100 Gbit/s a reality soon?

Bell Labs (Lucent) have established a new milestone in optical transmission speed with a record of 10 channels of 107 Gbit/s data over 2000 km of fiber. Using differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) at 107 Gbit/s, the high-speed electronics and opto-electronics were only used a mere 25% speed-up compared to those used in today's 40 Gbit/s systems. Martin Zirngibl, director, Bell Labs. said "Our breakthroughs in both transmission distance and the use of commercially-viable components prove that 100 Gbit/s serial is a viable technology for transmitting data traffic in its native Ethernet format." It is a noticeable technical performance, but the reality is that 40 Gbit/s is still not deployed in the field.