Optus pushes ahead with 100G upgrade for national backbone

Optus has lit up its Perth to Cairns network circuit with a 100 gigabit per second upgrade, bumping up the link's capacity ten-fold as part of a nationwide effort to meet increasing demand for high-speed connectivity.

Alcatel-Lucent 1830 PSS. Source: vendor.

The project started in 2013, with technology partner Alcatel-Lucent upgrading Optus' inter-capital links nationwide from 10 gigabits per second capacity to 100Gbps.

Optus' Sydney to Perth link was upgraded in late 2014, followed by a circuit from the New South Wales capital city to Brisbane in Queensland. Optus' metro network already has 100Gbps capacity in the capital cities.

Optus said a "range" of data services including managed transmission and other packet-based services would make use of the core network infrastructure.

Design, project management and engineering work for the upgrade is being performed by Alcatel-Lucent Oceania, using the company's 1830 photonic service switch that supports dense wave division multiplexing.

It features 88 channels and can be upgraded to 400Gbps.

Optus is also using Alcatel's 1350 optical management system for network planning, service provisioning and end-to-end operations for the upgrade program of work.

"Investment in this type of network capability means we can reliably scale the delivery of high-speed, low latency services over a resilient high capacity network interconnecting Cairns to Perth for business and government and other carriers through our wholesale channel," Optus wholesale MD Rob Parcell said in a statement.