Optinet China Conference 2016 was held on June 15. Tang Xiongyan, chief expert of China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute, said at the Conference that 100 G network was mainstream in terms of backbone network while 400 G and 1 T networks were the next step. The transmission distance of live networks of China Unicom is almost between 400 and 500 kilometers, and some reach 1,000 kilometers, used repeatedly, which should be met by 400 G. In addition, nonlinear effect and optical attenuation of 400 G network deployment are the key factors to the system, so new optical technologies should be taken into consideration, which is the priority at this stage.
China Unicom has started trials and standard setting of 400 G network, and cooperated with fiber manufacturers on the validation of first-level and second-level backbone network trials in Shangdong and Xinjiang. China Unicom will combine common optical fiber with G.654 fiber to assess the practical performance of the new-type fiber. China Unicom will carry out tests of 400 G optical system in 2H16.