Infinera and DANTE, the European advanced technology research network organization, successfully demonstrated a single card terabit super-channel on an active segment of GÉANT’s production network between Budapest, Hungary and Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
The demonstration showed for the first time how a single photonic integrated circuit (PIC) can enable more than a terabit of super-channel coherent capacity from a single line card with a single fiber connector.
Infinera said the demonstration illustrated how the single card could plug into the existing line card slot of the Infinera DTN-X packet optical networking platform, which will be able to upgrade service to 1.2 Tb/s per slot in the future with a total of 12 Tb/s of non-blocking switching capacity in a single rack. This design is intended to provide forward-scale to support up to twelve 100 GbE interfaces or three of the emerging 400 GbE per 1.2Tb/s slot in the future, and the DTN-X will be able to support up to ten of these slots per chassis. In addition to the 12 Tb/s in a single bay, the DTN-X platform is designed to scale up to 240 Tb/s of non-blocking capacity managed as a single large switch.
“This is not only a single line card super-channel — it is also a single chip super-channel,” said Geoff Bennett, Director of Solutions and Technology at Infinera. “Large scale PIC technology is fundamental to making terabit scale super-channels a practical reality. The small footprint of the terabit scale PIC means we will be able to more than double the capacity of our line cards and our DTN-X chassis in the same rack space; and for all of the DTN-X customers around the world that means they can more easily scale to meet the ever-growing demand from the Internet.”
“This is a great example of how the GÉANT network facilitates the innovation of new networking technologies, helping to shape the Internet of today and tomorrow,” said Michael Enrico, CTO of DANTE. “This prototype service from Infinera will help us to continue to support the ever growing needs of our NREN (National Research and Education Network) partners and the research and education communities we all serve.”
