Nokia demos first 100Gb/s fiber broadband technology in the US

Nokia Bell Labs, the research arm of Nokia, demonstrated the first 100Gb/second broadband technology in the US at Fiber Connect 2022, Nashville, Tennessee. This record-breaking speed was achieved using 100G PON technology, the company said in a statement on Monday.

"Fiber is the ultimate broadband infrastructure. It has almost unlimited capacity with only changes to the electronics at either end needed to increase speed. Today, fiber can already deliver 10G and 25G speeds. 50G will be available in the second half of this decade. With this proof-of-concept demo, we show that 100G is already within reach; all with the fiber network infrastructure that is being built today," said Stefaan Vanhastel, CTO Nokia Fixed Networks.

Whilst existing optical technologies deliver speeds up to 25Gb/second, higher speeds require new approaches. Nokia's Fiber Connect prototype delivers 100Gb/s speeds in downstream on a single PON wavelength, avoiding the need to combine multiple wavelengths carrying lower speeds.

In this prototype, Nokia Bell Labs is using advanced digital signal processing (DSP) techniques that will be needed for all technologies beyond 25G PON, including 50G and 100G PON. The demo also showcases flexible data rates which allows for a more efficient use of the available capacity.