Nokia Bell Labs researchers transmit 1.52 Tbps over 80 km
Nokia Bell Labs reported in a post-deadline paper at OFC 2020 last week (yes, there were post-deadline papers delivered) that it has accomplished a single-carrier transmission of 1.52 Tbps over 80 km of standard single-mode fiber. The transmission is a world record, Nokia Bell Labs asserts, and was one of several innovations the organization described during last week’s event.
A Nokia Bell Labs optical research team led by Fred Buchali achieved the 1.52-Tbps transmission using a 128-Gsample/sec converter that enabled the generation of signals at a symbol rate of 128 Gbaud and information rates of the individual symbols beyond 6 bits/symbol/polarization. Nokia Bell Labs also held the previous record, 1.3 Tbps, set in September 2019 as part of a field trial with Etisalat (see “Nokia, Etisalat conduct single-carrier terabit optical transmission field trial”).
Also at OFC 2020, Nokia Bell Labs reported the following results:
- Di Che and team set a new data-rate world record for directly modulated lasers (DMLs) of beyond 400 Gbps for links up to 15 km.
- A team led by Roland Ryf completed what is said to be the first field trial using spatial-division-multiplexed (SDM) cable over a 2,000 km span of four-core coupled-core fiber. The experiment demonstrated the technical viability of coupled-core fibers that offer high transmission performance while maintaining an industry standard 125-um cladding diameter, says the lab.
- Ryf, alongside Rene-Jean Essiambre and Murali Kodialam, also led a team that has proposed a new set of modulation formats that provide improved linear and nonlinear transmission performance at submarine distances of 10,000 km. The formats are generated by a neuronal network and can significantly outperform traditional formats (such as QPSK), the lab asserts.
- Researcher Junho Cho and team reported on an experiment that demonstrated capacity gains of 23% for submarine cable systems that operate under electrical supply power constraints. Optimization of the gain shaping filters via neural networks enabled the capacity gains.
The research above was conducted within Nokia Bell Labs’ Smart Optical Fabric & Devices Research Lab. Researchers in this lab design and build work to develop new technologies for optical communications systems through work in such avenues as physics, materials science, math, software, and optics.
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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