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe) have been able to install and activate 2 Terabits per second (Tb/s) of long haul super-channel optical capacity and provision a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) service over the GéANT production network in less than twelve minutes from plugging in the first line card.
The demonstration was carried out using production DTN-X platforms and deployed on the GéANT backbone, using a long distance link from Amsterdam, Holland to Frankfurt, Germany, a distance of 671km, including 10 fiber spans. First the 2Tb/s of line side capacity was activated and then the 100 GbE service was deployed as part of the test to show that the capacity was immediately available for service.
"When Infinera was involved in the procurement process for the GéANT backbone they made a number of claims about their ability to turn up long haul capacity very rapidly, and we decided to put those claims to the test," said Michael Enrico, CTO of DANTE. "The fact is that critical science experiments across Europe are generating immense quantities of data that are often difficult to fit into a forecasting process, so this ability to turn up, or redirect long haul capacity in a matter of minutes will help us transform the service we offer to our National Research and Education Network partners."
The trial involved lighting up four 500Gb/s super-channels, and then provisioning a 100GbE service across the link.
"This was a genuine test of our rapid provisioning capability, using real production equipment and software," said Geoff Bennett, director of Solutions and Technology at Infinera. "If we would have used conventional 100G transponders we would need a total of 40 of them - 20 at each end. But the Infinera 500G solution allows an engineer to turn up five times as much capacity in a single operational cycle - and that's the key to the value of coherent super-channels."
The Amsterdam-Frankfurt link was selected because this route is one of the busiest in Europe. This link is now in service with the DTN-X and carrying production traffic for the European NREN community.
