Press Releases

BB Backbone transmits 800 Gbps between Tokyo Data Centres using Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 extreme

March 10, 2023

Posted by: Shriya Raban

BB Backbone Corporation (“BB Backbone”, president and CEO: Hideomi Tosaka, head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo) has achieved 800Gbps transmission at 100GHz bandwidth with Ciena‘s WaveLogic 5 Extreme (WL5e) transponder  in a commercial network in the Alien Wavelength (other companies’ signals) connection configuration. The company has succeeded in 800Gbps transmission of WL5e in a 100GHz bandwidth in a commercial network.

Going forward, we will promote research aimed at providing services that match customer usage patterns.

B³ Spectrum, a wavelength rental service launched in July 2019, has achieved an Alien Wavelength (other company’s signal) connection configuration and completed connection verification with a wide variety of transponders. In order to achieve higher transmission capacity amid the trend toward higher capacity communications, we have now verified the practicality of Ciena’s Transponder [ WL5e], which is capable of new high-capacity transmissions.

In this connection verification, transmission was performed using Ciena’s Waveserver 5 platform with WL5e transponders pin the presence of light of adjacent wavelengths. We constructed a route through two data centers in Tokyo on a commercial environment. Under the presence of light of adjacent wavelengths, the parameters of the frame loss test were checked and waveforms were verified using a spectrum analyzer, and it was confirmed that 800 Gbps transmission was performed with no transmission quality problems.

WL5e is a transponder capable of 800 Gbps transmission and can be set to 100 GHz width or 112.5 GHz width for 800 Gbps transmission. In this verification, the transponder was set to 100 GHz width, which is available in B³ Spectrum’s service menu and allows more effective use of bandwidth.

Waveserver 5 with WL5e transponders

Future outlook

BB Backbone will continue to promote user-first development, verification, and provisioning to enable more customers to build networks efficiently and cost-effectively by leveraging the strength of B³ Spectrum, which is less expensive than leased lines.

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