Rakuten Mobile and Nokia prove case for 1 Terabit per channel transmission in live network

Tokyo, Japan and Espoo, Finland - Rakuten Mobile, Inc. and Nokia today announced that the two companies have demonstrated the first live 1 Tb/s per channel transmission over Rakuten Mobile’s commercial Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer (DWDM) network, a speed increase of 500% on Rakuten Mobile’s existing network running at 200 Gb/s. The trial took place over two days in January 2022 and connected data centers located 135 km apart in the Kanto region in Japan.

The 1 Tb/s speed was achieved using coherent transmission powered by Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine (PSE) supporting 1 Tb/s capacity over a 150 GHz optical spectrum. The trial demonstrated the ability to deliver 32 Tb/s per fiber in C-band which can be expanded to 64 Tbps by adding L-band over a Nokia DWDM line system used in Rakuten Mobile’s optical network, vital to providing maximum capacity for the ever-increasing data demands and to support the latest generations of routers delivering 800 Gb/s Ethernet.

The Open Line System field trial, over Rakuten Mobile’s existing commercial network, used Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine inhouse Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a compact, high capacity, modular optical networking platform, optimized for Data Center Interconnect (DCI) applications over metro, regional and long haul.

John Lancaster-Lennox, Head of Market Unit Japan, Nokia, said: “The 1 Terabit per channel trial demonstrated the capability to dramatically increase fiber capacity and future-proof the Rakuten Mobile network infrastructure to support new high speed data center interconnection.”

Rakuten Mobile is scaling up its network capacity to enable 5G connectivity, video and new applications for its mobile subscribers and business partners.

Nokia’s 1 Tb/s solution enables Rakuten Mobile to reduce its footprint, improving operational expenditure and flexibility to rollout in data centers.

Tareq Amin, Representative Director and CEO of Rakuten Mobile, Inc., said: “We are delighted with the performance of 1 Tb/s per channel on our optical network in collaboration with Nokia. This technical milestone will allow us to maximize bits per fiber and achieve improved power efficiency. The enhanced capacity will also support our traffic growth, deliver higher bandwidth and enable Rakuten Mobile to provide new service offerings.”