Fast connections en masse require a fast backbone network. Keysight and Nokia Bell Labs show that there is still room for improvement.
With the advancing fiber optic expansion, the data rates of Internet connections are increasing both in companies and in private houses and apartments. But without fast backbone networks that transport the data between internet nodes and data centers without traffic jams, you don’t get much out of it. That’s why the race for the highest data rate on the existing infrastructure is running at the same time.
Measuring device manufacturer Keysight and research company Nokia Bell Laboratories have now set a new record: The duo achieved a symbol rate of 260 gigabaud per second on 100 kilometers of single-mode glass fiber – the world standard fiber type for longer distances. The companies presented a demo at the European Conference on Optical Communication in Basel.
Demo for new glass fiber record
The core of the demo is Keysight’s new arbitrary signal generator M8199B, which generates up to 260 giga samples per second and offers a bandwidth of around 80 GHz. It can serve as a basis for the research and development of data transmission systems that offer more than 2 terabit net data rate.
What is special about the record is that the high symbol rate was achieved using a single wavelength and not through bundling. Wavelength multiplexing is used where the highest possible data rates per fiber are required – for example between Internet nodes. Depending on the channel width and the quality of the components, more than 100 wavelengths are possible. More data rate per wavelength means a multiple of the total data rate on the fiber.
However, it will be some time before terabit fiber optic transceivers and the appropriate network hardware become commercially available. Currently commercially available fiber optic modules transmit a maximum of 800 gigabits per second.
