Recently, Nokia and the world’s leading Emirates Telecom Company completed the world’s first single-carrier terabit-level field test on the existing fiber-optic network, setting a new record for fiber transmission capacity.

Bandwidth is too terabit per second, meaning that the entire HD version of Game of Thrones can be downloaded in less than 2 seconds. Recently, Emirates Telecom is investing heavily in its core network infrastructure to prepare for the upcoming growth of high-bandwidth services.

Nokia’s field trials have proven that Emirates Telecom’s existing network can support higher optical wavelength bit rates for high-bandwidth services such as 5G Extreme Mobile Broadband, Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) cloud services. Higher single-wavelength bit rates save power and space compared to optical networks consisting of low-rate channels, simplifying the network, increasing spectral efficiency and capacity, and ultimately reducing cost per bit.

The test was completed on the optical path of the UAE Telecom Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) network with a length of 93 km. The transmission rate of 50.8 Tbps was achieved through multiple wavelengths, and the net information rate per wavelength reached 1.3 Tbps, a record high. With a single fiber carrier with a transmission rate of 100 gigabaud, the terabit wavelength can be intelligently shaped using Bell Labs’ Probabilistic Constellation Shaping (PCS) technology to achieve maximum capacity for a particular optical path. Nokia’s third-generation photonics business engine is the first coherent digital signal processor for probabilistic constellation shaping technology and is now used in the Nokia 1830 portfolio.

Esmaeel Alhammadi, Senior Vice President, Telecom Networks Development, Emirates, said: “We are pleased to work with Bell Labs. This trial demonstrates that our optical network supports single-wavelength 1 Tbps transmission rates and enables single fibers to exceed 50 Tbps.  Transmission capacity. As network capacity increases, we will be able to offer high-bandwidth services such as 5G mobile broadband, fiber-to-the-home and enterprise DCI.”

Sam Bucci, president of Nokia’s Optical Network Division, said: “The implementation of 5G requires a network that can dynamically support bandwidth growth. This test is a milestone, and it also proves that Nokia will continue to invest in coherent technology and optical device technology.  To help our customers meet the 5G challenge at the lowest total cost of ownership.”

Nokia has a long history of development in the field of optical transmission, at the forefront of technology. In 2007, the single-carrier 100G transmission was verified for the first time in the existing network, and the single-carrier 100G and 200G wavelengths were first commercialized in 2010 and 2013 respectively. More recently, Bell Labs’ fiber research team completed the first terabit transmission lab test in 2015 and 2017.

By applying the above results to the carrier network, Bell Labs will further accelerate the era of terabit wavelength networks.

The European Optical Communication Conference was held in Dublin, Ireland last month. A PDP paper of the details of the trial was published at the conference.