Nokia Torpedoes Network Speed Record With 65Tbps Submarine Fiber Cable
If you thought that Google’s underwater FASTER fiber cable system was fast, Nokia is here to show that “Anything you can do I can do better.” Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, a division of Nokia, announced today that it has set a record with a staggering 65 Tbps data transmission via an undersea fiber link running over a distance of 6,600 kilometers (4,100 miles).
To put that achievement into perspective, Nokia says that the 65 Tbps capacity is enough to stream 10 million HDTV channels… simultaneously. Nokia says that this high water mark also provides 13,000 times more capacity than the first undersea amplified transatlantic system, which was deployed in 1995.
If you recall, Google made waves with FASTER in July when it announced that its link between the United States and Japan operated at a blistering 60 Tbps (Google has access to 10 Tbps of that capacity). But records are meant to be broken and Nokia was happy to one-up Google.
"This new record is the latest in a long series of achievements by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks over the past 20 years, with breakthroughs that have transformed long-distance data transmission," wrote Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks CTO Olivier Gautheron.
"It also underlines our strategic focus on R&D to raise the bar for undersea fiber-optic technology as our researchers continue to develop new solutions to help traditional and webscale operators cope with increasing requirements for speed, capacity and cost-effectiveness."
"The future digital existence where everyone, everything and every system and process is connected will require a massive increase in network capacity and the ability to dynamically optimize this capacity,” added Nokia Bell Labs and Nokia CTO Marcus Weldon.
In terms of capacity, Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks says that it leads the industry with over 580,000 kilometers (360,000 miles) of fiber cable having been deployed around the globe. Alcatel-Lucent was acquired by Nokia last year, which means that it inherited the world’s largest operator of under cabling and support systems.
