EPSRC-SFI:Energy Efficient M Communication using Combs (EEMC)

互联网的巨大成功是毋庸置疑的，它触及了我们日常生活和商业的方方面面。这一成功的根本基础是看不见的地下和海底光缆的巨大容量以及与之相关的技术。事实上，1990年代中期网络使用量的最初激增恰逢第一个光放大跨大西洋电缆网络TAT12/13投入使用，使人们可以随时获取否则无法获取的信息。在宽带接入速率持续指数增长(每4年翻两番)的同时，通信网络核心中使用的光收发信机的带宽通常以相同的速率增长，但与引入相干技术相关的小幅和暂时性下降除外。今天，随着宽带需求开始超过需要部署新技术(光纤)的现有技术(双绞线铜缆)的能力，核心网络中的带宽需求也超过了单载波调制的能力。在这个项目中，我们将开发低成本的全光技术，以继续扩展为互联网供电的收发器的带宽。我们的全光解决方案具有紧凑的潜力，既适合由谷歌、Facebook和微软等公司运营的数据中心内的应用，也适合核心国际网络内的应用。该解决方案将解决如此高带宽的重要挑战，如同步、噪声和数字信号处理。如果成功，EEMC2将提供一种转发器，其容量比商业上可用的转发器大一个数量级以上，相当于1 GB宽带连接，而不是70 Mb。

The remarkable success of the internet is unquestioned, touching all aspects of our daily lives and commerce. This success is fundamentally underpinned by the tremendous capacity of unseen underground and undersea optical fibre cables and the technologies associated with them. Indeed, the initial surge in web usage in the mid-1990s coincides with the commissioning of the first optically amplified transatlantic cable network, TAT12/13 allowing ready access to information otherwise inaccessible. In parallel with the consistent exponential increase (quadrupling every 4 years) in broadband access rates, optical transceivers used in the core of the communications network have typically grown in bandwidth at the same rate, excepting a small and temporary downturn associated with the introduction of coherent technologies. Today, just as broadband demands begin to outstrip the capabilities of the incumbent technology (twisted pair copper cables) requiring new technology (optical fibre) to be deployed, bandwidth demands in the core network are exceeding the capabilities of single carrier modulation.In this project we will develop low cost all optical techniques to continue to expand the bandwidth of the transceivers which power the internet. Our all optical solution has the potential to be compact, suiting applications both within data centres operated by the likes of Google, Facebook and Microsoft and within the core international networks. The solution will address important challenges at such high bandwidths, such as synchronisation, noise and digital signal processing. If successful EEMC2 will deliver a transponder with more than an order of magnitude more capacity than those commercially available, equivalent of a Gb broadband connection rather than 70 Mb.