Hollow Core Fiber
China Telecom with ZTE demo single-wavelength 1.2T bps hollow-core fiber transmission system over 100T bps
China Telecom, along with its partners [1.], says it has launched the world’s first live single-wavelength 1.2T bps hollow-core fiber optics transmission system with unidirectional capacity over 100T bps.
Note 1. ZTE, Yangtze Optical Fibre, Cable Joint Stock Limited Company and Huaxin Design Institute were also involved in the project, which was deployed over a transmission distance of 20km in the live network of the All-Optical Network Technology and Application in the Intelligent Computing Era seminar of the CCSA TC618/NGOF.
ZTE optical transport equipment was used for project, alongside some improvements in spectral efficiency, baud rate optimization, and amplification optimization technologies. The system extends 41 C-band 1.2T bps and 64 L-band 800G bps wavelengths, and archives unidirectional transmission capacity of over 100T bps and a transmission distance of 20km in the field network.
This demonstration completed the hollow-core fiber deployment and large-capacity transmission between China Telecom’s Hangzhou Intelligent Computing Center and Yiqiao IDC. As a key node of China Telecom’s intelligent computing power layout “2+3+7+M”, the Hangzhou Intelligent Computing Center has been deployed with the 1k GPUs computing power of the China Telecom Cloud. It also hails ‘breakthroughs in hollow-core fiber fusion splicing technologies,’ such as low-power discharge and mode field matching related to the demonstration.
To meet the requirements for distributed computing power with large bandwidth and low latency of optical networks, ZTE used its advanced high-speed optical transport equipment. Combined with improvements in spectral efficiency, baud rate optimization, and amplification optimization technologies, the system extends 41 C-band 1.2Tbit/s wavelengths and 64 L-band 800Gbit/s wavelengths. It achieves a unidirectional transmission capacity of over 100Tbit/s and a transmission distance of 20km in the field network.
The hollow-core fiber cable, independently developed by YOFC, is deployed in the field network with multiple waterproofing solutions. For instance, water-blocking glue and double-layer plastic caps are used at the cable ends to isolate the atmosphere, a pulling unit with a swivel is employed for cable deployment to minimize wear on the end caps, and a horizontal waterproof cable closure is utilized at the fusion splice point. Additionally, breakthroughs in hollow-core fiber fusion splicing technologies, such as low-power discharge and mode field matching, have achieved 0.05dB fusion splice loss between hollow-core fibers and 0.25dB fusion splice loss with 54dB return loss between hollow-core fibers and standard solid-core single-mode fibers.
China Telecom’s Zhejiang branch said: “We have always maintained the leading position in the field of basic transmission networks. By undertaking the national key R&D project, we have demonstrated and verified the hollow-core fiber and 1.2Tbit/s transport system in the field network, and can offer detailed engineering data and demonstration applications. In the future, we will further cooperate with the industry to conduct research on a larger scope, and provide practical scenarios for the interconnection of distributed intelligent computing centers.”
China Telecom says they will continue to expand the hollow-core optical cable environment and build a platform for testing and verifying new technologies and applications oriented towards intelligent computing scenarios. This effort aims to continuously promote technological innovation and application expansion in the telecommunications industry.
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Separately, China Telecom received four awards at the “Asia’s Best Managed Companies Poll 2024” by FinanceAsia, a reputable financial magazine in Asia:
⚫ “Best Investor Relations in China” – Gold Award
⚫ “Best Managed Company in China” – Silver Award
⚫ “Best Telecommunication Services Company” – Silver Award
⚫ “Best Large-Cap Company in China” – Bronze Award
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References:
https://www.telecoms.com/fibre/china-telecoms-claims-a-world-s-first-hollow-core-fibre-demonstration
https://www.chinatelecom-h.com/en/media/news/p240730.pdf
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Microsoft acquires Lumenisity – hollow core fiber high speed/low latency leader
Executive Summary:
Microsoft announced it has acquired Lumenisity® Limited, a leader in next-generation hollow core fiber (HCF) solutions. Lumenisity’s innovative and industry-leading HCF product can enable fast, reliable and secure networking for global, enterprise and large-scale organizations.
The acquisition will expand Microsoft’s ability to further optimize its global cloud infrastructure and serve Microsoft’s Cloud Platform and Services customers with strict latency and security requirements. The technology can provide benefits across a broad range of industries including healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail and government.
Organizations within these sectors could see significant benefit from HCF solutions as they rely on networks and datacenters that require high-speed transactions, enhanced security, increased bandwidth and high-capacity communications. For the public sector, HCF could provide enhanced security and intrusion detection for federal and local governments across the globe. In healthcare, because HCF can accommodate the size and volume of large data sets, it could help accelerate medical image retrieval, facilitating providers’ ability to ingest, persist and share medical imaging data in the cloud. And with the rise of the digital economy, HCF could help international financial institutions seeking fast, secure transactions across a broad geographic region.
Types of Hollow Core Fiber:
Various types of hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers:
(a) Photonic crystal fiber featuring small hollow core surrounded by a periodic array of large air holes.
(b) Microstructured fiber featuring medium-sized hollow core surrounded by several rings of small air holes separated by nano-size bridges.
(c) Bragg fiber featuring large hollow core surrounded by a periodic sequence of high and low refractive index layers
Lumenisity HCF benefits:
Lumenisity’s hollow core fiber technology replaces the standard glass core in a fiber cable with an air-filled chamber. According to Microsoft, light travels through air 47% faster than glass. Lumenisity’s next generation of HCF uses a proprietary design where light propagates in an air core, which has significant advantages over traditional cable built with a solid core of glass, including:
- Increased overall speed and lower latency as light travels through HCF 47% faster than standard silica glass.[1]
- Enhanced security and intrusion detection due to Lumenisity’s innovative inner structure.
- Lower costs, increased bandwidth and enhanced network quality due to elimination of fiber nonlinearities and broader spectrum.
- Potential for ultra-low signal loss enabling deployment over longer distances without repeaters.
Lumenisity was formed in 2017 as a spinoff from the world-renowned Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollow core optical fiber. In 2021 and 2022, the company won the Best Fibre Component Product for their NANF® CoreSmart® HCF cable in the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) Exhibition Industry Awards. As part of the Lumenisity acquisition, Microsoft plans to utilize the organization’s technology and team of industry-leading experts to accelerate innovations in networking and infrastructure.
Lumenisity said: “We are proud to be acquired by a company with a shared vision that will accelerate our progress in the hollow-core space. This is the end of the beginning, and we are excited to start our new chapter as part of Microsoft to fulfill this technology’s full potential and continue our pursuit of unlocking new capabilities in communication networks.”
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Analysis:
The purchase is also noteworthy in light of Microsoft’s other recent acquisitions in the telecommunications sector, which include Affirmed Networks, Metaswitch Networks and AT&T’s core network operations (including 5G SA Core Network).
Microsoft isn’t the only company interested in HCF technology and Lumenisity. Both BT in the UK and Comcast in the US have tested Lumenisity’s offerings.
Comcast announced in April it was able to support speeds in the range of 10 Gbit/s to 400 Gbit/s over a 40km “hybrid” connection in Philadelphia that utilized legacy fiber and the new hollow core fiber. Comcast worked with Lumenisity.
“As we continue to develop and deploy technology to deliver 10G, multigigabit performance to tens of millions of homes, hollow core fiber will help to ensure that the network powering those experiences is among the most advanced and highest performing in the world,” said Comcast networking chief Elad Nafshi in the release issued in April.
References:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-acquires-hollow-core-fiber-firm-lumenisity
Comcast Deploys Advanced Hollowcore Fiber With Faster Speed, Lower Latency