NOZAY, FRANCE — 3S PHOTONICS, the leading French manufacturer of optical components for telecommunication networks, and its partners, won a competitive bid from the French National Research Agency – ANR – for the industrial research project named EPOD.

EPOD – Enhanced PON using OFDM modulation format – is primarily dedicated to access (FTTH) and metropolitan telecom markets, urban connections from 200 to 300 km. Orange Labs, the R&D division of the French telecom provider leads the EPOD project that also gathers French manufacturer 3S PHOTONICS and academic partners as LISIF (Laboratories of Electronics and Electromagnetism – L2E of Paris region) and a XLIM research team from University of Limoges / CNRS.

These networks will face the increased customer demands for faster and higher speed broadband access due to the emergence of new services like triple-play bundles or Ultra-High Definition Video (UHDV), HD Video-on-Demand, video conferencing, interactive online gaming...

According to the EPOD project’s forecast, FTTH must reach 12% of total broadband connections in France by the end of 2012 (compared to less than 1% at the end of 2007).

“The EPOD project is part of the theme VERSO – Future Networks and Services – of the National Research Agency. Its mission is to design Next-Generation telecom networks based on optical fiber by associating new-generation optical components with new frequency modulation formats. It aims at generating a low-cost, ultra-high capacity broadband access for tomorrow’s needs”, explains Didier Sauvage, member of the board and CTO at 3S PHOTONICS.

This performance is made possible by the implementation of new networks architectures like TDM or WDM PON (Passive Optical Networks). They will combine new optical components with OFDM modulation format – Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing – derived from radio transmission.

Planned for 24 months, EPOD started early February 2009.

A 40 Gbit/s rate achieved within a bandwidth of only 10 GHz

EPOD is the French equivalent of the European project ALPHA – launched in January 2008 – in which 3S PHOTONICS is also involved. EPOD aims at increasing optical telecom network bit rates thanks to the OFDM modulation format.

OFDM enhances spectral efficiency of the transmitted signals which become more resistant to chromatic dispersion. It enables significant cost reduction by using opto-electronic components which can provide over 40 Gbit/s with an intrinsic bandwidth of “only” 10 GHz. Orange Labs and 3S PHOTONICS will be in charge of working on system architecture. 3S PHOTONICS will supply optical transmitter modules (lasers) and receivers (photodiodes) with very good linearity to avoid noise distortions. These components will be tested by Orange Labs on target architectures, based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) or Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM).

The EPOD project will take benefit of LISIF’s expertise in terms of TIA (Trans-Impedance Amplifier). The XLIM team will be in charge of system modelling with the OFDM modulation format.

The French project embraces 3 phases:

  • market requirements analysis and specifications,
  • two runs of prototypes to be tested by Orange Labs,
  • validation of components’ compatibility with future networks.

3S PHOTONICS’ goal is to provide high quality optical products, ready to equip telecom networks.

In the future, these applications developed for the EPOD project could be extended to long-haul terrestrial and submarine optical networks.

Source: 3S PHOTONICS