Sumitomo Electric Industries introduced a multi-core optical fiber featuring 8 cores in the standard 125-µm cladding suitable for optical interconnects.
Sumitomo said its MCF has optical characteristics comparable to the standard single-mode fiber (SSMF). The 125-µm cladding realizes the mechanical reliability equivalent to that of the standard optical fibers, and can utilize various technologies related to the standard optical fibers such as cabling and connecting technologies.
Evaluation tests using 100GE (100GBASE-LR4) transceivers revealed that the MCF cable assures the error-free transmission for 800 Gbps (8 cores × 4 wavelengths × 25 Gbps) signals, which is 8 times higher than the SSMF case. The results of the transmission experiment indicate that the developed MCF cable has the transmission capacity no less than 9.6 Tbps (12 fibers × 8 cores × 4 wavelength × 25 Gb/s). Improvements on transceivers can further enhance the transmission capacity.
