Fujitsu this week today announced the development of the world's first optical-transmission technology that can achieve 100Gb/s transmission speeds using widely available, conventional components intended for 10Gb/s networking.

The recent spread of cloud computing and cloud services has heightened the need for better data-processing capabilities and faster data-transfer speeds in datacenters. The optical transceivers in use today have four channels carrying a total of 100Gb/s. For the next generation of datacenters, there is a demand for Ethernet transceivers that are able to deliver 400Gb/s.

Increasing data-transfer rates has typically required new components designed for those higher speeds, for which existing components have not been compatible. Moreover, there is a limit to the speed improvements that can be achieved with transmission methods using the simple modulation and demodulation formats that have been used to date. Fujitsu Laboratories and Chinese Fujitsu R&D center have applied a discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation/demodulation format(1) using digital signal processing (DSP) to transmit at 100Gb/s per channel using conventional components intended for transmission speeds of 10Gb/s per channel.

^{Scope of application for this technology}

Increasing data transfer speeds requires faster transmitting and receiving circuits. However, with previous technology, existing parts could not be used, requiring new electronic and optical components compatible with the higher speeds. In addition, the simple modulation/demodulation method, in which the on/off states of the optical signal correspond to the 1/0 states of the digital signal, has limited the increase in speed.

^{DMT modulation technology}

Increasing data transfer speeds requires faster transmitting and receiving circuits. However, with previous technology, existing parts could not be used, requiring new electronic and optical components compatible with the higher speeds. In addition, the simple modulation/demodulation method, in which the on/off states of the optical signal correspond to the 1/0 states of the digital signal, has limited the increase in speed.

^{Diagram of the envisioned 4-channel optical transceiver configuration}

Applying the new technology to an optical transceiver with four channels would result in a 400Gb/s Ethernet transceiver, which are needed in the next generation of datacenters in order to increase their data transmission speeds and processing capacity to better support cloud services.

Tags: Fujitsu