Technology

Semiconductor foundry CST Global is leading a UK government-funded project that could substantially reduce the cost of manufacturing high-speed laser diodes for next-generation fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.

The market for passive optical networks (PON) is expanding rapidly as consumers upgrade their broadband connections to higher speeds. Indeed, this summer, CST Global said it had shipped more than 25 million lasers into PON markets worldwide. To meet the insatiable demand for bandwidth, the next generation of PON lasers will need to be both higher speed and lower cost.

Rockley Photonics, a silicon photonics start-up founded by entrepreneur Andrew Rickman, has formed a partnership with the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the UK’s University of Southampton to develop integrated photonics technology for mass market applications.

Through the ‘Prosperity Partnership’, Rockley Photonics will match the ORC’s government funding over the next five years. The scheme is designed to strengthen ties between university and industry, and speed up the time it takes innovation to progress from concept to market place.

To much fanfare, Nokia has unveiled what it claims is the industry’s first true petabit-class routing platform, powered by a new network processor chip that is six times faster than its predecessor.

Broadcast in 360-degree video around the world, the launch event in San Francisco marked Nokia’s biggest product introduction in recent years.

Infinera has unveiled the XTM II, a next-generation packet-optical platform for metro networks, with increased density, low latency and reduced power consumption.

Calix announced that it is the first vendor to demonstrate ITU standards-based channel bonding for NG-PON2, which combines multiple 10Gb/s channels to create a single channel with throughput of up to 40Gb/s.

Channel bonding allows operators to deliver more bandwidth than a single channel can support. This technique is used to boost capacity in DSL and G.fast systems by combining the capacity from several copper cables into a single logical channel. In the case of NG-PON2, the channels are wavelengths running over the same physical fibre.

Coriant reports the successful completion of a trial to show disaggregated 100G, 150G, and 200G optical transmission over live fibre-optic links in Telefónica Germany’s existing 10G DWDM network.

Conducted earlier this year, the trial showed how an open transmission systems and disaggregated networking technology – in this case using Coriant’s Groove G30 platform – can be used to increase network capacity more than 10-fold, avoiding the need to invest in new fibre.

Infinera has carried out a successful submarine network field test of its Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE) with Canalink, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ITER group. Canalink owns a system of undersea fibre-optic cables linking the Canary Islands with the Iberian Peninsula and the western coast of Africa.

The test, which was conducted on Canalink’s 1,393km cable linking the Conil landing point on the Spanish mainland with Tenerife in the Canary Islands, showed that it would be possible to upgrade the subsea cable well beyond its original design capacity.

The design of the optical connector hasn’t changed in more than 30 years, but now a company with expertise in precision metal stamping hopes to change that.

California-based nanoPrecision Products has redesigned the optical ferrule, the part that keeps the fibre in position inside an optical connector. Currently made from two ceramic pieces glued together with epoxy, the new design uses metal instead and is much easier to manufacture.

The European Union is investing €15.5 million into PIXAPP, a consortium that will establish what is thought to be world’s first open access photonic integrated circuit (PIC) assembly and packaging pilot line. The announcement was made to coincide with the Photonics21 annual general meeting, currently underway in Brussels.

The investment is designed to provide Europe with a state-of-the-art infrastructure that will support the industrial development and manufacture of PICs.

Finding ingenious, software-driven methods to improve the performance of optical hardware is one of the hot topics at OFC 2017, and every vendor has a unique interpretation.

Optical systems vendor Coriant used the show to unveil a real-time performance and analysis software toolkit that it calls “Coriant Aware Technology”. The new capabilities will increase transmission reach and capacity, enable faster and simpler wavelength planning and provisioning, and improve service availability, the company says.