ZTE demonstrates single carrier 400G ultra-long transmission

ZTE has demonstrated 400G ultra-long high-speed transmission at the annual Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) held in San Francisco, USA, on March 14th, 2014.

ZTE has used its patented technology to achieve 20 dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) channels of 400Gbps single-carrier polarisation multiplexing and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signals to successfully transmit to 3600km in standard single-mode fiber when the spectrum efficiency is improved to 4b/s/H.
The system consists of 36 segments, each covering 100km, supporting a total transmission distance of 3600km, which proves the feasibility of 400G deployment over a single carrier in future long-haul system. The system has the industry’s highest baud rate of 110G baud and standard 100GHz ITU-T channel grid with a single coherent receiver. The result has been published in a post-deadline paper of OFC 2014.

Single-carrier per channel and single receiver is one of the objectives of future 400G and beyond high-speed optical transmission. Single-carrier transmission is the preferred modulation scheme in the industry due to its simple transmitting and receiving structures and manageability. It is also the most mature modulation solution and has the highest sensitivity.

ZTE is committed to R&D in 100G and beyond 100G technologies, as well as their applications. In this field, ZTE has provided several key innovations.