OFC/NFOEC 2010: Technical paper highlights

At this year’s OFC/NFOEC, to be held on March 21-25, all the main themes driving optical networking are represented:  40 and 100Gbps transmission, coherent detection, photonic integration, and the latest in optical access such as WDM-PON.

Here is a sample of some of the noteworthy papers.

Optical transmission

Nortel’s Next Generation Transmission Fiber for Coherent Systems details how various fibre parameters impact coherent system performance.  This is important for existing 40 and 100Gbps systems and for future ones based on even higher data rates.

In 40G and 100G Deployment on 10G Infrastructure: Market Overview and Trends, Coherent Versus Conventional Technology, Alcatel-Lucent discusses 40G and 100G deployment strategies over 10G infrastructures based on a trial using live commercial traffic.

Two papers demonstrate possible future optical modulation steps.

In Ultra-High Spectral Efficiency Transmission, Bell Labs Alcatel-Lucent details the generation, transmission and coherent detection of 14-Gbaud polarization-division multiplexed, 16-ary quadrature-amplitude-modulation (16-QAM) signals achieving spectral efficiencies as high as 6.2 b/s/Hz.

Meanwhile, NEC Labs America and AT&T Labs address 112.8-Gb/s PM-RZ-64QAM Optical Signal Generation and Transmission on a 12.5GHz WDM Grid. The optical signal was sent over 2x40km using an 8-channel WDM using 12.5GHz grid spacing.    

Photonic integration

In High Performance Photonic Integrated Circuits for Coherent Fiber Communication, Chris Doerr of Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent presents how photonic integration can benefit high-speed transmission. In particular, how optical integration can be used to tackle the complex circuitry needed for coherent systems to reduce the area, cost, and power consumption of optical coherent transceivers.  

Another photonic integration development is the CMOS-Integrated Low-Noise Germanium Waveguide Avalanche Photodetector Operating at 40Gbps from IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. The avalanche photodiode has a gain-bandwidth-product above 350GHz operating at 3V. The avalanche photodetector is monolithically integrated into CMOS.  

Optical access

An update will be given on the EU’s Seventh Framework programme for WDM-PON, dubbed Sardana -  Scalable Advanced Ring-based passive Dense Access Network Architecture. The paper, Results from EU Project SARDANA on 10G Extended Reach WDM PONs, details the integration of WDM metro and PON access technologies to implement ring protection, 100km reach and up to 1024 users served at 10Gbps using a passive infrastructure.

In 44-Gb/s/λ Upstream OFDMA-PON Transmission with Polarization-Insensitive Source-Free ONUs, NEC Labs America details its work on colourless 44-Gb/s/λ upstream OFDMA-PON transmission using polarization-insensitive, source-free ONUs.  

Green telecom and datacom

There are other, more subtle developments at OFC/NFOEC. Two papers from Japan have ‘Green’ in the title, highlighting how power consumption is increasingly a concern. 

High Performance “Green” VCSELs for Data Centers from Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd details how careful design can achieve a 62% power conversion efficiency in the 1060nm VCSEL.

The second paper tackles power consumption in access networks. Key Roles of Green Technology for Access Network Systems from NTT Labs in Japan addresses the ITU-T’s standardisation activities.   Optics for flow and interconnect  

In Optical Flow Switching, Vincent Chan of MIT will discuss 'optical flow switching' that promises significant growth, power-efficiency and cost-effective scalability of next-generation networks.

Meanwhile Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies has a paper entitled Photonic Terabit Routers: The IRIS Project, detailing the results of the DARPA-MTO funded program to develop a router with an all-optical data plane and a total capacity of more than 100 Tbps.  

Another important topic is optical interconnect. Low Power and High Density Optical Interconnects for Future Supercomputers from IBM Research reviews the status and prospects of technologies required to build low power, high density board and chip level interconnects needed to meet future supercomputers requirements.  

NFOEC papers

There are also some noteworthy NFOEC papers bound to stir interest:

• Google reviews the optical communication technologies required to support data center operations and warehouse-scale computing.

• Verizon shares lessons learned during the five years of Verizon’s FiOS and the need to continually evolve product and service offerings. 

• AT&T details the key decisions required in defining its new 100G backbone. 

There is a comprehensive OFC/NFOEC preview in the February issue of IEEE Communications magazine, click on the "conference preview" tab.