Alcatel-Lucent and T-Systems, the corporate customer arm of Deutsche Telecom, have succesfully connected two university networks using a 100 Gbps link, running over a distance of 60 km.
The link was achieved using just a single wavelength, which is an industry first. Previously links of over 100 Gbps have required trunking multiple connections, using several wavelengths. The new link will be used to both test the equipment for 100 Gbps networks in a real-life environment and test applications and distributed filesystems using this high bandwidth:
The Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) of Technical University Dresden and the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg will exploit the next generation of network technology to test their application scenarios at an unprecedented level of performance. For distributing data with the Lustre wide-area file system, ZIH will work closely with Indiana University in the framework of their cooperation agreement. Other tests include clustered virtual servers, network-attached storage and real-time video conferencing applications. Of specific interest is the quality of service delivered under high load. The storage infrastructure for these tests is generously provided by DataDirect Networks (DDN).
With 10 Gbps connections quickly becoming the new standard for storage networks, it’s good to know that next generation networks are already under development. With the current generation of Solid State Drives it’s already possible to fully saturate a 10 Gbps connection using only a couple of drives; so faster networks might be called for in just a couple of years.
The test environment uses Alcatel-Lucent 7750 series Service Routers; equipment that is already commercially available.
Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Routers
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