First Demonstration of a 1 Petabit per Second Network Node

Points

The first 1 Petabit per second switching demonstration using spatial division multiplexing
Prototype optical network testbed using multicore optical fibers and large-scale spatial optical switching
Progress to the practical realization of ultra-high capacity petabit per second backbone networks

The Network System Research Institute at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D.) has developed and demonstrated the first large-scale optical switching testbed capable of handling 1 Petabit per second optical signals. 1 Petabit per second is equivalent to the capacity to send 8K video to 10 million people simultaneously.

This demonstration made use of state-of-the-art large-scale and low-loss optical switches based on MEMS technology, three types of next-generation spatial-division multiplexing fibers, and included the routing of signals with capacities from 10 Terabit per second to 1 Petabit per second. This corresponds to more than 100 times the capacity of currently available networks.

This is a major step forward towards the early implementation of the petabit-class backbone optical networks capable of supporting the increasing requirements of internet services such as broadband video streaming, 5G mobile networks or Internet of Things. As such, the results of this demonstration were acknowledged by the scientific community with a post-deadline presentation at the 45th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2019).

Background

NICT has collaborated extensively with academia and industry to develop new types of optical fiber technologies and provide petabit-class communications for short and long reach backbone networks as well as datacenter networks. These included achievements such as the record petabit-class transmission in a single fiber (September 2015, September 2018), and the longest link using spatial division multiplexing amplifiers (March 2019).

However, petabit-class transmission requires petabit-class switching technologies to manage and reliably direct large amounts of data through complex networks. Up to now, such technologies have been beyond reach because the existing approaches are limited by complexity and/or performance.

Achievements

NICT has successfully implemented a network demonstration using state-of-the-art large-scale spatial optical switching, aiming at petabit-class next-generation optical networks using spatial-division multiplexing. The experimental network testbed supported data rates from 10 Terabit per second up to 1 Petabit per second over 3 types of next-generation multicore fibers and included practical requirements of real networks, such as protection switching. The total capacity of the network was 1 Petabit per second, corresponding to simultaneous 8K-TV broadcasting for 10 million people. The system was demonstrated in 4 fundamental scenarios that constitute the building blocks of the next-generation optical fiber networks (Fig. 1, 2).

1. Optical switching of 1 Petabit per second of data

2. Redundant configuration to support network failures or fiber breaks

3. Branching of 1 Petabit per second signals into different types of optical fibers with various capacities

4. Management of lower-capacity signals (10 Terabit per second) within the 1 Petabit per second network

Scenario	Switch Capacity	Outline	Application	Used Optical Fiber
1	1 Petabit/second	Network Node with 1 Petabit/second switching capacity	Metropolitan networks	22-Core Fiber
2	1 Petabit/second	Redundant configuration to support fiber breaks	Metropolitan networks with possible network failures	22-Core Fiber
3	346 Terabit/second 148 Terabit/second	Branching of signals to different types of optical fibers with various capacities	Metropolitan Networks	22-Core Fiber, 7-Core Fiber, 3-Mode Fiber
4	10 Terabit/second	Management of low-capacity signals to achieve high granularity	Regional Networks	22-Core Fiber

The outcomes of this demonstration were awarded with a post-deadline presentation at the 45th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2019), held in Dublin, Ireland in September 26. This is one of the largest international conferences in the field of optical fiber communications.

Future Prospects

NICT will continue to pursue the advancement of ultra-high capacity telecommunications networks in collaboration with the industry, academia and government.

References

International Conference: 45th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2019) Post Deadline Paper

URL: https://www.ecoc2019.org/programme.html

Title: Demonstration of a 1 Pb/s spatial channel network node

Authors: Ruben S. Luís, Benjamin J. Puttnam, Georg Rademacher, Tobias A. Eriksson, Yusuke Hirota, Satoshi Shinada, Andrew Ross-Adams, Simon Gross, Michael Withford, Ryo Maruyama, Kazuhiko Aikawa, Yoshinari Awaji, Hideaki Furukawa, and Naoya Wada

Previous NICT Press Releases

Appendix

1. Network Configuration

Fig. 1. Experimental network testbed and network scenarios

Fig. 1 shows the experimental network testbed and 4 considered network scenarios. The different types of traffic considered included:

● 1 Pb/s: 245 Gb/s optical signals at 202 wavelengths and over 22 cores

● 346 Tb/s: 245 Gb/s optical signals at 202 wavelength and over 7 cores

● 148 Tb/s: 245 Gb/s optical signals at 202 wavelength and over 3 modes

● 10 Tb/s: 245 Gb/s optical signals at 41 wavelengths over a standard fiber

The considered network scenarios were

1. Network Node with 1 Pb/s switching capacity

2. Redundant configuration to support fiber breaks

3. Branching of signals to different types of optical fibers with various capacities

4. Management of low-capacity signals to achieve high granularity

2. Experimental Results

Fig. 2. Performance of the considered network scenarios

Fig. 2 shows the performance obtained for each of the considered scenarios. The optical signals are evaluated using a Quality Factor (Q-Factor). An acceptable quality is reached when the Q-Factor is above 5.7 dB. In all scenarios, optical signals are transmitted and switched with high quality.