OKI Succeeds in Developing World's First 160Gbps Optical 3R Regenerator for Ultra...

OKI Succeeds in Developing World's First 160Gbps Optical 3R Regenerator for Ultra Long Distance Data Transmission

Enabling Ultra High Capacity Data to Be Transmitted to the Other
Side of the Planet
TOKYO--(Business Wire)--
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:6703) announced it is the
world's first to achieve all optically regenerated transmission, which
enables unlimited transmission of 160Gbps optical signals with single
wavelength. To demonstrate the results of this project, OKI used an
optical test-bed provided by the National Institute of Information and
Communications Technology (NICT)'s Japan Gigabit Network II (JGN
II)(1). The research that led to OKI's achievement was conducted as
part of the "Research and Development on Lambda Utility Technology,"
under the auspices of NICT.

"This result proves that we can now transmit data at 160Gbps data,
a speed equivalent to transmitting four movies, approximately 8 hours
of data, in a single second. This amount of data at this speed can be
sent over distances greater than the length of Japan, which is about
3,000km, and in fact to the other side of the planet, which is about
20,000km," said Takeshi Kamijo, General Manager of Corporate R&D
Center at OKI. "160Gbps data transmission uses an ultra high-speed
optical communication technology that is expected to be commercialized
in 2010 or after. OKI will analyze the findings from the field trial
and develop a commercial-level 160Gbps optical 3R Regenerator."

In a conventional optical communication system, an optical
amplifier is placed every 50 to 100 km to compensate for propagation
loss. Because signal distortion and timing jitter accumulate during
transmission, the faster the speed of transmission, the shorter the
transmission range. Therefore, to achieve longer distance, optical
signals are converted into electric signals before the transmission
limit is reached and converted back into optical signals and
re-transmitted after the signal processing is completed. However, the
speed for batch signal processing is currently limited to 40Gbps.
Therefore, technologies to efficiently regenerate optical signals
without converting them to electric signals are required in order to
achieve a transmission speed of over 100Gbps.

To do this, OKI developed an all-optical 3R Regenerator, which
uses a specialized optical-repeater technology with functions for
re-amplification, re-shaping to remove optical signal wave distortion,
and re-timing to avoid timing jitter accumulation. With these
advances, in theory, it is possible to achieve signal processing
speeds of over 200Gbps.

OKI also developed a Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator
(PMDC) that adaptively mitigates the impact of the changes in
transmission line characteristics that are unique to optical fiber.
Polarization mode dispersion is a phenomenon whereby wave distortion
increases in an oval-shaped fiber core. The dispersion value changes
depending on the temperature or transmission environment. Because the
faster the transmission speed, the more sensitive it is to such
changes, a PMDC is indispensable for transmission systems operating at
over 40Gbps. OKI's newly developed PMDC adopts a design to fully
leverage the optical 3R Regenerator.

In the field trial using this equipment, in principle, OKI proved
there was hardly any limit to transmission distance. Though 40Gbps and
80Gbps transmission using all-optical 3R Regenerators has been done in
the past, OKI is the first in the world to conduct a field trial using
160Gbps optical signal regenerators.

By evaluating the performance of all-optical 3R regenerators while
changing the regenerator spacing, OKI achieved a maximum regenerator
spacing of 380km, which is equivalent to transmitting at 160Gbps
between Tokyo and Osaka with just one optical 3R regenerator.

The findings from this trial were reported at the general
conference held by The Institute of Electronics, Information and
Communication Engineers on March 20.

(Glossary)

(1) Optical test-bed provided by Japan Gigabit Network II (JGN II)

Working together with JGN II, NICT provides a next generation
optical network R&D environment to manufactures and institutions who
do not have their own environment.

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first
telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo,
Japan. OKI provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions
to its customers through its info-telecom system business,
semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses
function as a collective force to create exciting new products and
technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various
markets. Visit OKI's global web site at www.oki.com/.

Notes:

-- Names of companies and products are trademarks or registered
trademarks of the respective companies and organizations.

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
For Europe and Americas:
Naomi Takeuchi, +1-408-737-6279
Public Relations Division
Email: press@oki.com
or
For Asia and Other Areas:
Akiko Horiguchi, +81-3-3580-8950
Public Relations Division
Email: press@oki.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008