Oki Claims Success In 160 Gbps Transmission Test

Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. said Wednesday that it established a 635 kilometer transmission test bed stretching from Kyoto to Osaka and transmitted a 160 Gbps data transmission over the line.

In explaining the robustness of the trial, Oki said a high-speed transmission of one second represented the time it would take to send four full-length movies totaling eight viewing hours across the network.

Oki said it plans to commercialize the technology involved in the test, but it added that the commercialization isn't likely to take place until after 2010. The optical fiber transmission line had an optical amplifier at each end.

"The success of the 635 km field trial proves it can be used for backbone lines such as the super high-speed optical communication between Tokyo and Osaka, which is 16 times higher in speed that the 10Gbps systems that are (now) commercialized," said Harushige Sugimoto, Oki's senior vice president and chief technology officer, in a statement. "160 Gbps optical transmission is the next generation super high-speed optical transmission technology."

In the trial, Oki Electric used facilities supplied by Japan Gigabit Network II.