Partners successfully demonstrate unrepeatered 100G over 627 km of OPGW

Optical module developer Accelink Technologies Co., Ltd. (Chinese Stock Market: 002281), optical systems house Xtera Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCOM), and optical fiber and cable vendor Corning (NYSE:GLW) will describe a demonstration of unrepeatered 100G transmission over 627 km of optical ground wire (OPGW) in a paper at the 2015 Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP) this week in Hong Kong.

OPGW serves two purposes for utilities. First, it replaces the shield or static wire installed on high-voltage power lines to protect the network from lightning strikes by taking them to ground. Second, it contains optical fibers that can be used for internal data acquisition and communications as well as delivering commercial communications services.

The 100G optical transmission demonstration used OPGW in the facilities of China's State Grid Information & Telecommunication (SGIT) organization, the telecommunication arm of what the technology companies say is the world's largest power grid builder and operator. The 100G communications link showed error-free performance over a two-month period.

All of the technology used in the demonstration is currently available, meaning long-haul 100G communications over power lines using OPGW is possible today, the partners assert.

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