Towards Ultrahigh-speed High-capacity Networks
Masahiko Jinno, Hideaki Kimura, Yoshinori Hibino, Kazuhiro Uehara, Naoya Kukutsu, Fumihiko Ito, Shinji Matsuoka · NTT technical review · 2009
To support the tremendous increase in the amount of Internet traffic, NTT is currently providing a high transmission capacity of .6Tbit/s per optical fiber (40 Gbit/s x 40 wavelengths) on its backbone network.Assuming that traffic will continue to double every two years, the transmission capacity required in about ten years (2020) will be at least 00 Tbit/s equivalent per optical fiber.Although standardization of 00GbE (00-Gbit/s Ethernet) technology and 00-Gbit/s-level optical transport network technology is currently proceeding, we will require higher speeds and capacities in the future.When we consider future networks around 2020, one important issue for the ultrahigh-speed highcapacity network to be used as a common platform is how to economically provide the ultrahigh capacity to support the steady traffic growth rate and the high level of reliability needed for business activities and people's daily lives.Moreover, to support continuous traffic growth, it will be essential to achieve low power consumption for the sake of the global environment.From the service provider's viewpoint, interactive high-definition video transmission such as that used in business videoconferencing will become increasingly necessary in the future as a service that decreases the load on the environment.The future ultrahighspeed high-capacity network will not only be a common platform and infrastructure, but will also be expected to act as a service network that can allocate ultrawideband services of this type (huge-bandwidth services).A huge-bandwidth service is defined as one that provides circuit-switched, high-capacity, lowlatency, dynamic end-to-end paths.Some examples of assumed services are interactive realtime video communications and data transmission among storage devices (Fig. 1).Business examples are a superhigh-presence remote conferencing system, remote medical support system, and storage mirroring and consumer examples are e-commerce based on virtual face-to-face sales, remote counseling, remote diagnosis, remote teaching, and competitive network games.In providing this type of huge-bandwidth service, it will be important to achieve ultralow latency that eliminates all possible delay elements except for distance-dependent transmission delay. Trends in ultrahigh-speed high-capacity networksThe provision of low-power-consuming economi- Special Feature: Design Concepts for New Generation