SK Telecom (SKT) and SK Broadband announced that they have become the first operator in South Korea to introduce an 800 Gbps high-capacity backbone route between Seoul and Busan. This initiative is part of a broader effort to prepare for the growing data demands of the AI era, 5G technology, and cloud services, SKT said on Tuesday.
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800 Gbps Backbone Route
SKT said it has completed the trial of this network on the Seoul-Busan section of the commercial network, along with a successful test of a 1.2 Tbps super-capacity network at its data center in Incheon. These advancements are designed to handle the rapid increase in data traffic, providing robust and scalable backbone network infrastructure across the country, the official release said.
Advanced Optical Transmission Technologies
To achieve these upgrades, SK Telecom and SK Broadband reported that they have utilised next-generation optical transmission technologies, including Coherent Transmission for long-distance data transfer, Flex-Grid for enhanced network flexibility, and the latest silicon integrated circuit chipset with a 5nm process for improved efficiency and lower power consumption.
Deployment of NG-ROADM in Major Cities
Additionally, SKT and SK Broadband have been deploying NG-ROADM (Next Generation Re-configurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) in major cities to enhance network capacity in response to rising bandwidth demands.
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"We are working to ensure lossless traffic transmission throughout Korea in preparation for the gradual explosion of traffic usage with the advent of the AI era, and we will continue to build a network that can transmit large-scale traffic," SK Telecom said.
SK Broadband added, "The demand for data centers is increasing, and the need for advanced long-distance large-capacity transmission networks is growing. We will strive to build an advanced network by securing continuous optical transmission technology."
