ZTE Corporation, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, which recently partnered with the operator of the largest optical transport infrastructure in Europe, completed the field test on a trial network comprising eight cities in Germany, including Darmstadt, Stuttgart and Nurnberg.

The equipment used during the trial was based on advanced technologies such as coherent detection, QPSK/16QAM modulation and innovative digital signal processing.

Experiments conducted during the trial were designed to address important issues that concern operators and vendors around network evolution towards and beyond 100Gb. Using ZTE’s 100Gb OTN products (ZXONE 8000 series), 400Gb prototype and 1Tb prototype, the team succeeded in simultaneous transmission on 100Gb/s, 400Gb/s and 1Tb/s WDM channels over 2150 km, passing 26 spans with gain flattening EDFAs (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier). The team also achieved 2450 km of successful transmission on two simultaneous 100Gb/s channels with a large performance margin. The transmission distances for the respective configuration in both experiments set a significant milestone in the industry.

Other experiments during the field trial have investigated the trade off between the spectrum efficiency and transmission distance on 1Tb/s super channels, with regard to their potential for enabling the dynamic spectrum allocation in existing fiber infrastructures. The results of these experiments were greatly appreciated by the industry when they were presented during the world’s leading conferences of the photonic telecommunications, i.e. OFC/NFOEC, Layer123 and WDM Forum.

"In terms of scale and novelty, this field trial is world leading, and it showcased the design capability of ZTE’s 100Gb / 400Gb /1Tb optical transmission systems,” said ZTE Bearer Network general manager Chen Yufei. “The new technology can increase network capacity with backwards compatibility and prospects for scalable extension, while reducing the complexity and cost per bit. Being on the cutting edge of research and development, ZTE’s optical network solution will enable network operators to meet tomorrow’s challenges of soaring traffic growth in the backbone transport network, as demonstrated by the successful trials.”

ZTE is a leading global provider of next generation bearer network solutions, equipment and services. The company’s end to end 100Gb solution is designed for application on the edge layer as well as the core layer, and includes a full series of innovative 100Gb OTN products, such as switches, routers, and WDM devices.

ZTE recently announced its 400Gb/s and 1Tb/s DWDM prototypes which are capable of providing seven different solutions for a range of network applications in a single device. Using the prototypes, ZTE has completed joint field trials with mainstream operators in different countries and regions including Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North American, Asia Pacific and China, which makes ZTE a major global player in the development of high speed optical telecommunications systems.