All-Optical Network Field-Tested

Qtera Corp. of Boca Raton, Fla., and Qwest Communications International Inc. of Denver have completed a 30-day field trial of an all-optical network. The system transmitted 10-Gb/s signals over 2400 km of fiber without the need for optoelectronic regeneration.

Qtera supplied transmitters for dense wavelength division multiplexing, receivers, optical amplifiers and add/drop multiplexers. The system demonstrated 10-ms signal restoration, faster than the 50-ms SONET transmission standard.

The companies had collaborated on the project for more than a year. Qwest's vice president of emerging technologies, Vab Goel, suggested the partnership would continue under his company's effort to produce an all-optical OC-192 Internet protocol backbone.