Skip to main content

Lower Latency and Higher Data Rates with Hollow Core Fiber (HCF)

Back in May, I attended the inaugural UK Telecoms Innovation (UKTIN) Ecosystem Conference. One of the talks from Microsoft caught my attention as the speaker was discussing the advantages of Hollow-Core Fibre. While the video or slides from that presentation aren't available, here is another talk from Infinera, who are experts in optical technology.

In this talk, Geoff Bennett performs a reality check on HCF which is already being deployed in financial trading applications in the UK. Quoting from the talk description:

Conventional optical fiber, as “an asset that keeps on giving”, has served our industry incredibly well over the past 30 years but we know that there are fundamental limits on fiber capacity. In addition the popularity of low latency applications like financial services and gaming are demanding lower latency, which can become a problem for silica-based fiber because light travels at about two thirds of the speed through glass as it does through air.

Hollow Core Fiber (HCF) has been under development for over a decade, with the promise of far lower latency because the optical signal travels through air, rather than glass. A longer term goal would be to position HCF as a way to offer higher transmission capacity than conventional, silica core fiber.

HCF potentially increases capacity in two distinct ways. First, light is travelling in air, which is a linear medium as opposed to glass which is nonlinear. This could mean that transmit power and amplifier power could be increased, leading to higher capacity. Second is that propagation in air could mean a sufficiently low attenuation across a much wider range of wavelengths than silica core fiber.

This presentation explains how HCF works; gives a brief description of its evolution and the current commercial and manufacturing status; offers a first level approximation of how and when the benefits of HCF will be available; and looks at the impact on the “fiber ecosystem” of transponders, ROADMs, amplifiers, connectors, installation techniques, splice repairs and test gear.

The video of the talk is as follows:

The slides are available here.

Related Posts:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Laser Inter-Satellite Links (LISLs) in a Starlink Constellation

When we first talked about Starlink back in 2019 , we saw in the video that the concept involved laser communication to communicate between the satellites. While the initially launched satellites did not have the laser communication mechanism built in, it looks like they are being added to the newer ones.  A report from Fast Company in late 2021 said: One of the next big upgrades in telecom will involve satellites firing lasers at each other—to beam data, not blow stuff up. The upside of replacing traditional radio-frequency communication with lasers, that encode data as pulses of light, can be much like that of deploying fiber-optic cable for terrestrial broadband: much faster speeds and much lower latency. “Laser links in orbit can reduce long-distance latency by as much as 50%, due to higher speed of light in vacuum & shorter path than undersea fiber,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted in July about the upgrade now beginning for that firm’s Starlink satellite constellation. The

IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability (UHR), a.k.a. Wi-Fi 8

Back in 2020 we looked at the introductory post of Wi-Fi 7 which was followed up by a more detailed post in Feb 2022. We are now following on with an introductory post on the next generation Wi-Fi.  A new paper on arXiv explores the journey towards IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability (UHR), the amendment that will form the basis of Wi-Fi 8. Quoting selected items from the paper  below: After providing an overview of the nearly completed Wi-Fi 7 standard, we present new use cases calling for further Wi-Fi evolution. We also outline current standardization, certification, and spectrum allocation activities, sharing updates from the newly formed UHR Study Group. We then introduce the disruptive new features envisioned for Wi-Fi 8 and discuss the associated research challenges. Among those, we focus on access point coordination and demonstrate that it could build upon 802.11be multi-link operation to make Ultra High Reliability a reality in Wi-Fi 8. The IEEE 802.11bn UHR: Whose Study Gro

NTT Docomo's Disaster Countermeasures to Keep People Connected

Recently I blogged about Disaster Roaming in 3GPP Release-17. While this will take time to be implemented worldwide, it is already available in Japan, maybe not in the 3GPP standardised way. Similarly, back in 2011, I blogged about Earthquake and Tsunami Warning service (ETWS) from NTT Docomo's Journal, it was two days before the  2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit. Japan is no stranger to earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters, which can have a devastating effect on infrastructure. To ensure that the mobile networks keep functioning, operators work extremely hard to ensure people remain connected one way or another. NTT Docomo has released a video detailing the countermeasures to keep everyone connected in case of emergencies. The following detail is provided with the video: DOCOMO's network is no exception, and our services could get cut off by a base station power outage, disconnected fiber-optic cable, or other malfunctions. DOCOMO established the three pr