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Infinera and Telstra announced validation of Infinera’s Advanced Coherent Toolkit (ACT) for super-channels.

This technology would cover the Telstra Endeavour subsea cable stretching 9,000 kilometers between Sydney, Australia and Oahu, Hawaii and extract the maximum capacity from subsea and long haul terrestrial cable systems carrying super-channels, the company explained.

In trials on a range of super-channel coherent modulation technologies conducted late last year, two super-channel based capabilities were demonstrated – Nyquist subcarriers and Soft Decision Forward Error Correction (SD-FEC) gain sharing.

The trial validated the benefit of Nyquist subcarriers that have been shown in other studies to offer around a 20 percent increase in reach compared to single carrier transmission. In addition, the trial validated SD-FEC gain sharing in which carriers with the highest performance can be paired with carriers with lower Optical Signal to Noise Ratio (OSNR) to improve performance.

Other capabilities demonstrated as part of this trial include a new Matrix Enhanced Phase Shift Keying (ME-PSK) modulation technique that surpasses Binary Phase Shift Key (BPSK) reach performance; and the new, high-gain SD-FEC algorithm, the company said.

“The comprehensive modulation and compensation techniques in our Advanced Coherent Toolkit enable individual carriers and subcarriers in the super-channel to maximize the overall reach and capacity of the customer’s fiber,” said Scott Jackson, VP of Infinera’s Subsea Business Group. “For example, leveraging these techniques allows cables that previously could only support BPSK to move to higher modulation formats in the future, or support a mix of formats across carriers and subcarriers, for increased fiber capacity and a better return on the asset. This next generation of coherent technology has the potential to dramatically extend the useful life for existing cable systems while also improving the performance of new cables.”

“With trans-Pacific traffic rising at 49 percent annually, service providers can leverage these advances to help their business models keep pace with downward pricing pressure. Infinera has one of the leading coherent engineering teams and I applaud them for developing these innovative optical techniques,” said Jackson.

Andy Lumsden, Head of Network Services, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services said, “The flexibility of PIC-based super-channels has proven to be a major advantage in subsea operations, and the addition of next generation coherent processing provides an important capacity boost. These capabilities see us continue to exceed the demands of our customers, and provide exceptional service levels across the Telstra Global Network and North American region.”