Though 40 Gbit/s transmission technology has been in existence for more than a decade, until recently, it has mainly been confined to system-vendor laboratories. As the telecom industry continues to recover from troubles past, research and development of this technology has made considerable progress thanks to the market’s renewed interest in the subject. The first commercial 40 Gbit/s system was successfully deployed in 2005. Carriers are seeing the obvious advantages of this technology and the demand is steadily growing.
40 Gbit/s networks, however, still pose a vexing financial challenge. In order for it to be accepted as a feasible upgrade from 10 Gbit/s transmission, the 40 Gbit/s system would have to be four times less expensive. Even though this is not yet the case, some tier-1 carriers that envision substantial growth have turned to 40 Gbit/s to provide them with vastly superior traffic capaity. Most of these network operators are considering the possibility of implementing of 40 Gbit/s networks within a year or two. If it is determined that the transmission technology is cost-effective and efficient, operators will need to be ready to confront the potential issues involved in the infrastructure and deployment.