Huawei, in a post-deadline paper delivered as part of the virtual ECOC 2020 event last month, says its Munich optical network R&D team has achieved 220-GBaud signal transmission. Such performance, if commercialized, would support optical transmission rates of greater than 1 Tbps per wavelength, the company says.
"Our experiment marks a significant milestone in fiber optical communication research,” commented Dr. Maxim Kuschnerov, director of the company’s Optical & Quantum Laboratory in Munich and a co-author of the paper. “Ten years after the first generation of coherent optical products based on 28-giga symbols per second, we were able to scale up the symbol rate by a factor of almost 8, using AI-powered advanced signal processing and the latest high-bandwidth components. This will pave the way for future multi-terabit interfaces for metro and backbone networks."
According to the paper, “220 GBaud Signal Generation Enabled by a 256-GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator and Advanced DSP,” the 256-GSa/s arbitrary waveform generator is based on SiGe. The demonstration also leveraged a >50-GHz 6-dB bandwidth GaAs IQ modulator and what Huawei described as “nonlinear digital signal processing algorithms.”
The 220-GBaud symbol rate exceeds the previous record of 192 GBaud. Huawei notes that current 800-Gbps transmission leverages 95-GBaud technology.
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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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