
Nokia to demonstrate a technique for terabit-speed data over optical-fiber - wallflower
http://www.zdnet.com/article/think-google-fibers-fast-nokia-to-show-off-tech-thats-1000-times-faster/
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fulafel
"Researchers will this week demonstrate a newly-refined data-transmission
technique that can deliver one terabit per second (Tbps) over optical fiber"

We already had 10 Tbps per fiber pair:
[http://www.extremetech.com/internet/231074-googles-faster-
un...](http://www.extremetech.com/internet/231074-googles-faster-undersea-
cable-goes-online-with-60-tbps-of-bandwidth)

~~~
JonnyaiR
the main difference is, this demonstration uses cables within Telekoms Network
- so it's no laboratory but a real-world-test. (german source:
[http://www.golem.de/news/saser-muenchner-forscher-
uebertrage...](http://www.golem.de/news/saser-muenchner-forscher-uebertragen-
ein-terabit-im-telekom-netz-1609-123339.html))

~~~
fulafel
According to the article, FASTER has already entered service. It's the name of
a deployed submarine cable, not a lab demo of new fiber technology.

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DigitalSea
I am barely able to get a 20mb ADSL2 connection here in Australia, let alone
100mb. I know I won't live to see even a 1gb connection speed becoming
available in Australia in my lifetime. Lab conditions and real world
conditions are two different things. You can have a fast connection, but if
the bandwidth isn't there to meet the demand, then you just end up with a fast
link to the exchange and then from there, it's plain old slow internet.

~~~
colechristensen
This is all about core networks, the comparison to residential surface is just
bad journalism.

It seems, reading between the lines, that they were able to make 10x bandwidth
improvements over existing fiber with fancy new physical layer encoding (QAM
with some statistical magic)

And it's not in a lab, they're experiments between major German cities.

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visarga
If it means replacing much of the current fiber optic equipment it's not going
to be popular soon.

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kuschku
Why not? Replacing cables is cheap if you built the infrastructure properly.

Switching my entire district from ADSL to fiber-to-the-building took a team of
a dozen workers only 2 weeks, because all cabling between buildings and all
street cabling is in cable tunnels where the cabling can be easily replaced
with RC vehicles.

That means replacing those cables again in a few decades will be basically
free, too.

For backbones, the same applies, except there the reward is even higher:
They’re all in cable tunnels, where they can easily be replaced.

~~~
amazon_not
> That means replacing those cables again in a few decades will be basically
> free, too.

I think you and me have a different definition of free. There are still
substantial costs in both labor and materials to replace the outside plant,
even if there is existing ducting in place with free space.

~~~
kuschku
Almost all of the costs of replacing the cabling in the US today is digging a
trench, or getting access to privately owned telephone poles.

As evidenced by Google Fiber’s struggles.

If that cost is eliminated, replacing fiber outside is as cheap as replacing
it inside a datacenter.

~~~
amazon_not
> Almost all of the costs of replacing the cabling in the US today is digging
> a trench, or getting access to privately owned telephone poles.

Firstly, if you have existing ducts there is no need for trenching. Secondly,
a lot of trencing is replaced by directional boring and, where possible, by
microtrenching or plowing. Thirdly, gaining access to poles isn't usually the
problem. What takes time and money is to get them into such a state that new
cable can be installed. Fourthly, your largest cost is always going to be
labor, regardless of what you do. Lastly, even ignoring all the other costs
there is still equipment and materials, which will account for at least a
fifth of the project costs.

So in summary, no almost all the cost is not in the line items you specify. A
lot of money is going to get spent no matter what when you replace your
outside plant.

> As evidenced by Google Fiber’s struggles.

Google is also being actively hampered by competitors that own the poles they
need access to.

> If that cost is eliminated, replacing fiber outside is as cheap as replacing
> it inside a datacenter.

That's a bit optimistic, as the outside plant is far larger than any
datacenter, not administered by a signle party nor a controlled environment.

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jbi
Too bad, Deutsche Telekom is blocking fiber built-up for customers in Germany
by pushing VDSL vectoring.

~~~
tormeh
Is that the reason for the slow fiber roll-out in Germany? I just looked at
Berlin and there's a small neighborhood in Mitte that has it, otherwise
there's nothing. Can't any other company than Telekom lay out fiber?

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kayoone
Telekom are toying with (super) vectoring and g.fast to avoid having to roll
out fiber to every household. I guess it makes financial sense because the are
still moving the Network Access points closer to homes and these are usually
connected with fibre. However this will work until 500-1000Mbps at best and
probably only for a few people, so at some point they have to do FTTH
especially because cable providers are already pushing 400Mbps in many places
in Germany.

DNS.NET and Versatel (now 1&1) have their own fibre network in some areas of
Berlin and they actually do FTTH if you are one of the lucky few. I live in a
pretty dense and central area of Berlin and all i get is 50Mbps VDSL, because
i want to avoid the cable providers that have an inferior network. For private
usage it's still okay and i have access to 1Gbps at work, but i still can't
wait for Vectoring to arrive.

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ohthehugemanate
Can you explain:

"I want to avoid the cable providers that have an inferior network"

I live in Köln, and because of the distance to the nearest loop, I don't get
the 100mbit offer from Telekom… only 18mbit vdsl at best. I went to UnityMedia
cable and get 200mbit. Unity is an Evil Media Company, but I haven't noticed
anything wrong with their network. So what am I missing?

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kayoone
Kind of a Berlin problem i guess. In the places i lived before i had
UnityMedia and was generally pretty happy with it. In west Berlin you have
Kabel-Deutschland which is also okay (but offers only Fair Use Flats yuck),
but in the east where i live there is only Telecolumbus if you choose cable.
While they offer 400Mbps there are a lot of dense places where people complain
about <10Mbps in the evening or the weekends.

In general using Cable, more people have to share the same bandwidth,
especially if the provider cheaped out and only does whats necessary. You
don't even get your own IPv4, you are basically sharing public IPs with other
people through NAT, which makes accessing anything at your home more
complicated as well.

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qaq
If memory serves there have being commercial multiplexers that could do that
for a long time.

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perseusprime11
Just a thought - maybe Google will buy the new Nokia this time to expand
Fiber...

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amazon_not
Google's problems in rolling out fiber is not with the equipment, it's in
putting the actual cable on poles and in ducts. Buying Nokia would not help
one bit with this.

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willvarfar
Ok this is interesting tech and I like the light being shined on the remnants
of Nokia occasionally, but the headline is misleading clickbait. They compare
the new speed against today's fast _consumer_ fiber, even though they say in
the article that this is a new tech for backbones. It feels like the headline
just tries to work "Google" into it as an adversary to get the clicks :(

Go go Nokia Bell, go away zdnet ;)

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givinguflac
I'm excited to hear the new BS excuses for data caps existing once common
infrastructure can handle this bandwidth.

