Optical networking vendor Infinera pushed the cost per bit of telecommunications ever lower today, announcing the successful trial of an 800 Gb/s single-wave transmission over a distance of 950 kilometers.

The long-haul optical trial was conducted over a live, production network using Infinera's sixth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6)-equipped Groove platform and standard G.652 optical fiber.

According to Infinera SVP of Marketing, Rob Shore, the trial was significant because it marks the successful use of a transceiver that's headline data rate — 800 Gb/s — can be achieved over a sufficiently long distance to address a meaningful fraction of telecommunications provider's networks.

"That addresses about 40% of network applications. For the first time that I can remember in advanced optical networking you have a headline data rate that's actually useful," he said, adding that this "kind of breaks the traditional mold of optical networking."

Shore explained that most optical transceivers can be tuned to operate a specific data rate based on how far the signal needs to go: the lower the data rate, the further it can go. Until this latest generation of transceivers, he said the headline data rate historically hasn't been all that useful because the top speed couldn't be achieved at the distances required.

And distance is important for operators building out these networks because, along with speed, distance is one of the key factors in determining the overall cost per bit.

The optical industry is all about "providing the most amount of connections that are the highest speed connections, at the lowest cost per bit and the lowest power per bit, with the greatest spectral efficiency," Shore said.

Infinera is aiming the technology at hub-to-hub, long-haul transport applications like those used for subsea communications or to connect cities and data centers across large distances.

Infinera has additional trials of its 800 Gb/s-capable ICE6 transceivers planned for the coming months. These will include distance trials of the technology when tuned to 600 Gb/s. At these speeds initial testing has shown to be capable of carrying a signal far in excess of 1,600 kilometers, says Shore.

Today's announcement comes just weeks after Infinera announced another successful trial of its ICE6 optics in collaboration with fiber manufacturer Corning over a distance of 800 kilometers. The demonstration also paired Infinera's ICE6 and Groove platforms to transmit an 800-Gb/s signal, but rather than industry-standard fiber optic cable it used Corning's TXF fiber.

Last week, competitor Ciena announced the availability of its own 800 Gb/s-capable transceiver, WaveLogic 5 Extreme.

However, unlike Infinera's ICE6, WaveLogic 5 is only capable of 800 Gb/s speeds across short distances. In a release, Ciena claims that when tuned to 600 Gb/s its transceiver can achieve distances of 1,000 kilometers.