Comcast has completed a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) technology test over its existing backbone infrastructure between Philadelphia and McLean, VA using the industry’s first 100GE router interface developed for the Cisco CRS-1 routing system.
The Cisco CRS-1 100GE interface uses Comcast’s existing optical infrastructure to enable transmission of 100GE over DWDM fiber optic networks. Cisco said the use of 100 Gigabit Ethernet router interfaces enables greater bandwidth per wavelength by a factor of 10 over the initial deployed capability. It also creates efficiencies by simplifying routing and operations through the use of statistically multiplexed 100GE links, in comparison to carrying the same amount of traffic split over more commonly used 10GE links.
Cisco also noted that the implementation tested by Comcast is consistent with the emerging IEEE 802.3ba 100GE standard and validates the use of 100GE and IPoDWDM technologies over Comcast’s own production network, which was the first, and is currently the world’s largest 40G IPoDWDM network.http://www.cisco.com
- In March 2008, Comcast conducted a test of Nortel’s 100 Gbps line rate optical transmission solution at the 71st meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference, which was held in Philadelphia. The 100G solution ran over Comcast’s existing fiber network. The test network was comprised of Comcast’s existing Common Photonic Layer DWDM solution with 50GHz enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (eROADM) and photonic components, augmented with prototype 100G interfaces installed in Nortel’s Optical Multiservice Edge 6500. The 100G cards utilize Nortel’s 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine, with integrated dispersion compensation and dual-polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, the same technology used in Nortel’s present 40G solution. The 100G trial runs from Philadelphia to McLean (Virginia), traversing Comcast’s metro and long-haul fibers. The companies said Comcast’s network trial was the first time real traffic is run over a 100G wavelength on its existing network. The network also carried live 10G and 40G links. The trial ran in parallel over the same optical infrastructure that supports a combination of high definition or HD video, Internet and voice traffic on Comcast’s 40G national backbone network.