• A Hybrid Conference – In-Person and Virtual Presentations
  • Technical Conference:  24 – 28 March 2024
  • Exhibition: 26 – 28 March 2024
  • San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA

Multi-Fiber/Multi-Core Is Inevitable, Do We Even Need the S-Band?

Sunday, 24 March, 13:00 – 15:30

Room 6D

Installed fiber capacity had steadily increased for decades, driven by adding optical bandwidth (in the C- and L-bands) and improved spectral efficiency with coherent transceivers. With these techniques reaching fundamental physical limitations, high fiber count cables are now deployed to continue capacity scaling. To further increase capacity, we have a choice of whether to increase cable/duct fiber density, increase the core count per fiber, or transmit in more transmission windows (e.g., O, E, S, U) ... or all three! This workshop will discuss each strategy's challenges, opportunities, and risks.

  • Are high fiber count cables and ducts just 'kicking the can down the road'?
  • Is deploying new fiber infrastructures (with sometimes some heavy and costly civil engineering) in line with the objective of sustainable development and carbon dioxide reduction imposed by governments on telecom operators?
  • Is the installing high fiber count fiber cables or multicore/multimode fiber cables of nature to decrease the cost of loan/rented fiber infrastructure for service providers?
  • Are telecom operators ready for large infrastructure projects while just finishing the deployment of FTTH infrastructure?
  • Are the transmission techniques (in particular, digital signal processing) and related components/sub-systems (e.g., ROADM…) sufficiently mature to address transmission on multicore and/or multimode fibers, given the related propagation impairments (core/mode coupling)?
  • Is scaling by increasing the number of cores per fiber a long-term solution; will this ever give us more than one order of magnitude in capacity?
  • Is there a need to develop more amplifier bands beyond C and L-band given the known impairments (e.g., Stimulated Raman Scattering) in ultra-wideband transmission and the cost of amplifier development?
  • Will the need for multiple amplifiers and components that operate in different bands create unnecessary inventory problems?
  • Is ultra-wideband transmission using the 50 THz SMF window inevitable or a research fad?
  • Will hollow core fiber solve the capacity scaling problem, particularly for multiband transmission?

How do the above considerations depend on the perspectives of the different network operators, e.g., communications service providers, multiple-system operators, or hyperscale cloud providers? This workshop will explore all sides of this debate with industry representatives from communications service providers, hyperscale cloud providers, system and device manufacturers, and academic researchers.

Organizers

Lidia Galdino, Corning Inc., United Kingdom

Erwan Pincemin, Orange Labs, France

Jesse Simsarian, Nokia Bell Labs, United States

Speakers

Binbin Guan, Microsoft, United States

Takemi Hasegawa, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., Japan

Sergejs Makovejs, Corning, United Kingdom

Todd McWhirter, Zayo Group, United States

David Neilson, Nokia Bell Labs, United States

Pierluigi Poggiolini, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Yusuke Sasaki, NEC Corporation, Japan

Zhuhong Zhang, Huawei, Canada

Ligia Zorello, Meta, United Kingdom