ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, announced that the company set a new world record for long-haul 400G single-carrier optical transmission, further strengthening the development of next-generation transport network technologies to support growing IP traffic.
Using patented compensation algorithms, ZTE successfully completed the transmission of 84-Gbaud WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing) PDM-8QAM signals over a record distance of 2,125 km on standard single-mode fiber links. ZTE made the announcement of the technology breakthrough at this week's Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) in Los Angeles.
The successful test demonstrated the capabilities of ZTE's patented 504-Gb/s PDM-8QAM technology for 400G transport. In the test, 84-GBaud PDM-8QAM signals were generated and pre-processed by 84-GSa/s digital analog converter with the joint pre-equalization and Look-up-table pre-distortion algorithms. With receiver-side digital-backward propagation (DBP) fiber nonlinearity compensation, ZTE completed the record eight-channel WDM transmission with EDFA-only amplification enabled.
ZTE has been committing significant R&D resources to the development of 400G and beyond 400G technologies including 1T. In 2012, ZTE released 400G/1T DWDM prototype with seven solutions designed for various network applications. In February 2012, ZTE and Deutsche Telekom successfully completed a record-breaking on-site ultra-long-haul hybrid transmission of 100G/400G/1T signals over 2,450km. In 2013, ZTE completed data signaling at speeds of 400Gb/s over a distance of more than 5,000km, through 25 ROADM nodes without electrical repeater. In 2014, ZTE achieved 20 DWDM channels of 400Gb/single-carrier PDM-QPSK signals to successfully transmit to 3,600km in standard single-mode fiber when the spectrum efficiency is improved to 4b/s/Hz. In 2015, ZTE worked with OFS to complete a record-breaking transmission of 128.8-GBaud WDM QPSK signals over 10,130 km and 6,078 km terrestrial fiber links at different spectrum efficiency. In 2016, ZTE demonstrated a record-breaking single-carrier 800G with a record of 120-GBaud WDM 16QAM signals over 1,200 km terrestrial fiber links.
As an established industry leader in 100G and beyond-100G innovations, ZTE has more than three hundred 100G network deployments in Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America, with combined fiber-length exceeding 300,000km. ZTE currently ranks second in optical network market share globally, according to the latest data published by market consultants Ovum.