Celtic project SENDATE showcases autonomously adapted fiber optic transmission

In February 2019, SENDATE, the CELTIC flagship project for secure networking of data centers in Europe, successfully completed an industry-first production network field trial demonstrating autonomous intelligent transponder (AIT) technology. This was announced by the project on 4th March in conjunction with the Optical Networking and Communication Conference, OFC 2019, in San Diego, USA. In the live field trial, SENDATE consortium partners Infinera and Telia Carrier demonstrated the ability of fiber optic transmission systems to autonomously adapt to changing network conditions in real time to support optimal service quality and performance while simplifying operations.

The proof of concept field trial was performed using AIT prototype technology developed by Infinera as part of its ongoing research and development initiatives. The AIT trial was conducted on a live 1,500-kilometer fiber route in Telia Carrier’s backbone network connecting Munich, Zurich, Strasbourg and Frankfurt. The trial featured multiple use cases that tested AIT capabilities under varied channel conditions and quality impairments, including the impact of neighbor channels, aging components and the adding and dropping of channels.

In all cases, the AIT autonomously adapted transmission parameters such as modulation schemes, minimizing network cost and maximizing performance, including total fiber capacity throughput and spectral efficiency.

Figure: AIT adapts in every scenario to optimum modulation scheme/highest bit rate

“As mission-critical Internet of Things applications drive increased demand for low-latency, high-quality network connectivity – at all times – the underlying optical infrastructure will require a new level of responsiveness and adaptability,” said Mattias Fridström, Chief Evangelist at Telia Carrier.

“This field trial reinforces the importance of advancing the agility of high-capacity infrastructure through innovation in cognitive networking, one of the pillars of our vision of the Infinite Network,” said Parthi Kandappan, Chief Technical Officer at Infinera.

Further information is available on the SENDATE website