FONTE — Fibre optic nonlinear technologies

Results in brief

Fibre optic nonlinear technologies

It is hard to overstate the impact that fibre-optic networks, which are the backbone of the global communication infrastructure, are making on society, economy, healthcare, government services and on almost all aspects of our lives. This became even more clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. The >2 billion km of optical fibre deployed worldwide carry most of the world's information traffic, enabling Internet and digital economy. Yet the exponential surge in global data traffic, driven by the proliferation of on-line services, is quickly pushing the current generation of optical fibre communication system towards the limits of modern technology. The nonlinear transmission effects in optical fibre are among major limiting factors in modern optical communication systems. There is a clear need for radically different methods for the coding, transmission, and processing of information that take the nonlinear properties of the optical fibre into account, and for the training of a new generation of engineers with expertise in both optical communications and nonlinear science. The FONTE European Industrial Doctorate is a research & training network of internationally leading teams from academia and industry dealing with these important challenges. Research in FONTE led to development of disruptive techniques for fibre-optic communications beyond the limits of current technology by constructively exploiting the inherent nonlinearity of optical fibre using advanced digital signal processing. The industry-focused R&D tasks were carried out along with training of PhD students in leading research centres in Europe, including >18 month spent in the world leading telecom centre Nokia Bell Labs (Germany).

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Fibre-optic communication systems form the backbone of the world’s communication infrastructure as they provide for lion fraction (more than 99%) of the global data traffic. The ongoing exponential growth in network traffic, however, is pushing current technology, whose data rates had increased over several decades, towards its limits. It is widely accepted that the nonlinear transmission effects in optical fibre are now a major limiting factor in modern fibre-optic communication systems. Nonlinear properties of the optical fibre medium limit the conventional techniques to increase capacity by simply increasing signal power. Most of the transmission technologies utilized today have been originally developed for linear (wired or wireless) communication channels. Over the past several decades, significant improvements in data rates were obtained by improvements and modifications within the overall linear transmission paradigm. However, there is much evidence that this trend is going to end within the next decade due to fibre nonlinearity. There is a clear need for radically different approaches to the coding, transmission, and processing of information that take the nonlinear properties of the optical fibre into account. This also requires education and training of a new generation of optical communication engineers and specialists with knowledge on nonlinear methods and techniques. The EID FONTE R&D goals will be focused on development of disruptive nonlinear techniques and approaches to fibre-optic communications beyond the limits of current technology. The project will make important innovative steps in development of the technique of the nonlinear Fourier transform (NFT) and its implementation in the practical communication systems. The R&D tasks will be carried out along with training of PhD students in the leading research centres in Europe with industry focused projects with 50% of time spent in the world leading telecom centre - Nokia Bell Labs Germany.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

ASTON UNIVERSITY · BirminghamCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · Kongens LyngbyDenmark
INSTITUT MINES-TELECOM · PalaiseauFrance
NOKIA SOLUTIONS AND NETWORKS GMBH AND CO KG · MUNCHENGermany
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · DelftNetherlands

FONTE · Fibre optic nonlinear technologies

Results in brief

Fibre optic nonlinear technologies

Project objective

Participants

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