SK Telecom (SKT) and subsidiary SK Broadband prepared to introduce a next-generation backbone network across South Korea, demonstrating a top speed of 800Gb/s on a 1,200km commercial section between Seoul and Busan.
In a joint statement, the pair noted they are working on a large-capacity wired network to “proactively respond to the rapidly increasing data traffic” due to demand for 5G, AI and cloud services. They plan to deploy an 800Gb/s nationwide network.
SKT also completed a trial which achieved a peak rate of 1.2Tb/s at its data centre in Incheon.
Lee Jong-hoon, head of infrastructure engineering at SKT, noted with the advent of AI, “traffic usage is expected to explode”, spurring it to work to ensure reliable traffic transmission across all regions of the country.
SKT stated it is installing NG-ROADM (Next Generation Re-configurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer), the latest optical communication network technology, adding that new coherent transmission technology features a low-power, high-efficiency integrated chipset.
Source: https://www.mobileworldlive.com/asia-pacific/sk-units-prepare-for-data-surge-with-backbone-upgrade/