Internet speeds worldwide have gone up considerably in the last decade, but scientists are still trying to improve them every day. The world will soon enter a new era of internet speed.
Scientists from the Network Research Institute at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology reported the world’s first demonstration of more than 1 petabit per second in a multi-core fiber (MCF) with a standard diameter of 0.125 mm. Using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, scientists developed a novel transmission system that supports a record optical bandwidth exceeding 20 THz.
The system consists of commercially adopted optical fiber transmission windows known as C and L-bands and extends the transmission bandwidth to include the recently explored S-band.
Advanced fibers having the same cladding width as normal single-mode optical fibers but with the ability to accommodate multiple propagation routes have been developed in recent years. These fibers have emerged as a viable choice for near-term commercial deployment of these disruptive communications technology because they can increase transmission capacity while being compatible with conventional production methods.
Scientists added two kinds of doped fiber amplifiers and Raman amplification with pumps in a novel multi-core pump combiner. This enabled transmission of 801 wavelength channels over the 20 THz optical bandwidth.
Each core of a 4-core MCF, which has the same cladding width as a normal optical fiber, was used to transmit a huge number of wavelength channels. These fibers are compatible with current cabling technologies. They do not require the complicated signal processing needed to unscramble signals in multi-mode fibers, allowing for the use of existing transceiver hardware.
MCFs with four cores are the most likely of the new advanced optical fibers to see early commercial deployment. This demonstration demonstrates their data-carrying capability and is an essential step toward implementing backbone communication systems that support the evolution of Beyond 5G information services.
The results of this experiment were accepted as a postdeadline paper presentation at the International Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics (CLEO) 2022 and presented on Thursday, May 19, 2022, at 7 PM local time.