Fast Optical Communications

A part for a 400Gbps optical transmitter and transceiver that can transmit 50 high definition (HD) movies in one second which consists of an optical receiver device and a tunable light source device among others. (photo courtesy: ETRI)
A part for a 400Gbps optical transmitter and transceiver that can transmit 50 high definition (HD) movies in one second which consists of an optical receiver device and a tunable light source device among others. (photo courtesy: ETRI)

 

A team of Korean researchers developed a part for an optical transmitter and transceiver that can transmit 50 high definition (HD) movies in one second, making it possible to send data without discontinuance in the 5G era. In particular, it is possible to support various 5G services by replacing optical transmission and reception equipment with existing optical cables.

The ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) announced on March 6 that the research institute succeeded in developing and demonstrating a 400Gbps optical transmission and reception part which quadruples the data transmission capacity of an optical telecommunication network which can send 100Gbps per second. The optical transmitter and transceiver component consists of an optical receiver device that converts a 400Gbps optical signal into an electrical signal and receives it and a tunable light source device that sends an electrical signal via an optical telecommunication network. The team assembled the two devices into a part at the centimeter level.

This component can control transmission capacity, modulation methods and wavelength for communication services by software. Therefore, this component can control and distribute data even if data traffic skyrockets. This will be installed in optical transmission equipment and its commercialization will be done by telecommunication carriers.

In particular, the research team succeeded in sending and receiving 400Gbps electric signals in the 510-km section between an ETRI lab in Daejeon and the Seoul metropolitan area last month. In the future, the technology will be transferred to optical transmission/reception parts suppliers and optical transmission equipment developers for its commercialization. The research team will also work on the development of a component for 1Tbps optical transmission and reception.

"The newly developed component has stronger cost competitiveness with low-cost materials such as silica and polymer and can be applied to existing optical communication networks because they can use various data capacities such as 100Gbps and 200Gbps without changing parts," said Kim Jong-hoi, director of the Optical Communication Components Research Group at the ETRI.

Meanwhile, this technology will be showcased at the OFC 2108, the world's largest optical communication conference in San Diego which will kick off on March 11.

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