Draka OM4 multimode fiber exceeds expectations in ultrahigh speed optical transmission tests

Tuesday, Jun 14, 2011

Draka Communications, a global leader in the cabling and optical fibre industry today announces that VI Systems GmbH (VIS), a supplier of optical engines and components,  recently demonstrated an optical link operating a serial transmission at a data rate of 12.5 Gbit/s over 1 km distance using Draka’s flagship MaxCap-OM4 (50/125 µm) multimode fiber. The tests were carried out at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany, which provided the high speed test bed and scientific support for the measurements.

A specialist in optoelectronic components for use in short reach optical interconnects, VI Systems developed the V30-850C1SM high-frequency VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) used in the tests for datacom applications. The device features up to 2 mW optical output power at about 7 mW power consumption. The operating voltage is less than 3V. Recent tests produced record low energies expended per bit, approaching 100 fJ/bit (femto-Joules per bit).

Single-mode VCSELs extend the reach over multimode fiber by eliminating the impact of chromatic dispersion of glass fiber at 850 nm wavelength, which is particularly important for ultrahigh transmission bit rates for next generation datacom applications. Optical data transmission of up to 35 GBit/s has been realized with high speed photo detectors and transimpedance amplifiers from VI Systems. The V30-850C1SM chip is available in a 250 x 250 um single die size or as chip array. Target applications are proprietary optical links at 40Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s, Fiber Channel at 14 Gbit/s and 28 Gbit/s, Infiniband FDR (14 Gbit/s) and EDR (26 Gbit/s) applications.

Exponential growth

Fiber deployment is growing exponentially in data infrastructures. With current storage, server and edge devices moving in the direction of 10Gbit/s speeds and beyond, a core network now needs to support much higher data traffic speeds. This has lead to the development of 40GbE and 100GbE standards, designed to address short reach transmission, through parallel transmission over multimode optical fibre cabling, with significant cost advantages over LAN WDM when compared with the use of single-mode optical fiber.

Source: Draka