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FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1998
LUCENTÃS BELL LABS SCIENTISTS REPORT WORLDÃS FIRST LONG-DISTANCE TRANSMISSION OF A TRILLION BITS OF DATA, USING 100 COLORS OF LIGHT
MURRAY HILL, N.J. ñ Underscoring Lucent Technologiesà competitive edge in the communications marketplace, scientists from Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies, have reported the worldÃs first long-distance transmission of a terabit (trillion bits) of information per second over a single strand of optical fiber.
Using an experimental ultra-wideband optical-fiber amplifier, unveiled less than a year ago, the scientists were able to transmit signals at the rate of 10 gigabits (billion bits) per second over each of 100 wavelengths, or colors, of light for 400 kilometers, or nearly 250 miles.
A system based on this technology would have the capacity to carry the whole worldÃs Internet traffic simultaneously over a single optical fiber.
In the past two years, researchers at Bell Labs and several other labs have demonstrated terabit-capacity transmission over relatively short distances. The 400-kilometer transmission distance is nearly three times that of other experiments.
A research team, led by Yan Sun and Atul Srivistava, of Bell Labs Photonic Networks Research department, presented a technical paper on the 100-channel long-distance terabit experiment in the post-deadline -- late-breaking news -- session of the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) conference last week in San Jose.
Kinichiro Ogawa, head of Bell Labs Photonic Systems Technology Research department, presented a post-deadline paper describing another high-capacity breakthrough: 1.2-terabit transmission, with 40 gigabits per second carried over each of 30 wavelengths through 85 kilometers of fiber.
Both experimental systems use TrueWaveÆ fiber, a product of LucentÃs Network Products Group. TrueWave fiber is a high-capacity, high-performance fiber -- the first optical fiber especially designed for multi-wavelength transmission.
Four other Bell Labs post-deadline papers were also presented.
"The 400-kilometer experiment brought together a wide range of people and technologies from the Bell Labs R&D community as well as LucentÃs Optical Networking Systems and Fiber Cable groups," said Alastair Glass, director of the Bell Labs Photonics Research Lab. "The breadth of our product offerings and R&D expertise is a particular strength of Lucent Technologies."
"The Bell Labs experiment is a major milestone that brings Lucent a step closer to achieving its goal of delivering the all-optical network -- the new foundation for high-capacity network communication," said Gerry Butters, president of Lucent's Optical Networking business.
"This long-distance terabit transmission achievement comes on the heels of LucentÃs introduction of its WaveStarô optical networking system, which delivers a record-breaking capacity of up to 400 gigabits of information per second over a single fiber. These innovations demonstrate LucentÃs continual exploration of new technologies that will enable our customers to transmit limitless bandwidth at virtually no cost to them." Rapid progress in the telecommunications industry, fueled by continuing growth in Internet use, has increased demand for high-capacity optical systems that rely on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology. WDM involves transmitting digitized voice, data and video, in the form of light pulses, over multiple wavelengths.
The Bell Labs experimental ultra-wideband optical amplifiers span almost seven times the optical bandwidth of optical amplifiers used in todayÃs commercial WDM systems.
Bell Labs scientists and engineers presented six post-deadline papers, six short courses and 34 technical talks in the OFC program. Lucent Technologies also exhibited products from its Optical Networking and Microelectronics business groups.
Bell Labs, a global leader in optical technology, holds more than 1600 patents in optical technology. Lucent, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data-networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. More information on Lucent Technologies is available at http://www.lucent.com.
OFC, the major North American conference on optical-fiber communications and related systems and applications, is co-sponsored by the Optical Society of America, the IEEE/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, and the IEEE/Communications Society.
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Photo #1: Bell Labs Researchers Yan Sun and Atul Srivastava make adjustments to their 400-kilometer, one-trillion-bit transmission experiment, which carries 10 billion bits of information over each of 100 wavelengths, or colors, of light.
Photo #2: Bell Labs R&D team members Yan Sun, Chuck Wolf, James Sulhoff, Anatoli Abramov, and Atul Srivastava smile at the completion of their successful 400-kilometer, one-trillion-bit transmission experiment. The experimental system carries 10 billion bits of information over each of 100 wavelengths, or colors, of light.
BELL LABS, LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES - OFC POST-DEADLINE PAPERS
1 Tb/s Long-Distance Transmission With 100 Optical Channels
Researchers demonstrated error-free transmission of 1 terabit per second, using 100 WDM 10-Gb/s channels with 50 or 100-GHz channel spacing, over 400 km of TrueWaveÆ fiber using high-power, large-dynamic-range, gain-flattened ultra-wideband erbium-doped silica fiber amplifiers.
The outputs of 100 lasers were combined using four 100 GHz waveguide grating routers. Of the total 60 channels in the C-band, the odd-numbered ones were multiplexed using one router and the even channels using another. The two sets of channels were interleaved and combined, with 50 GHz spacing. In the L-band, 40 channels with 100-GHz spacing were multiplexed using two routers, one with 32 and the other with 8 channels.
The output from all four routers was combined using a 4x1 coupler. The signals were all modulated at 10 Gb/s and amplified. At the end of the system, the signals were amplified by an EDFA as the optical preamplifier and demultiplexed with a tunable optical bandpass filter. They were detected and split for clock extraction and data.
LucentÃs new ultra-wideband EDFAs overcome the capacity limitations of conventional silica EDFAs on long-haul commercial Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexed (DWDM) systems, making it feasible to transmit 100 WDM channels with 100 GHz channel spacing, an International Telecommunications Union standard, or 200 WDM channels with 50 GHz channel spacing, which is more suitable for trans-oceanic links. The gain spectrum of the two-band amplifier was flattened using long-period fiber grating fibers. A patent covering this technology has been filed with the U.S. Patent Office.
The R&D team included Yan Sun, Atul Srivastava, James W. Sulhoff, Chuck Wolf, Martin Zirngibl, Rene Monnard, Andrew R. Chraplyvy, Anatoli A. Abramov, Rolando P. Espindola, J. R. Pedrazzani, Tomas A. Strasser, Ashish M. Vengsarkar, John Zyskind, Jianhui Zhou, Dan A. Ferrand, Paul F. Wysocki, Justin B. Judkins, and Yuan P. Li.
* * * 1.2 Tb/s WDM Transmission Over 85 KM Fiber, Using 40 Gb/s Line Rate Transmitter and 3R Receiver
In this ultra-high-capacity 1.2 Tb/s WDM experiment 30 NRZ data channels, each at 40 Gb/s, were transmitted over 85 km of TrueWave fiber. Total optical system bandwidth was less than 30 nm. The non-zero-dispersion fiber minimized the crosstalk caused by four-wave-mixing. Bit-error-rate measurements for each WDM channel show no indication of error floors.
The outputs of 30 DFB laser sources, with 1.0 nm wavelength separation, were optically multiplexed and then modulated and transmitted through the fiber. After preamplification by a gain-flattened EDFA, the received signal passed through a bandpass filter before entering the optical receiver.
R&D team: C.D. Chen, I. Kim, O. Mizuhara, T.V. Nguyen, K. Ogawa, R.E. Tench, L.D. Tzeng, and P.D. Yeates.
* * *
Fiber-to-the-Home System Providing Broadband Data Over Cable Modems Along with Analog and Digital Video
Bell Labs researchers demonstrated that by applying cable-modem technology in a 1550-nm EDFA-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) system it is possible to deliver broadband data services along with analog and digital broadcast video. The system shares 30 Mb/s downstream and 2.56 Mb/s upstream among 16 optical network units (ONUs). Using cable modems to carry data simplifies the development of the optical network unit and permits the data capacity of the network to be scaled to meet customer demand.
Using this architecture, high-speed data services, such as Internet access, can be added in small increments as customer demand grows. The system can deliver broadcast analog an digital video, which is the only broadband service to which a majority of consumers currently subscribe. The system adapts hybrid-fiber coax (HFC) technology to an FTTH system. No performance degradation of the cable modem system was seen due to its operation over the optical network. The system is attractive for rapid deployment of fully upgradeable access networks.
R&D team: Thomas H. Wood, Gordon C. Wilson, Robert D. Feldman, and J. Anthony Stiles.
* * *
Highly Efficient Light-Actuated Micromechanical Photonic Switch for Enhanced Functionality at Remote Nodes
An electrostatically driven silicon micromechanical reflective optical switch was actuated by 1.24 V from a 8-sector InGaAs photogenerator illuminated with 2.7mW (-25.7 dBm) at 1555 nm. This highly sensitive optical circuit can provide enhanced provisioning and maintenance capabilities at unpowered remote nodes in passive optical networks and inaccessible branching units (remote spans greater than 180 km) in terrestrial and undersea lightwave systems.
R&D team: Randy Giles, Vladimir Aksyuk, Brad Barber, Andrew Dentai, Elle Burrows, Charlie Burrus, Larry Stulz, Joel Hoffman, Brian Moyer, David Bishop.
* * *
320 Gb/s WDM Transmission (64 x 5 Gb/s) Over 7,200 km Using Large Mode Fiber Spans and Chirped Return-to-Zero Signals
Sixty-four 5 Gb/s WDM channels were transmitted over 7,200 km in an optical bandwidth of 19 nm. Channel interactions caused by the fiberÃs nonlinear index were reduced by using a large mode dispersion shifted fiber, and by launching adjacent channels in orthogonal polarizations.
R&D team: Neal S. Bergano, C.R. Davidson, M. Ma, A Pilipetskii, S.G. Evangelides, H.D. Kidorf, J.M. Darcie, E. Golovchenko, K. Rottwitt, P.C. Corbett, R. Menges, M.A. Mills, B. Pedersen, Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd.; D. Peckham, A.A. Abramov, A.M. Vengsarkar, Bell Labs.
* * *
Performance and Operation of WDM Layer Automatic Protection Switching in a 1,177 km Reconfigurable Multiwavelength Ring Network
Researchers demonstrated control and operation of optical layer automatic protection switching for a reconfigurable WDM ring network with 20 optical amplifiers cascaded in a 1,177 km fiber link. The bit-error-rate performance of SONET OC-48 signals were measured to have less than 0.5 dB power penalty for the longest protection path in the WDM ring network.
R&D team: W. Xin, G. K. Chang, H. Dai, J. Young, T. Robe, S.J. Yoo, B. Meagher, M. Rauch, R. Wagner, J. Jackel, J. Baran, G. Ellinas, Bellcore; L.E. Nelson, Bell Labs, L.. Garrett, AT&T Labs.
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