As IP traffic continues to increase and the router interface rate extends beyond 100 gigabits-per-second (Gb/s), future optical networks—ones that would achieve unprecedented speeds of 1 terabit-per-second (Tb/s)—will be required to support the rapid growth of data services with different capacities and patterns on the same optical platform.

To address this issue, researchers at NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in Japan created and demonstrated a spectrally efficient, scalable elastic optical transport network architecture. The team will report on their findings at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) taking place next week in Los Angeles.