Colt first in Europe to trial 100 Gigabit Ethernet with Infinera
16th September, 2010
Colt, a leading provider of business communications and IT managed services, has today announced that in partnership with Infinera it has successfully completed its first European field trial of 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) over a live network. The trial marks an important step forward in the development of 100Gbps technologies to support ever-increasing bandwidth demand across Europe.
The trial consisted of a 100Gbps transmission over the 861km route on Colt’s low latency fibre network between London and Frankfurt using Infinera’s DTN optical platform. A single trip latency of 4.23ms was measured across the 100Gbps circuit.
A prototype 100Gbps Ethernet client interface was used, which is fully compliant with the industry standard ratified in June 2010, known as IEEE 802.3ba. Testing and verification of the transmission was performed using an EXFO FTB-85 100Gbps Packet Blazer tester.
Colt’s new London to Frankfurt route was completed in August 2010 and is currently supporting live traffic. The 100Gbps trial further demonstrates the capability of the fibre network to support new, high-speed services and confirms Colt’s position as Europe’s leading information delivery platform.
Colt’s Chief Technology Officer, Luke Broome commented: “We were pleased to work with Infinera on the first trial of this equipment in Europe. It is important that we support the development of next generation optical transport technologies that will allow us to meet customer demand for very high speed Ethernet services.”
Drew Perkins, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Infinera said: “Infinera’s next-generation optical systems benefit from unique scalability and disruptive economics of photonic integration and so are able to meet the needs of our customers. We are excited to be working with Colt as we develop our next generation systems.”
EXFO provided the test equipment for the 100GbE trial. Etienne Gagnon, EXFO’s Vice-President—Wireline Division and Corporate Marketing said: “We’re extremely pleased to partner with Colt and Infinera on their first 100Gbps field trial between London and Frankfurt by providing them the tools needed to meet the demand for consistent Ethernet signal quality and network performance with the industry’s only portable testing solution – the FTB-85100G Packet Blazer.”
About Colt
Colt is Europe’s leading information delivery platform, enabling its customers to share, process and store their vital business information. Colt is an established leader in delivering integrated networking and IT managed services to major organisations, midsized businesses and wholesale customers. Colt operates a 13-country, 25,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 16,000 buildings and 19 Colt data centres.
Colt is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT). Information about Colt and its services can be found at www.colt.net.
Industry analysts’ contact
AGI AUGUSTYNIAK
Octopus
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Email: ColtAR@octopuscomms.net
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Gill Maclean
Colt
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Email: ColtInvestorRelations@colt.net
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