It has experimented at speeds of 400, 600 and 800Gbps over long and short distances.
In two pilot schemes, working with Nokia and Huawei, Telefónica has been experimenting with the capacity and the speed of signal transmission in a photonic mesh using wave division multiplexing (WDM).
Telefónica says the objective is to consolidate the quality of the network to accommodate 5G and in respond to the growing demand for bandwidth that will be driven by new services.
Less power
The operator also says that at these higher speeds, it has been able to reduce power consumption by between 40% and 60%.
The trials were carried out in Madrid and has achieved higher transmission speeds over the photonic mesh for short distances (47km), reaching 600 and 800 Gbps with Huawei OSN 9800 equipment.
For long distance it reached 400 Gbps between Madrid and Barcelona (830 km) with Nokia’s 1830 PSI-M photonic devices and 7950 XRS IP routers.
This capacity is key to Telefonica Spain’s network development strategy as almost all the company’s traffic run on them, from residential offers to those for large enterprises.\
Up to 100% increase
Traffic is growing at about 30% year on year and Telefónica plans to implement 400Gbps service in the IP Fusion Network in mid-2021 in a metropolitan environment and during 2022 in long distance.
For speeds of 600 and 800Gbps over a short distance, the operator expects to deploy in 2023-2024.
The use of channels at these speeds equates to an increase in capacity of 50% at 600Gbps and 100% at 800Gbps channels over short distances,
Speeds of 400Gbps over long term distance increase capacity by 100% compared to today’s top speed.
Avoiding electricity
As Juan José Marfil, director of Transport and IP connectivity at Telefónica Spain, commented, “These pilots in the photonic mesh, in which the signal is transmitted over optical channels without the need to pass into the electrical domain, are another important milestone.
“They build on the one carried out in 2019 when we achieved the transmission of 400Gbps in Madrid. The objective is to start implementing the speed of 400Gbps this year to optimise the IP Fusion Network.”