Rakuten Mobile and Nokia clock 1 Tbps single wavelength end-to-end transmission

The firms claim this marks the first successful 1 Tbps trial over an 820km distance in the Asia Pacific region.

Nokia's sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) optics were used to transmit over a Nokia DWDM line system and the Rakuten network. Using this tech, Rakuten Mobile will be able to increase spectrum efficiency and maximum capacity per fibre pair by 25% compared with the earlier generation of coherent optics deployed in its network, we’re told.

Another upshot of this is that Rakuten Mobile will be able to scale network capacity and manage network power consumption by reducing power-per-bit by 50%, against its prior generation of coherent optics.

“We are delighted to achieve 1 Tbps per channel on our optical network in collaboration with our technical partner Nokia,” said Hiroshi Takeshita, Deputy CTO of Rakuten Mobile. “This technical milestone enables us to optimize the utilization of fiber capacity and enhance power efficiency, and the increased capacity empowers Rakuten Mobile to meet the demands of bandwidth-intensive mobile services and high-capacity enterprise requirements. This accomplishment is in line with Rakuten Mobile’s network growth objectives.”

James Watt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Optical Networks business at Nokia added: "We are proud to have accomplished this remarkable 1 Tbps single wavelength transmission record in partnership with Rakuten Mobile. Our PSE-6s super-coherent optics delivers exceptional scalability, peak performance, and energy efficiency, allowing Rakuten Mobile to meet its carbon neutrality objectives and increase network capacity to meet demand for high-bandwidth 5G services and enterprise needs."

Elsewhere, at MWC this week Nokia was talking up how it is infusing AI and automation systems into networks and how it is developing private language models for more informed, less hallucinatory gen AI systems. Check out our interview here.