Ciena and TELUS set new worldwide transmission record

The first 800G single wavelength was deployed to Canada across TELUS’ network recently by Ciena, the American telecommunications service supplier and TELUS, the Canadian telecommunications company. 

The wavelength covered a record breaking 970km between Toronto and Quebec City. Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme has been the only available 800G product in the market since April 2020, highlighting how early in the adoption phase of 800G deployments the optical network industry is. 

Ciena’s technology is offering higher capacities per wavelength than any previous technologies via line rate transponders which can support rates up to 800gb/s. Their state-of-the-art technology provides high quality and high speed connectivity to consumers while also reducing the cost, energy consumption and space per bit. 

TELUS are currently in the process of augmenting their network with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme technologies to provide better connectivity to their customers. Their 6,000 km network spanning from Victoria, British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia will soon be standardising the WaveLogic 5 Extreme as it was designed with the future of connectivity in mind. It already consists of high-spec flexible grid ROADM architecture which has been designed to support reliable bandwidth across the network. 

Toronto to Quebec City - the highest bandwidth corridor

Before Ciena stretched the bandwidth from Toronto to Quebec City, the longest previous bandwidth corridor was between Toronto and Montreal. It connected the two biggest cities in Canada with 700km of network. However, with Ciena’s new record breaking achievement, that corridor has now been extended another 270km, connecting it to Quebec City.  

What’s next? 

Testing will continue at TELUS with the hopes of deploying Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme in the near future and the deployment of 800G by Ciena will continue where permitted and where necessary.