Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN) says it was able to transmit a single-wavelength 800-Gbps transmission at 96 Gbaud over 950 km of a live network of what the company termed “a major North American network operator.” The ability to transmit 800G over such distances using the sixth generation of Infinera’s Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6) opens the door for more rapid and ubiquitous use of such transmission rates, a company spokesman said.
The network trial news follows Infinera’s announcement earlier this month that it had sent a similar 800G transmission across 800 km of Corning’s high-end TXF optical fiber in a lab setting (see “Infinera, Corning drive 800G wavelength 800 km using ICE6 coherent engine”). According to Rob Shore, senior vice president of marketing at Infinera, the lab tests only reached 800 km because that was the amount of fiber Corning had provided. (More lab tests with a greater amount of TXF fiber are planned, Shore said.) With the possibility of stretching farther than 800 km, Infinera sought a nationwide network operator using standard fiber to see how well the ICE6 would perform in the field. The 950-km result came with the ICE6 transmission running through a third-party line system over G.652 fiber, Shore said. A production sled with the ICE6 – which Shore notes can enable two 800-Gbps transmissions – was loaded into Groove (GX) Series platforms for the trial.