To keep optical communications technology, which carries 99% of global data traffic, ahead of the projected growth in demand for bandwidth, researchers are turning their attention to tackling nonlinear distortions of signals traveling in fiber cables, which are now the main restraint the continued expansion of data transmission rates, according to some researchers in the UK.
A combined group from Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies, Birmingham, UK, and UCL, London, who conduct joint research under the EPSRC-funded UNLOC program, are now using a technique called “optical phase conjugation” to effectively reduce the undesirable effect of nonlinearities in a very high-capacity transmission link achieving up to 60% increase in the distance which information can travel and still be successfully received.
