Photonic ICT Research Center

                    

We conduct R&D on ultra-high-capacity photonic networks to support the rapid growth in communication traffic, access technologies that harmoniously integrate optical and wireless communications, and flexible network technologies for the Beyond 5G era.

Overview

R&D of network systems including devices
Press Release; World's First Successful Transmission of 1 Petabit per Second in a Standard Cladding Diameter Multi-core Fiber
Press Release on May 30th, 2022 (May 19th in Japanese)
Press Release; World’s First Transparent Fiber-Millimeter-wave-Fiber System in 100-GHz Band
Press Release on August 6th, 2021 (July 15th in Japanese)
Press Release; Demonstration of World Record: 319 Tb/s Transmission over 3,001 km with 4-core optical fiber
Press Release on July 12th, 2021 (June 21st in Japanese)
  • Photonic Network Technology
    -Coping with ever-increasing traffic
    -Providing new flexibility for networks
  • Optical and Radio Convergence Technology
    -Harmonization of bandwidths in optical and radio networks
    -Selection and harmonization of transmission media in optical and radio networks

About the Center

AWAJI Yoshinari, Ph.D.
Director General
Information and telecommunications networks have become an indispensable infrastructure of modern society, and network services covering the world are supported by optical fiber communications. Japan's optical fiber penetration rate is among the highest in the world, and the abundant bandwidth enables the comfortable use of various network services and applications.
However, to steadily advance the development of future network services, such as the recently launched 5G service and beyond, the underlying optical fiber communication technology will be required to make even greater strides. For example, it is expected to support higher-volume data traffic, realize flexible and advanced network management, and provide a seamless bridge between optical fiber and high-performance wireless communication systems.
To realize these requirements, the Photonic ICT Research Center is engaged in cutting-edge research and development of technologies for ultra-high-capacity optical fiber networks utilizing the spatial and wavelength domains, technologies for using optical network resources more efficiently, and access technologies that integrate optical and wireless communications.
By collaborating with various research institutions in Japan and overseas, we are not only promoting the penetration and dissemination of these technologies, but also are contributing to the revitalization of the research community, as well as to the education of human resources that will constitute the next generation.

Labs

Photonic Network Laboratory

We are researching massive channel optical network technologies to extend the capacity limit and cope with ever-increasing traffic, and dynamic and flexible reconfiguration technologies of optical networks for efficiently providing network resources in response to service requests. Further research is terabit high-capacity transmission technologies for short distances.

Optical Access Technology Laboratory

For realization of more flexible operation of networks in the Beyond 5G era, we are focusing on the R&Ds of following technologies in the research field of optical access networks:

  • Massively integrated all-band ICT hardware technology for hardware-level conversion between optical and radio systems and broadband waveform processing,
  • Next-generation radio-over-fiber technology with ultra broadband and high availability
  • Scalable bandwidth control technology, and
  • Transmission-media-independent access infrastructure technology such as effective conversion of transmission media and precise signal distribution technology.