Xtera Reports Unrepeatered Transmission Performance for 15 Tbit/s Ultra-High Line Capacity at ECOC 2014

Xtera Communications, Inc., a leading global provider of optical networking solutions, reported on the industry's leading unrepeatered transmission performance for an ultra-high line capacity of 15 Tbit/s at the ECOC 2014 conference held in Cannes, France (21-25 September 2014).

These latest unrepeatered transmission demonstrations follow the results jointly presented by Xtera, Verizon and Corning at the Post-Deadline Paper session of the OFC 2014 conference (9-13 March 2014 - San Francisco, California, USA) where the maximal unrepeatered reach was explored with a record distance of 557 km of Corning^® Vascade^® EX2000 optical fiber.

The purpose of the work presented at ECOC 2014 was to demonstrate high cross-sectional capacity over very long unrepeatered reach. Using Xtera's commercial Nu-Wave Optima™ optical networking platform, built around Xtera's Wise Raman™ solution, 150 x 100G channels were transmitted on 334 km of ITU-T G.652 compliant Corning^® SMF-28^® ULL fiber with an average A_eff of 83 µm2. When a Remote Optically Pumped Amplifier (ROPA) is inserted in the line at about 115 km from the receiver end, a distance of 390 km of Corning^® SMF-28^® ULL fiber can be bridged, still at the 150 x 100G capacity.

These unrivalled transmission results were further improved with the transport of 150 x 100G channels over 410 km of Corning^® Vascade^® EX2000 optical fiber with an average A_eff of 112 µm².

Xtera's Wise Raman™ technology increases the optical span length by turning some parts of the line fiber into an amplification medium. This is achieved via the Raman nonlinear effect where optical pump waves are launched into the fiber to create optical gain for the WDM carriers.

These outstanding unrepeatered performances lead to excellent reach performance in multi-span configurations as well, with maximum span lengths between intermediate sites and very long end-to-end all-optical reach, as demonstrated by recent deployments of Xtera's Wise Raman™ solution in the CFE Telecom (Mexico) and TIM Brasil (Brazil) backbone networks.

Xtera pioneered Raman optical amplification in backbone networks with its Wise Raman™ solution and the installation of Raman amplifiers with a 100 nm optical spectrum in 2004. Xtera was also the first supplier to introduce Soft-Decision Forward Error Correction (SD-FEC) in a commercial 100G network in 2011. In April 2013, Xtera launched the industry's first optical wideband repeater featuring Raman amplification for long-haul subsea cable systems. In December 2013, Xtera introduced the XWDM solution that makes possible a [Capacity x Reach] metric which exceeds, by a factor of six, what is normally achievable by today's 100G optical transport systems that use Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs).

For terrestrial backbone networks, the multi-purpose Nu-Wave Optima™ optical networking platform delivers unrivaled line capacities of 15 Tbit/s on more than 4,500 km, and 64 Tbit/s on more than 1,500 km with no intermediate regeneration.