At the SubOptic tradeshow in Yokohama Japan, Apollo, a UK based company which owns and operates one of the transatlantic fiber optic cable systems, and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris) announced the achievement of an industry milestone with the successful demonstration of the transmission of approximately three terabits per second (Tbit/s) of data, based on 40Gbit/s channels, per fibre pair in a submarine network.

Apollo's north cable system linking the US and the UK, a distance of 6,221 km, using Alcatel-Lucent advanced technology the original design capacity of the system was almost quadrupled i.e., 72 channels at 40Gb/s. The test demonstrated for the first time on a live system, a capacity increase of a factor of two compared to the maximum capacity achievable based on 10Gbit/s channels.

Capacity upgrades of submarine networks using existing fibre are critical for operators as existing networks approach full capacity and as terrestrial networks start supporting 40Gbit/s. These two factors increase the capacity of submarine networks, handing off traffic to keep the highest level of efficiency .The demonstration of 40Gbit/s technology over the Apollo system is great news for customers. Apollo can support the interface types and sheer volume of capacity required by our users for the foreseeable future, said Richard Elliott, (Managing Director of Apollo).

“ This test helps making  40Gbit/s a reality , by supporting both 10Gbit/s and 40Gbit/s signals, our solution enables cost effective migration without reengineering the network, while maximizing the use of existing assets.", stated Philippe Dumont, (head of Alcatel-Lucent's submarine network activity).