Apr 2 2010
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that scientists from its research arm, Bell Labs, have demonstrated a range of critical optical technology advances at the optical industry's annual Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) in San Diego, California.
The next-generation optical innovations showcased by Bell Labs at OFC involve the application of higher-order modulation techniques, use of multi-stage algorithms and increased spectral efficiencies that enable the transmission of significantly higher bit rates over increasingly longer distances. These innovations represent critical steps forward in the evolution of optical transmission over the mid to longer term by generating the high transmission speeds required to meet rapidly increasing demand for bandwidth.
The optical transmission technologies demonstrated by Bell Labs were presented in a series of juried research papers reviewed in rigorous evaluation process and accepted by the OFC program committee. The next-generation technologies include:
Field transmission of optical OFDM signals carrying greater than 100 Gigabits per second
A key step forward in the evolution of new modulation formats over existing fiber infrastructure. Involves transmission of 3x253Gb/s OFDM-Superchannels over 764 km field deployed single mode fibers. Employs ten G.652 fiber spans, provided by Deutsche Telekom AG and makes use of OFDM channels spaced 100GHz apart that cover a bandwidth of 90GHz and result in a configuration compatible with a 100GHz grid
Next-Generation 400 Gigabit per second transmission
Generation and detection of a novel spectrally-efficient format occupying a bandwidth of only 60 GHz. Involves 448-Gb/s Reduced-Guard-Interval CO-OFDM Signal with 7 bit-per second-Hz channel spectral efficiency and transmission over 2000-km of ULAF and five 80-GHz-Grid optical add-drop multiplexers
40% increase of single-carrier bit rate, up to 224-Gb/s
An improvement over the highest previous 20 Gbaud (160 Gb/s) single-carrier line rate demonstrated in PDM 16-QAM transmission. Single-carrier multilevel modulation at high symbol rates enables a simpler transmitter structure. Involves a 10 x 224-Gb/s WDM Transmission of 28-Gbaud PDM 16-QAM on a 50-GHz Grid over 1,200 km of fiber.
These advances in optical transmission technology are just the latest in a long series of Bell Labs optical networking breakthroughs that have gone on to become market-changing solutions and generated substantial growth opportunities for Alcatel-Lucent: 100 Petabit per second.kilometer transmission world record demonstrated in 2009, the invention of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), introduction of non-zero dispersion fiber, 100 Gigabit Ethernet field trials and advanced modulation formats at 40 Gigabits per second, including Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) and Phase-Shifted Binary Transmission (PSBT), the most widely used in 40 Gigabit per second systems worldwide.