TeliaSonera, a Scandinavian-based telephone company, has conducted a trial for an optical network that saw a terabit-speed optical transmission based on 500 Gbps super channels. A super channel is a large unit of optical capacity created by combining multiple optical carriers into a single managed entity — like an optical cloud of sorts. This is the largest super channel created so far, and it is based on Infinera’s 500 Gbps photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

The trial used the Infinera (s INFN) gear and was conducted between Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif., a distance of 1,105 kilometers. Previous terabit trials utilized multiple 300 Gbps channels.

In April 2011, Verizon and NEC tested a terabit backbone in Verizon’s fiber network in and around Dallas. Scientists have been pushing for networks toward 100 terabit speeds. The move to these higher-speed and high-capacity networks is part of the coming terabit age. As we are connected to more places more often, we are putting new kinds of demand on the networks, and there is a need for more capacity. “As 10 Gb/s services proliferate and 100 Gb/s router ports emerge, we are trialing advanced solutions that scale optical networks beyond 100 Gb/s,” said Erik Hallberg, the president at TeliaSonera International Carrier.