Introduction / mission

We have a vision of a globe-spanning ubiquitous optical network, a sustainable and reliable communication infrastructure for users and devices around the world.

Highlighted phrase

Our goal: virtually unlimited bandwidth without congestion, anytime, anywhere, for any service

Organisational profile

Our research vision requires ultra-broadband, ultra-long-reach transmission links, fully-transparent, ultra-fast nodes for routing signal streams, flexible, high-density optical interconnect solutions and high-capacity links – including wireless links – to the end user. It also necessitates functions for autonomously mapping users’ location and service requirements to the network’s resources. Sustainability is a leading theme in our research.

Optical communication, based on optical fiber and free-space optical beams, is the technology that can make this vision a reality. It is the technology underlying the explosion of bandwidth and bandwidth-related services that we now all take for granted and which enables us to connect users, homes, cities, countries and continents to form the physical layer for the World Wide Web.

Our research focuses on:

• High Capacity Optical Transmission to overcome the limitations imposed by attenuation, dispersion and nonlinearities in the optical fiber. We are pushing towards speeds of multiple Tb/s by exploring new algorithms for data coding, decoding and reconstruction while exploiting deep understanding of optical fibers.
• Low Latency Interconnect Networks to overcome the latency, capacity and energy bottlenecks in network nodes and network interconnects. We support the growing demand for data exchange between and within data centers by researching new high-density interconnect solutions and novel all-optical switching concepts and devices.
• Optical Access and Indoor Networks to deliver any broadband service to the end user or device, wire-bound or wireless, by means of converged network solutions. We are investigating optical routing techniques for delivering capacity-on-demand, optimizing user mobility and network performance and reducing energy consumption. 
• Advanced Network Management and Control, with the goal to create an autonomous control intelligence to manage the network’s physical layer. This will give users access to services at the appropriate quality-of-experience level and improve the network’s dependability. Our main focus is on cognitive Internet of Things communications.
• Terahertz Photonic Systems to develop techniques for the generation, detection and processing of ultra-high frequency electro-magnetic waves in the sub-THz to THz domain (i.e. 100 GHz and beyond).