IN a proactive move to boost optical network performance in the country, Alcatel –Lucent, has expanded over 100 gigabits-per-second signals into it operation.

The company’s Strategic Development Manager, Mr. Michael Ackland, said: “This latest addition to the company’s portfolio is designed to enhance the ability of communications service providers to address exploding demand for high-bandwidth services like video and fixed and mobile broadband,” he said.

However, he explained that the new innovation was far greater than had been possible before, even over poor quality fibre.

Alcatel-Lucent is to offer a new premium card, the 100G eXtended Reach (XR), which employs techniques developed at Bell Labs to monitor and maintain the quality of optical signals.

The 100G XR card will be the first solution on the market capable of substantially extending the range, performance and capacity of 100G optical networks, while cutting building and operating costs.

Ackland, noted that this premium card, which would be commercially available by year end, would be offered on the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS), the centrepiece of the company’s optical transport portfolio.

The Alcatel-Lucent 100G XR marks a substantial improvement for service providers with specific distance and capacity requirements, being able to transmit a combination of 10G, 40G and 100G rates on different wavelengths of an optical fibre for up to 2000 kilometres and beyond, providing up to 30 per cent increase in reach. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution also offers exceptional performance over poor quality fibre giving service providers the ability to deploy 100G anywhere they want, when they want it, and at a substantial cost savings.

One of the first customers of the 1830 PSS is Australia’s Nextgen Networks, Ackland said: “We at Nextgen Networks have deployed the 1830 PSS platform on the Commonwealth Government’s Regional Backhaul Blackspots Programme and were the first to successfully demonstrate 100G coherent optical DWDM & IP in Asia on the Broken Hill link. The ability to deploy 10/40/100G on the same platform is of uppermost importance to us, as it will keep our network flexible. We are looking forward to the enhanced 100G from Alcatel-Lucent to keep Nextgen Networks data transport network the most advanced and innovative in this region.”

Delivering enormous bandwidth supporting 100G rates on each wavelength on an optical fibre, the 1830 PSS can support the transfer of over 100,000 MP3 files in 60 seconds or to stream 15,000 HDTV channels concurrently. To meet the ever-growing demand for such services and applications, operators need to be able to continually increase bandwidth, while maintaining exceptional transmission quality and keeping costs in check.