Japanese Break Bandwidth Record: 450 Tbps On A Single Standard Fibre Pair
The National Institute of IT and Communication Technology (NICT) in Japan has been diligently working for many years on dramatically increasing fibre optic bandwidth by using a wider spectrum range than the traditional C and L bands. The long haul fibre optic networks have relied exclusively on the C and L bands because they offer the lowest optical attenuation for silicon-based fibre optics. Light in these frequency bands fades and loses strength relatively slowly as it passes through fibre optic glass. But as the chart below shows, the C and L bands comprise just a fraction of the available spectrum that lasers can use. In this trial the NICT achieved 450 Tbps on a repeatered London metro fibre pair connecting Telehouse London to the University of London. Because existing optical amplifiers are designed to work only in the C and L bands, NICT has spent years developing amplifiers optimized for the O, E, S, and U bands. These bands required that the fibre optic strands in the am...