April 21, 2009--Telecommunications components manufacturer 3S Photonics (Nozay, France) and its partners won a competitive bid from the French National Research Agency (ANR) for the industrial research project named EPOD for Enhanced PON using OFDM modulation format. The project is primarily dedicated to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and metropolitan telecom markets, urban connections from 200 to 300 km (see also "Fiber to the home takes aim at a 100-megabit nation").
3S Photonics recently introduced 980 nm pump modules that offer stable performance over a wide dynamic range.
Orange Labs, the R&D division of the French telecom provider, leads the EPOD project that also gathers French manufacturer 3S Photonics and academic partners such as LISIF (Laboratories of Electronics and Electromagnetism – L2E of Paris region) and a XLIM research team from University of Limoges.
According to the EPOD project's forecast, FTTH must reach 12% of total broadband connections in France by the end of 2012 (compared to less than 1% at the end of 2007). "The EPOD project is part of the theme VERSO - Future Networks and Services - of the National Research Agency. Its mission is to design Next-Generation telecom networks based on optical fiber by associating new-generation optical components with new frequency modulation formats. It aims at generating a low-cost, ultra-high capacity broadband access for tomorrow's needs," explains Didier Sauvage, member of the board and CTO at 3S Photonics.
OFDM enhances spectral efficiency of the transmitted signals which become more resistant to chromatic dispersion. It enables significant cost reduction by using optoelectronic components that can provide over 40 Gbit/s with an intrinsic bandwidth of "only" 10 GHz. Orange Labs and 3S will be in charge of working on system architecture. 3S Photonics will supply optical transmitter modules (lasers) and receivers (photodiodes) with very good linearity to avoid noise distortions. These components will be tested by Orange Labs on target architectures.
For more information, go to www.3Sphotonics.com.
--Posted by Gail Overton, [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com.