Network capacities are increasing by 25% to 50% every year, so technologies that support greater bandwidth over existing fiber opticcables, can save companies the significant costs and downtime associated with pulling new cables. Two announcements at the recent OFC conference show promise in these areas. First, Infinera researchers have demonstrated a new high-speed laser modulation, called PM-16QAM, that increased throughput on a cable by 20%. In another, Ciena reports that it will start delivering 800 Gb/s using coherent optics, by Q3 2019.
