nbn co to double backbone capacity

nbn co has commenced a network upgrade that will help double the capacity of its 60,000 km fibre backbone to 19.2 Tbps per fibre link.

The company will first upgrade the high-traffic fibre links between Eastern Creek and Asquith in Sydney, as well as the 3600 km route between Brisbane, Queensland and Darwin in the Northern Territory.

The Darwin to Brisbane link is scheduled to go live in December, and will be used to support capacity growth on the Sky Muster satellite component of the network. This will be followed by a phased rollout across the operator’s backbone network.

The network upgrade is being conducted using a solution from network equipment vendor Coriant that supports per-wavelength transmission rates of 200 Gbps. The technology also has the capability to double per-wavelength capacity again to 400 Gbps as needed.

nbn co’s transit network connects to the nbn’s 121 points of interconnect across the country — the exchanges where nbn retail service providers plug into the network.

“This upgrade will ensure we can continue to deliver a reliable and high-quality broadband network for our wholesale customers even as high-bandwidth applications and the growth of internet usage continue to drive demand for network capacity,” nbn co Chief Network Deployment Officer Kathrine Dyer said.

“Coriant is helping us achieve these upgrades as we scale this build and move towards our goal of connecting eight million homes and businesses by 2020.”

Image courtesy nbn co.

Please follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook. You can also subscribe for FREE to our weekly newsletter and quarterly magazine.