{"id":11781,"date":"2016-05-25T17:08:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T16:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=11781"},"modified":"2016-05-25T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T16:12:26","slug":"bt-trials-2tbps-and-5-6tbps-speeds-on-fibre-optic-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/05\/bt-trials-2tbps-and-5-6tbps-speeds-on-fibre-optic-link.html","title":{"rendered":"BT Trial 5.6Tbps on a Single Optical Fibre and 2Tbps on a Live Core Link"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telecoms operator BT<\/a> and Chinese technology firm Huawei have announced that they’ve successfully run two new fibre optic network trials, one that delivered 2Tbps (Terabits per second) over a 727km live core network link (London to Dublin) and another that pushed 5.6Tbps via a single optical fibre.<\/p>\n

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The developments mark a leap forward from the operator’s last closed network trial in October 2014 (here<\/a>), which at the time claimed to have harnessed a “record spectral efficiency<\/em>” of 5.97bit\/s\/Hz in order to deliver super channel speeds of 3Tbps (Terabits per second) over an existing 359km long fibre optic link using commercial grade hardware and software in a real world environment.<\/p>\n

Crucially the latest 727km long 2Tbps<\/strong> trial sees BT<\/a> successfully applying the same technology to their commercial fibre link, which is carrying live customer traffic between London and Dublin. Meanwhile the new 5.6Tbps<\/strong> trial is more akin to the original closed network test conducted in 2014, although it’s an example of what we could be seeing in the near future.<\/p>\n

The clear advantage of upgrades like this is that they can be done without needing to lay new fibre optic cables, which is usually a heck of a lot cheaper.<\/p>\n

Howard Watson, CEO of BT<\/a> Technology and Service, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“BT scientists built the first commercial single mode optical fibre link back in 1984 and the BT Labs remain at the forefront of photonics research more than thirty years later.<\/p>\n

The core network is the superhighway of the internet. It\u2019s important that our core networks keep pace with the growth in bandwidth demands driven by take-up of high-speed fibre broadband, HD content, 4G<\/a> smartphones and tablets and in the future, 5G<\/a> services.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re investing in our core, as well as in high-speed access technology such as fibre broadband, to make sure there is no capacity crunch and deliver the best possible speeds to customers.<\/p>\n

These landmark trials show that we can easily turn up the dial to deliver the speeds needed in our core networks to stay well ahead of rising customer demand.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sadly BT doesn’t yet apply the same logic to domestic connections, where the copper cables in their hybrid fibre FTTC<\/a> and G.fast<\/a> broadband diet are still the main limitation and require a lot of upgrading in order for the services to keep pace with rising demands.<\/p>\n

Deploying pure fibre optic cables to individual premises would be a lot more future proof and BT does intend to deliver over 2 million ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premise<\/strong> (FTTP<\/a>) lines within the next few years, although that’s only a small part of their overall network.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately going further with FTTP<\/a> would also take many years longer and require many billions more in investment, which is very difficult for the operator to justify to their shareholders.<\/p>\n

Other Technical Trial Facts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n