Keysight and KTH collaboration get record Baud rates

The achievement will be presented at OFC 2023, the largest global conference for optical communications and networking professionals. 

Applications for machine learning, artificial intelligence, 5G and IoT are driving demand for ever increasing bandwidth. This growth is setting challenging bandwidth requirements for optical links in data centres. In response, data center operators are looking for solutions to scale capacity to 1.6Tbps per link in ways that drive down the cost per bit transported and power consumption.  

To address this crucial industry need, Keysight and a research team from the RISE Institutes of Sweden focused on an approach using a low latency intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) system with the highest baud rate possible. By increasing the baud rate of the system, the team could increase the amount of information the system can transmit by reducing the number of wavelengths required to achieve 800Gbps and 1.6Tbps capacities.

As a result, Keysight and the research team successfully demonstrated record breaking baud rates – 310GBaud using on-off keying modulation and 160GBaud with PAM6 modulation – using amplification-free, externally modulated laser optical links that reduce overall power consumption. The demonstration was enabled by the new Keysight M8199B 256GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator that delivers 75GHz bandwidth and 2.5V output amplitude in combination with the 110 GHz Keysight UXR1104A Infiniium UXR-Series Oscilloscope.

Dr. Oskars Ozoliņš, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, KTH and RTU, said: "Data center interconnects require simple and efficient solutions to reduce complexity. We demonstrated that using a simple solution such as an externally modulated laser with record baud rate for on-off keying, PAM4, and PAM16 is a very efficient solution for cost efficient links in data centers. With Keysight's support we have been able to validate that our experiment works. Innovations like this are only possible when working side-by-side with partners like Keysight."

Dr. Joachim Peerlings, Vice President of Network and Data Center Solutions at Keysight Technologies, said: "Keysight supports young talented researchers and is proud to contribute to the development of next generation datacom optical interfaces. Collaborations like this help to address the next leap in the technology wave."