Verizon celebrates successful 400Gb/s field trial

Verizon has completed a successful field trial delivering live 400Gb/s Ethernet traffic on a single wavelength between MPLS Core routers over its packet-optical network.

The trial demonstrated the interoperability between equipment from two different suppliers – Ciena and Juniper – alongside the capability to quadruple the typical capacity carried on one wavelength.

Held in December 2017, the trial used the Verizon network in the Dallas area to validate the viability of carrying 400Gb/s traffic. Traffic was transmitted between two Juniper Networks PTX 5000 routers across the Ciena 6500 packet-optical platform, both used in Verizon’s production network.  This 400Gb/s interworking connection is compliant with IEEE Standard 802.3bs-2017, which was ratified in December 2017.

The trial marks an important step towards advancing 400Gb/s transmission and router technology to meet bandwidth demands, as Lee Hicks, vice president, network planning for Verizon, explained: ‘We’re delivering more content and capacity than ever from our network and we’re gearing up to do more. The appetite from consumers and businesses alike continues to grow.’

This is not the only recent successful field trial to demonstrate the validity of carrying 400Gb/s traffic. Ciena has also recently collaborated with Telstra and Ericsson to demonstrate 400Gb/s speeds over 61.5 GHz spectrum (see Telstra, Ciena and Ericsson achieve record speeds over 61.5GHz spectrum).