TE SubCom employs Tektronix 70-GHz oscilloscopes for coherent transmission work

Test and measurement systems vendor Tektronix, Inc. says that it has partnered with TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, on the latter's development of coherent transmission technology for submarine networks. The collaboration includes provision of Tektronix's DPO70000SX 70-GHz oscilloscopes.

TE Subcom provides technology for a wide variety of undersea cable systems, where 100-Gbps wavelength capability has become as common a requirement as it is on terrestrial networks (see, for example, "TE Subcom demos coherent 100G on transatlantic submarine cable system" and "America-Europe Connect submarine network construction begins"). As the company's engineers push the limits of current technology to improve performance and reliability, a high-bandwidth, real-time oscilloscope becomes an essential tool because of the high-frequency signal fidelity such research requires, says Tektronix. This is particularly true as TE Subcom engineers endeavor to stretch transmission rates beyond 100 Gbps over the long reaches typical of transoceanic fiber-optic networks.

"Our System Research team continues to push the limits on the transmission capacity per optical channel and the total capacity on transoceanic length cables. This body of work requires state-of-the-art laboratory equipment that has very large electrical bandwidth," says Neal Bergano, vice president of R&D and CTO of TE SubCom. "The partnership with Tektronix has enabled us to validate these new schemes with confidence."

Tektronix introduced the DPO70000SX oscilloscopes at OFC 2015 (see "Tektronix offers 70-GHz high-fidelity real-time oscilloscope"). Optical modulation analysis such as TE Subcom requires provides one of the instrument's primary applications.

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