II‐VI and Lumentum form SmartTuning Optics MSA

II‐VI and Lumentum are founding members of a new SmartTuning Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) that aims to standardize an interoperable self-tuning feature for full-band tunable dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) pluggable optical transceivers. The companies say that incorporating a plug-and-play, self-tunable feature adds an extra layer of automation which further simplifies network installation and operation practices. Self-tunable...

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BT tests Quantum Key Distribution over hollow core fibre

 BT has conducted a trial of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) over hollow core fibre cable developed by Lumenisity, a spin out from Southampton University.Testing of Nested Anti-Resonant Nodeless Fibre (NANF) hollow core fibre kicked off this summer at the BT Labs in Ipswich.BT researchers operated a state-of-the-art QKD system using commercial equipment over a 6-kilometre-long Lumenisity CoreSmart cable with a hollow, air-filled centre, revealing...

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Avicena demos multi-Tbps LED interconnect

At this week's European Conference for Optical Communications (ECOC) 2021, Avicena Tech Corp. is demonstrating its LightBundle multi-Tbps LED-based chip-to-chip interconnect technology.The Avicena LightBundle achieves order-of-magnitude improvements in power dissipation and density over any other interconnect technology up to a reach of 10 meters. LightBundle™ is purpose-built for multi-Tbps chip-to-chip interconnects in distributed computing, processor-to-memory...

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Cloudflare expands to 250 cities and reaches 100 Tbps capacity

Cloudflare's network now spans more than 250 cities in over 100 countries, including three new locations across Europe: Cork, Ireland; Palermo, Italy; and Ekaterinburg, Russia. In total, Cloudflare has data centers in all of the below 47 cities across 30 countries across Europe.Over the past 2 years, Cloudflare has more than tripled its overall network capacity to 100Tbps and increased the number of cities in its network by 25%.  Currently,...

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Crosslake Fibre picks Ciena for cable across the English Channel

Crosslake Fibre has selected Ciena for a new submarine cable and terrestrial network between Slough, UK, and Paris, France.  The network, called ‘CrossChannel Fibre,’ is the first fibre cable project of its kind to be built across the busy shipping lanes of the English Channel since 2001. Crosslake is deploying Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme. Crosslake is also using Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP)...

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SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites into polar orbit from California

SpaceX launched 51 Starlink satellites into polar orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.The launch used a Falcon 9 booster that previously launched Telstar 18 VANTAGE, Iridium-8, and seven Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing halves previously supported...

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Windstream joins Open ROADM Forum

Windstream has joined Open ROADM, a multi-source agreement forum that defines compatibility standards for optical networking gear. Windstream said it continues to be a strong advocate for open standards as demonstrated with its own Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON) architecture, which leverages the advantages of a disaggregated network architecture with multi-vendor open line system scalability and alien wave support. Windstream is...

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