News Article
Opnext demonstrates InP 100Gbps 3,300km transmission
The record breaking trial is a clear demonstration that coherent indium phosphide 100Gbps PM-QPSK transmission technology is tolerant to a very large range of impairments
Opnext and SURFnet, the National Research and Education Network (NREN) in the Netherlands, have announced a successful 100Gbps coherent field trial between the National Supercomputing Centre, SARA, in Amsterdam and CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire - European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Geneva.
Opnext used its OTS-100FLX 100Gbps digital coherent subsystem for the field trial, utilising next-generation 100Gbps single carrier technology and soft decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) to optically link Amsterdam to Geneva with a transmission distance of 1,650km using only erbium doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs).
To further demonstrate the subsystem's performance, the embedded fibre link comprised a combination of the relatively high-nonlinear TW+ and TWRS fibres. What's more, the circuit was optically looped back in Geneva, thus creating a 3,300km circuit. The looped-back 3,300km link operated error-free for more than 23 hours (BER < 10-15) over the entire C-band and over a range of launch powers, highlighting the true upgrade potential of this link to 8Tbps in the future using 100Gbps coherent transponders.
"This trial is another clear demonstration that coherent 100Gbps PM-QPSK transmission technology is tolerant to a very large range of impairments (i.e. chromatic dispersion, polarisation mode dispersion, noise) and allows the use of alien wavelengths in research networks over DWDM systems from multiple vendors," says Roeland Nuijts, Optical Network Architect for SURFnet. "Transmission distance and tolerance against different impairments will be critical going forward as we look to build out international networks across geographic and administrative borders in order to realize a global facility for research networking."
The Opnext subsystem consists of a suite of OTS-100FLX 100Gbps flexponder line cards and a newly released OTS-mini ETSI shelf with a 4RU small form factor.
"It is great to see the results of our 100Gbps coherent product development deliver both the capacity and reach needed to scale next-generation optical networks around the world," adds Mike Chan, President of Opnext's subsystems business unit. "SURFnet's 3,300km field trial really pushed us, and our 100Gbps coherent technology met the challenge."
