Optical fiber and the future of communication

The device was produced as part of an ongoing Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program at the U.S. Department of Defense to speed up chip-to-chip communications for supercomputers. However, better input/output technology also is related to performance of large-scale computer systems for businesses and demand by individuals for ubiquitous connectivity and on-demand access to content. Clint Schow of IBM will announce details of this work in talk OMK5, "300-Gb/s, 24-Channel Full-Duplex, 850-nm, CMOS-Based Optical Transceivers" (2:45 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 6D).

ALTERNATIVE ROUTES ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Any savvy commuter can tell you that one of the only things to do if there are too many cars on the road is to exit and explore new routes. Likewise local governments seek to ease traffic congestion not by limiting the number of cars but by building new roads. The same analogy is true of traffic in optical communication. Data transmission capacity has grown enormously in recent years, but so has the demand for this capacity. Although the band currently used for optical communication (1.5 micron wavelength) is sufficient for the moment, the enormous increase of traffic expected in the future demands that scientists and engineers begin exploring new bands now.

Now Kenji Kurokawa and his colleagues at NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories in Ibaraki, Japan are investigating optical communication in the 1.0 micron band, introducing a brand new channel for communications and opening up a new “road” for data transmission. They are exploring high-capacity, “wavelength division multiplexed” (WDM) transmission in photonic crystal fiber. In WDM transmission, multiple optical signals are multiplexed on a single optical fiber by using different colors or wavelengths of light to carry different signals. Photonic crystal fibers offer a theoretical endless communication wavelength region, which can enable ultra high capacity transmission.

In his talk, Kurokawa will describe the first WDM transmission experiment using a broadband continuum light source in the 1.0 micron band. He will discuss the possibility of terabit optical communication in the new band and its potential impact on optical communication—essentially, no need to worry about traffic congestion for commuters on the information superhighway. Talk OMH5, “High Capacity WDM Transmission in 1.0 µm Band over Low Loss PCF Using Supercontinuum Source” (2:45 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25 in room 5).

THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM—A NEW VIEW

The terahertz band is relatively unexplored and unexploited because its range of frequencies is too high for conventional electronics and too small for semiconductor lasers and detectors, but new research to be presented at OFC/NFOEC reflects what scientists have always known - the terahertz band has great potential.