Companies claim 3.2T bps transmission

BERLIN -- Two companies are claiming to have reached a new speed record for data transmission over an existing fiber optic network. Optisphere Networks Inc., a subsidiary of German electronics and engineering conglomerate Siemens AG, and WorldCom Inc. said they had managed to transmit 3.2T bps (bits per second) of data over a total distance of 250 kilometers in a month-long trial.

The test, using WorldCom's fiber network routes in the Dallas metropolitan area, is the equivalent of sending more than 3.2 million high-speed Internet connections or 41 million telephone calls at the same time on one fiber, Siemens spokesman Thomas Schepp said Friday.

The companies used Siemens/Optisphere's TransXpress Infinity DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) platform and FOX 40G bps multiplexer. Eighty WDM channels with an individual capacity of 40G bps were transmitted over three spans of standard single mode fiber.

Siemens researchers were able to demonstrate a record 7T bps transmission over a single fiber last October, said Schepp. But WorldCom is the first to implement the technology under "real-world conditions."