Lucent Technologies Bell Labs Takes Another Step Towards Making 100 Gigabit Per Second Ethernet-Over-Optical A Reality

Breakthroughs in Transmission Distance and Technologies Used

SEPTEMBER 25, 2006 - MURRAY HILL, N.J. and CANNES, FRANCE. -- In a paper presented to the European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC) in Cannes this week, Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU), announced the first transmission of 10 channels of 107 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) data over 2000 kilometers of fiber -- a significant enough distance to prove the technology’s viability for the majority of networks where 100G Ethernet is a sought-after technology.

In this same paper Bell Labs researchers also announced the successful transmission and reception of electronically multiplexed and demultiplexed 107 Gb/s traffic using hardware similar to that used in today’s 40 Gb/s networks. By employing differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) at 107 Gb/s, the high-speed electronics and opto-electronics used were required to have a mere 25% speed-up compared to those used in today’s 40-Gb/s systems. A prototype of the fully integrated Lithium Niobate DQPSK modulator was provided by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) and Sumitomo Osaka Cement, Inc. The use of technology similar to commercially available products is a significant step towards realizing the viability of manufacturing and installing 100 Gb/s-based networks at a reasonable cost per transmitted information bit.

“An enormous amount of research here at the Labs is focused on providing carriers with broadband network technologies that enable their metro area networks and backbones to support the dramatic increase in IP traffic by enterprise applications and consumer services such as IP-based video on demand” said Martin Zirngibl, director, Bell Labs. “Our breakthroughs in both transmission distance and the use of commercially-viable components prove that 100 Gb/s serial is a viable technology for transmitting data traffic in its native Ethernet format.”

Today data traffic is carried over the WDM backbone at rates of 10 Gb/s and occasionally 40 Gb/s using SONET/SDH or OTN connections. This Bell Labs research is aimed at developing the technologies and architectures to enable carrier-grade wide area transport and switching of 107 Gigabit Ethernet data streams (100 gigabit of data plus additional 7 percent overhead for error correction).

A copy of this paper is available from ECOC (www.ecoc2006.org).

About Bell Labs
Bell Labs, the R&D division of Lucent Technologies, is the leading source of new communications technologies. It has generated more than 30,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received eleven Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. National Medals of Science and eight U.S. National Medals of Technology®. For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at www.bell-labs.com.

About Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent’s customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide. For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com.

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Lucent Technologies

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