The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum

Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum
Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum
Wide-bandwidth signal transmission with low latency is emerging as a key requirement in a number of applications, including the development of future exaflop-scale supercomputers, financial algorithmic trading and cloud computing. Optical fibres provide unsurpassed transmission bandwidth, but light propagates 31% slower in a silica glass fibre than in vacuum, thus compromising latency. Air guidance in hollow-core fibres can reduce fibre latency very significantly. However, state-of-the-art technology cannot achieve the combined values of loss, bandwidth and mode-coupling characteristics required for high-capacity data transmission. Here, we report a fundamentally improved hollow-core photonic-bandgap fibre that provides a record combination of low loss (3.5 dB km-1) and wide bandwidth (160 nm), and use it to transmit 373 x 40 Gbit s-1 channels at a 1.54 ms km-1 faster speed than in a conventional fibre. This represents the first experimental demonstration of fibre-based wavelength division multiplexed data transmission at close to (99.7%) the speed of light in vacuum
1749-4885
279-284
Poletti, F.
9adcef99-5558-4644-96d7-ce24b5897491
Wheeler, N.V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
Petrovich, M.N.
bfe895a0-da85-4a40-870a-2c7bfc84a4cf
Baddela, N.
1a871ff8-f95d-495b-8b91-9d6ccd209528
Numkam Fokoua, Eric
6d9f7e50-dc3b-440a-a0b9-f4a08dd02ccd
Hayes, J.R.
a6d3acd6-d7d5-4614-970e-0e8c594e48e2
Gray, D.R.
46319dbb-26c5-487b-af42-891e7b00e14f
Li, Zhihong
56119e60-7f35-4072-9344-27be4ce17a9a
Slavík, R.
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3
Poletti, F.
9adcef99-5558-4644-96d7-ce24b5897491
Wheeler, N.V.
0fd34178-a77b-4c71-a3a6-86a1f634f1a0
Petrovich, M.N.
bfe895a0-da85-4a40-870a-2c7bfc84a4cf
Baddela, N.
1a871ff8-f95d-495b-8b91-9d6ccd209528
Numkam Fokoua, Eric
6d9f7e50-dc3b-440a-a0b9-f4a08dd02ccd
Hayes, J.R.
a6d3acd6-d7d5-4614-970e-0e8c594e48e2
Gray, D.R.
46319dbb-26c5-487b-af42-891e7b00e14f
Li, Zhihong
56119e60-7f35-4072-9344-27be4ce17a9a
Slavík, R.
2591726a-ecc0-4d1a-8e1d-4d0fd8da8f7d
Richardson, D.J.
ebfe1ff9-d0c2-4e52-b7ae-c1b13bccdef3

Poletti, F., Wheeler, N.V., Petrovich, M.N., Baddela, N., Numkam Fokoua, Eric, Hayes, J.R., Gray, D.R., Li, Zhihong, Slavík, R. and Richardson, D.J. (2013) Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum. Nature Photonics, 7 (4), 279-284. (doi:10.1038/NPHOTON.2013.45).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Wide-bandwidth signal transmission with low latency is emerging as a key requirement in a number of applications, including the development of future exaflop-scale supercomputers, financial algorithmic trading and cloud computing. Optical fibres provide unsurpassed transmission bandwidth, but light propagates 31% slower in a silica glass fibre than in vacuum, thus compromising latency. Air guidance in hollow-core fibres can reduce fibre latency very significantly. However, state-of-the-art technology cannot achieve the combined values of loss, bandwidth and mode-coupling characteristics required for high-capacity data transmission. Here, we report a fundamentally improved hollow-core photonic-bandgap fibre that provides a record combination of low loss (3.5 dB km-1) and wide bandwidth (160 nm), and use it to transmit 373 x 40 Gbit s-1 channels at a 1.54 ms km-1 faster speed than in a conventional fibre. This represents the first experimental demonstration of fibre-based wavelength division multiplexed data transmission at close to (99.7%) the speed of light in vacuum

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 24 March 2013
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre, Electronics & Computer Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 351369
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/351369
ISSN: 1749-4885
PURE UUID: dd3633cf-7727-4300-a624-7575f00835cb
ORCID for F. Poletti: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1000-3083
ORCID for N.V. Wheeler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1265-9510
ORCID for M.N. Petrovich: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3905-5901
ORCID for Eric Numkam Fokoua: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0873-911X
ORCID for R. Slavík: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9336-4262
ORCID for D.J. Richardson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-1058

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Apr 2013 10:14
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:47

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: F. Poletti ORCID iD
Author: N.V. Wheeler ORCID iD
Author: M.N. Petrovich ORCID iD
Author: N. Baddela
Author: Eric Numkam Fokoua ORCID iD
Author: J.R. Hayes
Author: D.R. Gray
Author: Zhihong Li
Author: R. Slavík ORCID iD
Author: D.J. Richardson ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×