Researchers at CRANN and Trinity’s School of Physics have discovered that a new material can act as a super-fast magnetic switch. When struck by successive ultra-short laser pulses it exhibits “toggle switching” that could increase the capacity of the global fiber optic cable network by an order of magnitude.
Optical data signals are comprised of very short bursts of light, or optical pulses. When we transmit optical pulses through fiber, they broaden. This means that they become longer in duration as they travel through the fiber. If the fiber is long enough, this broadening causes the pulses to overlap and interfere with each other, which impacts the receiver’s ability to resolve the transmitted data, resulting in bit errors. This pulse broadening is due to a phenomenon called dispersion and limits the transmission bandwidth and distance. Single-mode and multi-mode fiber are each dominated by different types of dispersion.
Researchers say a new discovery on a U.S. Army project for optoelectronic devices could help make optical fiber communications more energy efficient. A new design of optical devices radiate light in a single direction. This single-sided radiation channel for light can be used in a wide array of optoelectronic applications to reduce energy loss in optical fiber networks and data centers. The journal Nature published the findings. Light tends to flow in optical fibers along one direction, like water flows through a pipe. On-chip couplers are used to connect fibers to chips, where light signals are generated, amplified, or detected. While most light going through the coupler continues through to the fiber, some of the light travels in the opposite direction, leaking out. A large part of energy consumption in data traffic is due to this radiation loss.
WDM is an abbreviation for Wavelength-Division Multiplexing, and is now one of the most widely used technology for high-capacity optical communication systems. At the transmitter side, multiple optical transmitters – each emitting at a different wavelength – individually send signals and these signals are multiplexed by a wavelength multiplexer (MUX). The multiplexed signals are then transmitted over one main transmission line (optical fiber cable). At the receiver side, the signals are de-multiplexed by a wavelength de-multiplexer (DEMUX) and sent to multiple receivers.
The exhibit floor at OFC 2020 in San Diego is open and attendance is reported as light. More than 180 exhibitors pulled out of the conference. To provide access to the sessions, show organizers have made the technical sessions available via video conferencing.
2020 marks the 50th anniversary of low-loss #optical #fiber, which revolutionized #communications. Read about how once the promise of glass for communications had been realized, specialists in glass science took on the task of making that promise a reality.
TiniFiber was awarded first place in the “Copper and Fiber” category for displayed products during the BICSI 2020 Winter Exhibition. Honored was TiniFiber’s Micro Armored 144 Strand Fiber Optic Cable, for offering the industry’s smallest 144 strand OS2 fiber-optic cabling innovation, incorporating the company’s U.S. patented micro armored stainless-steel coil innovation around its inner jacket.
The largest concentration of the fiber optics supply chain can be found in Wuhan, home to Fiberhome, YOFC, and Accelink, among other companies, which together comprise 25% of the global optical fiber production capacity.
Instead of replacing the current infrastructure of optical fibers, data centers and base stations, the quantum internet will build on top of and make maximum use of the existing, classical internet.
OFC, The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition, is the premier international event for the latest advances in optical communications and networking. The conference starts March 8th in San Diego.
