LONDON — Field trials in the UK by BT's research and technology business, BT Exact, and Siemens, have successfully demonstrated the transmission and switching of data at 160Gbit/s of over installed fibre.
The group, which developed the novel TD-OADM (Time Domain Add Drop Multiplexer) technology in collaboration with the Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, claim this is a record in ultra high speed switching of data over existing optical links.
The TD-OADM technology achieves these speeds by direct switching of ultra-narrow optical pulses. It enables the packaging of 16 separate data streams, one behind the other, instead of them running parallel on several frequencies.
The companies say this method saves both time and space and, if developed, could potentially reduce the cost of building future broadband networks.
The trials were carried out on a 280km-fibre link looped between Ipswich and Newmarket, and the group says they prove that the system is effective in real operating conditions.
The technology had already been tested in the laboratories of Siemens and the Technical University of Eindhoven.
Siemens researchers spent two years working on the EU-sponsored FASHION (UltraFast Switching in High-Speed OTDM Networks) project alongside BT Exact and TU Eindhoven's COBRA Institute in the Netherlands. The TD-OADM technology is seen as one of the most promising for future carrier bone networks.
Commenting on the trials, Dr. Gottfried Lehmann of Siemens Corporate Technology said: "If a distribution node is bombarded with bits at a rate of 160 billion per second, imagine how you'd cope with having to steer bits 1 and 15 to the right and the rest to the left in the node. The answer lies in an optical switch that filters out the individual bits with the aid of laser control pulses
Stewart Davies, chief executive of BT Exact, said: "The success of the TD-OADM field trial provides a critical insight into a future technology that could help us grow the capacity of BT's network quickly and economically as traffic grows."
