Algorithms and Architecture for Super Terabit Flexible Multicarrier Coherent Optical Transmission

光纤通信网络构成了所有互联网流量所依赖的全球通信基础设施的主干。自20世纪80年代商业部署以来，光纤一直被认为提供了足够的容量，并能够维持数据通信量的增长。然而，过去十年经历的巨大通信量增长率要求光纤数据传输速度大大加快，最好是比现有的光纤部署更快。本研究项目致力于满足这一需求。提出的研究围绕光超信道的概念，将多个波长信道组合在一起来实现更高的端到端速率。为了增加现有光纤支持的通信量，我们的研究团队将开发方法，将数据更密集地打包到这些超级通道中，并允许超级通道适应当前通过光纤网络的流量需求。这将通过复杂的信号处理方法来实现，所述信号处理方法在光发射机处组织数据传输，并补偿在接收器处的各种损伤，特别是密集打包数据流的串扰。与有效开发通信方法的典型情况一样，该项目的这一部分将严重依赖计算机模拟来进行性能评估。在项目的第二部分，我们将论证在硬件上实施所开发的创新的可行性。我们将以现场可编程门阵列的实现为目标，这是一种通常用于学术界和工业界探索设计空间和集成电路原型的设备。研究团队由经验丰富的教职员工和热情的研究生研究人员组成，并得到来自领先的光纤通信解决方案供应商之一的专家的支持。该研究项目将为学生提供极好的培训机会，为他们毕业后加入加拿大信息和通信技术部门做好准备。

The optical fibre communication network forms the backbone of the global communication infrastructure on which all Internet traffic relies. Since their commercial deployment in the 1980s, optical fibres have been considered as offering plenty of capacity and being able to sustain the growth in data traffic. However, the tremendous traffic growth rates experienced in the past decade call for a substantially faster optical data transmission preferably over the existing fibre deployments. This research project is dedicated toward serving this need.The proposed research revolves around the concept of optical superchannels, which combine multiple wavelength channels to accomplish higher end-to-end rates. To increase the amount of traffic supported by existing fibres, our research team will develop methods to pack data more densely into these superchannels and to allow superchannels to adapt to the current demand for traffic through a optical fibre network. This will be accomplished through sophisticated signal processing methods that organize the data transmission at the optical transmitter and that compensate for the various impairments and in particular crosstalk of densely packed data streams at the receiver. As typically the case for the effective development of communication methods, this part of the project will heavily rely on computer simulations for performance evaluation. In the second part of the project, we will demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the developed innovations in hardware. We will target an implementation in a field-programmable gate array, a device typically used in academia and industry to explore the design space and prototype integrated circuits. The research team consists of experienced faculty members and enthusiastic graduate student researchers and is supported by experts from one of the leading vendors of optical fibre communication solutions. The research program will provide excellent training opportunities for the students, making them ready to join the Canadian information and communication technology sector after graduation.