New signal processing system doubles the data transmission distance over fiber

Researchers at University College London have demonstrated a new technology for processing signals transmitted over an optical cable. Thanks to it, the signal can travel twice as long without errors. The technology will eliminate the need to install intermediate amplifiers, which is especially important, for example, in the case of submarine cables.

Optical cables take over the main stream of information in the modern Internet. Due to the constant growth of traffic, the capacity of existing communication channels is quickly ending. To increase their bandwidth, several signals are simultaneously sent over the cable at different frequencies. Due to the large number of simultaneous signals, they interact with each other and are distorted, which leads to errors.

As the author of the study, Dr. Robert Maher writes: “By eliminating the effects of interactions of different optical channels, we were able to double the distance of error-free signal transmission - from 3190 km to 5890 km, which was a record increase in the range for this architecture. The technology of eliminating distortion is possible while simultaneously reading a group of optical channels with one receiver. ”