Alcatel-Lucent and BT said a recent field test...

Alcatel-Lucent and BT said a recent field test of flexible grid infrastructure technology on a BT fiber link between London and Suffolk produced a speed of 1.4 terabytes per second at a spectral efficiency of 5.7 bits per second per hertz. The test was one of several done in October and November, Alcatel-Lucent said. The flexible grid technology can “vary the gaps between transmission channels, usually set at 50” gigahertz, the company said. The increased channel density allowed a 42.5 percent increase in spectrum channel density on the fiber, Alcatel-Lucent said. The trial “demonstrated that use of the Flexgrid approach can increase BT’s core network capacity using existing optical fibers, potentially reducing the expense of laying more fiber as bandwidth demands grow,” Alcatel-Lucent said. That would allow BT to more easily scale its core network capacity while also more efficiently using its existing infrastructure, the company said (http://bit.ly/LMCzI7).