Telstra, KT, Verizon and Telia Norway are among the CSPs who have conducted 1.6 TB tests
Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent optical transceiver, which supports network speeds up to 1.6 Tbps, became commercially available in the fall of 2024. A number of 1.6 TB tests and technology trials since then have signaled that a new era of network speeds (and the accompanying upgrades) are on the way, driven in part by the anticipated networking needs of artificial intelligence.
-Australia’s Telstra, working with Ciena and Ericsson, said last fall that it had conducted a successful 1.6 TB test via a single optical channel over 700 kilometers, as part of preparations to upgrade its long-haul infrastructure to support 800G connectivity, as well as to integrate the capability into its Telstra InfraCo intercity fiber network.
The trial was “was conducted alongside live traffic services across the central Telstra InfraCo fibre route between Melbourne and Canberra, which is one of the highest capacity routes in Australia,” according to a Ciena release. In terms of distance, the 1.6 TB test reached more than 200 km longer than the previous record for highest capacity on a single wavelength, the company added.
Telstra Fixed Engineering Executive Sanjay Nayak said that the 1.6 TB test reflected a 100% increase per channel capacity and a 14.3% increase in capacity per system. He compared the data flow achieved to more than 300,000 simultaneous Netflix HD streams, downloading 17 petabytes of data in a day (more than 5 billion songs).
-In November 2024, Verizon worked with Ciena on a 1.6 TB trial in Boston, Massachusetts. The network operator said that it moved 1.6 Tbps of data in its live fiber network on a single-carrier wavelength using Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme coherent optical transceiver.
Verizon said that upgrading to the new equipment would allow data to travel further and faster on its network, as well as result in “higher reliability and significant energy savings in that portion of the fiber network.”
At the time, Adam Koeppe, SVP of technology strategy and planning at Verizon, commented: “AI is contingent on analyzing billions of data points in real-time on an ongoing basis. Because of the massive, multi-year transformation on Verizon’s network including deploying cloud native architecture from the core to the edge, deploying massive amounts of high-performing spectrum, exponentially increasing the capacity of our fiber infrastructure and deploying advanced technologies and intelligence throughout the network, Verizon’s network provides the ability to power the processes and movements of AI-generated activity.
“This continued advancement of our fiber network will further position us to be the provider of choice for AI workloads now and in the future,” he added.
For context, Verizon was able to do similar testing for 800 Gbps on a single wavelength in 2020—so just four years later, the carrier was testing double that speed at 1.6 Tbps.
-In December 2024, Korean network operator KT announced plans to deploy Ciena’s 1.6 TB solutions in order to “accommodate ongoing customer demands for services beyond 400GbE.” KT had successful trial in which the operator transmitted and received data across its long-distance route between Seoul and Busan at 1.2 Tbps, and at 1.6 Tbps across its medium-distance route across Seoul and Cheonan.
KT plans to upgrade its backbone network with WL6e during the first half of 2025.
-Telia Norway and Ciena announced a groundbreaking 1.6 TB trial in the Nordics, which achieved 1.6 Tb/s through a single optical channel between Oslo and Trondheim over what Telia Norway said was one of the highest-capacity routes in the country. Norway has a fast-growing data center industry; Google just this month broke ground on its first data center there.
“Global businesses are increasingly seeing Norway as a highly desirable destination for constructing data centers, as we have an advantageous combination of affordable energy and favorable climate conditions,” said Georg Svendsen, CTO of Telia Norway. “This technology milestone with Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 shows our ability to build a more robust and scalable network that can handle growing bandwidth demands and help push forward Norway’s digital progress.”
The data traveled 656 kilometers at 1.6 Tbps, and Ciena said that it achieved a notable number of seven reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) along the route.
For insights on testing and assuring AI infrastructure, check out this RCR Wireless News webinar on-demand.
