ELCON Systemtechnik and its partners presented two promising research projects – TUCAN and CoolPOF – at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference 2015 in Los Angeles. OFC is the world’s most influential optical networking and telecommunications event with about 12,500 attendees, 1,100 presentations and 560 exhibitors in this year.
The project “Tunable Customer Premises Equipment for Access Networks” (TUCAN) addresses the requirements of CPE in optical WDM-PON access networks, i.e. providing highest data rates while reducing power consumption and meeting ambitious cost targets. The project team was able to surpass the requirements by integrating a centralized wavelength control and using DBR laser technology in novel SFP+ tunable transceiver modules. The CPE used in the test system was developed by ELCON. It supports symmetric 1-Gigabit-Ethernet operation.
ADVA Optical Networking, Oclaro Technology and ELCON demonstrated a fully operational WDM-PON setup at OFC. Dr. Stephan Pachnicke, principal engineer at ADVA Optical Networking, sums up the results: “We demonstrated that automatic tuning of the optical network unit to the desired frequency slot is feasible, and long-term frequency stability can be achieved by centralized wavelength locking.” Philipp Neuber, product manager at ELCON, states: “TUCAN is a great and important advance in our company’s research commitment. I am proud to be a part of the research group and overwhelmed by our achievement.” The TUCAN project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The EU-funded research project CoolPOF investigates the energy efficiency potential of step index plastic optical fiber (SI-POF). SI-POF is applied in house and home networking and appeals with easy, flexible handling and low installation costs. In cooperation with the project partners Teleconnect and ZAFT e. V., ELCON developed and manufactured the prototype of an energy- and cost-efficient fiber media converter for use with SI-POF providing data rates of over 1 Gbit/s. The research team accomplished to reduce the power consumption by 25 per cent through hardware analysis and optimisation. The tested prototype system was exhibited at OFC.
ELCON’s chief technology officer Marco Dietrich underlines: “Our efforts in research and development are the key to long-term success. In 2013 our investments in this field went up to 4,5 million Euro. Associated research projects, e. g. TUCAN or CoolPOF, help us to exchange experience with other professionals and secure our technological advantage.”