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26 Tbit s−1 line-rate super-channel transmission utilizing all-optical fast Fourier transform processing

Abstract

Optical transmission systems with terabit per second (Tbit s−1) single-channel line rates no longer seem to be too far-fetched. New services such as cloud computing, three-dimensional high-definition television and virtual-reality applications require unprecedented optical channel bandwidths. These high-capacity optical channels, however, are fed from lower-bitrate signals. The question then is whether the lower-bitrate tributary information can viably, energy-efficiently and effortlessly be encoded to and extracted from terabit per second data streams. We demonstrate an optical fast Fourier transform scheme that provides the necessary computing power to encode lower-bitrate tributaries into 10.8 and 26.0 Tbit s−1 line-rate orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) data streams and to decode them from fibre-transmitted OFDM data streams. Experiments show the feasibility and ease of handling terabit per second data with low energy consumption. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest line rate ever encoded onto a single light source.

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Figure 1: Comparison of multiplexing schemes.
Figure 2: OFDM processing.
Figure 3: All-optical OFDM transmitter and receiver.
Figure 4: All-optical 10.8 Tbit s−1 OFDM results.
Figure 5: Experimental comparison of receiver concepts.
Figure 6: All-optical 26 Tbit s−1 OFDM transmission experiment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from the Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics (KSOP), the Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the BMBF project CONDOR, the Xilinx University Program (XUP), the Agilent University Relations Program, Centellax, Alcatel-Lucent Germany, the European network of excellence EuroFOS and the EU research project ACCORDANCE.

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Authors and Affiliations

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Contributions

D.H. developed the concept, designed and performed the experiment, implemented the 16-QAM transmitter, analysed data and wrote the paper. R.S. implemented the 16-QAM transmitter, performed the experiment and wrote the paper. T.S. and M.J. implemented the comb source and performed the experiment. M.W. performed simulations and wrote the paper. G.H., T.V., R.B., P.K., F.F., M.R., S.K., A.M., J. Li, M.H., M.D., J.M., A.L. and B.N. performed the experiment. S.B.-E., N.N., B.N., F.P., P.P., B.R., A.O., K.W., T.E., J. Lutz and M.M. developed vital subsystems for the experiment and gave technical support. M.H. and J.B. supported the development of the 16-QAM transmitters. C.K., W.F. and J. Leuthold developed the concept, designed the experiment and wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to D. Hillerkuss, W. Freude or J. Leuthold.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Hillerkuss, D., Schmogrow, R., Schellinger, T. et al. 26 Tbit s−1 line-rate super-channel transmission utilizing all-optical fast Fourier transform processing. Nature Photon 5, 364–371 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.74

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