ZTE announced that it has broken the previous world record for single-channel transmission rate at 1Tb/s with a recorded single-channel rate of 10Tbit/s in a first-time experiment.
ZTE said the optical signals were successfully transmitted over a stretch of 640km standard single-mode fiber, and were presented at the OFC/NFOEC 2011 conference in Los Angeles.
This new world record lays a foundation for future research on optical transmission technology with higher single-channel rates.
The experiment used ZTE’s patented “carrier generation technology” to generate 112 coherent and frequency-locked optical sub-carriers; with each sub-carrier bearing 100Gbit/s optical signals, and successfully realized optical signals with a single-channel rate of 11.2 Tbit/s, a net 10Tb/s line rate plus overheads such as FEC.
In an era where the global optical communications industry is entering 100G, all mainstream manufacturers are not only promoting the practical deployment of 100G but also actively seeking candidate technologies at higher bit rates of 400G, 1T, and beyond.