Nokia Gear Sends Fastest Data In Test At CERN

In February, deep inside a warehouse at CERN, the Swiss home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the world’s biggest science experiment – two network engineers held their breath and pressed a button.

The idea is to improve scientists’ access to the results of LHC experiments using Nokia equipment. I Photo: SURF

Suddenly, text on a black background flashed up on a screen in front of them. It had worked, Chris Baraniuk reported for BBC News.

“There was high-fiving involved,” recalls Joachim Opdenakker at SURF, a Dutch IT association that works for educational and research institutions. “It was super cool to see.”

He and his colleague Edwin Verheul had just set up a new data link between the LHC in Switzerland and data storage sites in the Netherlands.

A data link that could reach speeds of 800 gigabits per second (Gbps) – or more than 11,000 times the average UK home broadband speed. The idea is to improve scientists’ access to the results of LHC experiments using Nokia equipment.

A subsequent test in March using the Nokia gear proved the desired speeds were achievable.

“This transponder that Nokia uses, it’s like a celebrity,” says Verheul, explaining how the kit is booked up for use at various locations in advance.

“We had limited time to do tests. If you have to postpone a week, then the transponder is gone,” he adds.

This amount of bandwidth, approaching one terabit per second, is extremely fast, but some subsea cables are a few hundred times faster still – they use multiple fiber strands to achieve such speeds.

After its upgrade, the LHC will produce five times as much data in labs around the world, and networking experts are coming up with fiber optic systems capable of pushing data around even more rapidly than this.

They are reaching extraordinary speeds of many petabits per second (Pbps), or 300 million times the average UK home broadband connection.