Huawei achieves 2Tbps connection speed over Vodafone network
updated 05:45 am EST, Fri January 25, 2013
German test connections used existing Vodafone Germany fiber
Huawei has successfully tested an optical fiber transmission over a live network, achieving speeds of 2Tbps. The terabit-connection speed tests were carried out over Vodafone's existing fiber network in Germany, and could potentially offer carriers a connection backbone that is twenty times that of commercial networks currently in operation.
The tests involved transmissions between machines 1500km (932 miles) and 3325km (2,066 miles) away from the source, with the connection itself passing through a number of cities across central and southern Germany. Multiple connection technologies were used, including super Soft-Decision FEC and flex modulation, which allowed the connection to go far above the typical 100Gbps capacity limits of existing backbones.
The achieved speed in the trial tops similar tests performed by ZTE last year, where the company demonstrated transfers at 1.7Tbps over a distance of 1,750km (1,087 miles). National carriers could end up using a combination of these technologies in order to provide faster bulk connection speeds between regions, though it is unlikely to reach home users in the near future. In June last year, Kabel Deutschland attained a 4.7Gbps download speed using consumer-grade equipment, by using a collection of 12 cable modems in concert. Though Kabel Deutschland managed to reach a higher speed than connections offered by Google Fiber, it was not a typical Internet connection setup used by its customers.
