BT's tech boffins, joined by experts
from French company Alcatel-Lucent,
have set a new record for data
transfer speeds over fibre cables.
Peaking at 1.4Tb, the speeds were
achieved using commercial
hardware, suggesting that home
networks may be get similar
bandwidth in the future.
In October and November last year,
the two companies began to conduct
speed tests on a 410 kilometre
stretch of fibre cables between the
BT tower and the telecoms firm's
research centre in Suffolk.
They created the ominously
sounding 'Alien Super Channel',
composed of seven 200Gbps
channels bundled together using
'Flexible Grid Technology'. The
technology reduced the spacing
between the channels in the
transmission, from 50GHz to 35GHz,
and resulted in an increase in
efficiency of 42.5 per cent.
Better cables, lower costs
The speed of the transmission,
1.4Tbps, is fast enough to transmit
44 uncompressed High Definition
films every second.
BT is looking to the future of this
new technology, hoping that the
'Flexigrid' would increase the
company's capacity for data transfer
without having to lay more tracks of
fibre-optic cables. This in turn
would result in more value-per-
cable in BT's infrastructure and,
more importantly, would reduce the
expense for both the company and
the customer.
"Investing for the future is core to
BT's strategy and this outstanding
achievement demonstrates that BT
can easily introduce new features
and technologies across our core
network maximizing the efficiency of
our existing infrastructure," said Neil
J. McRae, chief network architect at
BT in a statement. "Working with
Alcatel-Lucent on this trial has been
highly productive in demonstrating
the viability of an alien wavelength
approach."
While it's doubtful that 1.4Tbps
speeds will be coming to our streets
and homes in the near future, BT's
announcement is encouraging,
especially as the rollout of superfast
internet throughout the country
picks up steam.
The test was carried out between
BT's central London tower and its
site in Ipswich
The "fastest ever" broadband speeds
have been achieved in a test in
London, raising hopes of more
efficient data transfer via existing
infrastructure.
Alcatel-Lucent and BT said speeds
of 1.4 terabits per second were
achieved during their joint test -
enough to send 44 uncompressed HD
films a second.
The test was conducted on a 410km
(255-mile) link between the BT
Tower in central London and Ipswich.
However, it may be many years
before consumers notice any effect.
But the breakthrough is being seen
as highly important for internet
service providers (ISPs), as it means
a greater amount of information can
be sent through existing broadband
infrastructure, reducing the need for
costly upgrades.
"BT and Alcatel-Lucent are making
more from what they've got,"
explained Oliver Johnson, chief
executive of broadband analyst firm
Point Topic.
"It allows them to increase their
capacity without having to spend
much more money."
Alcatel-Lucent told the BBC that the
demand for higher bandwidth grew
by around 35% every year, making
the need for more efficient ways to
transfer data a massively pressing
issue for ISPs, particularly with the
growing popularity of data-heavy
online services, such as film-
streaming website Netflix.
There are faster methods of
transmitting data - such as the use
of complex laser technology - but
this is the first test to achieve such
high speeds in "real world"
conditions, outside testing labs.
Rush-hour traffic
The high speeds were achieved using
existing fibre cable technology that
has already been installed in much of
the UK and other parts of the world.
Kevin Drury, optical marketing leader
at Alcatel-Lucent, likened the
development to reducing space
between lanes on a busy motorway,
enabling more lanes of traffic to flow
through the same area.
He said flexibility meant some could
be adapted to specific needs - like
opening an extra lane during the
morning rush hour.
In internet terms, this would mean,
for example, streaming video would
get a large, wide lane, while
accessing standard web pages would
need only a small part of the fibre's
capacity.
However, pushing more data through
fibre cables presents a challenge.
"The trade-off is, the more you
squeeze into a fibre line, the more
potential there is for interference and
for error," explained Mr Johnson.
"What has got better is the fact they
are able to pack these channels
closer together and into the same
space."
Alcatel-Lucent and BT said their test
demonstrated "stable, error-free
operation".
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