Transforming the Internet Infrastructure: The Photonic HyperHighway
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Optoelectronics Research Ctr (closed)
Abstract
Our vision is to develop the disruptive component technologies and network concepts that will enhance our communications infrastructure 1000-fold to meet our 20-year needs, avert network grid-lock and reduce energy consumption.With continued steep growth in transmitted data volumes on all media, there is a widely-recognized and urgent need for more sophisticated photonics technologies in both the core and access networks to forestall a 'capacity crunch' in the medium term. Our Programme involves two world-class groups ideally positioned to satisfy this need and reinforce the traditional leadership of the UK in this area. All-optical technologies can also save considerably on the rapidly-rising energy consumption of communications systems (several % of global energy consumption, similar to air transport!), as well as substituting for travel, (e.g. Cisco's ultrawideband telepresence system has halved their large worldwide travel budget). This proposal is therefore focused on one of the most important challenges facing our modern society - an energy-efficient, ultra-high capacity ICT infrastructure able to connect people and businesses seamlessly everywhere. Traffic on the global communications infrastructure continues to increase 80% year-on-year, driven by rapidly expanding and increasingly-demanding applications: YouTube, MMS, iPlayer, new concepts such as cloud computing, tele-surgery, the introduction of the iPhone alone proved a severe drain on the capacity of major carriers. Bandwidth growth in the access network is starting to overwhelm the available capacity in the core. In the last 10 years, the number of broadband subscribers worldwide has grown 100-fold. We are now rapidly approaching the fundamental data carrying capacity of current optical technology; moreover, the energy required to support today's growing, power-hungry, ICT infrastructure is looking worryingly unsustainable. It is time to ask hard questions about some long-held assumptions.We propose a radical transformation of the physical infrastructure underpinning today's networks by developing devices capable of 1000-fold improvements in performance, starting with a critical re-examination of some of the most basic transmission building blocks - the optical fibres, amplification and regeneration, and nonlinear switching and distribution. Since the inception of optical telecommunications 40 years ago, the silica fibre has been its work-horse. However, as it nears its capacity limits, a radical rethink can reap dividends in non-linear threshold, transmission window breadth and loss through new materials and designs, leading to 1000-fold improvements. In addition, current power-hungry electronic switches are bottlenecks that photonics can alleviate. Although immensely challenging, the new technologies that we propose have the potential to lead to major advances and benefits in many other important areas - including security, the environment, manufacturing and healthcare. If we are successful in achieving our objectives, the Programme will surely establish the UK firmly as the world leader in optical communications and networking technologies for decades to come.
Planned Impact
The beneficiaries of this research will be both the research comunities and, in the longer term, the commercial sector. The research beneficiaries are largely described in the academic beneficiaries section. In the area of commercial exploitation, the ORC has significant past experience and track record of exploiting IP, both in terms of licensing to users and in the formation of spin-off ventures. In the Southampton area alone, a cluster of high tech, high value-added photonics spinout companies currently employs about 600 people and plays a major role in the regional and national economy. Exploitation will be through the form of IP generated or knowledge transfer. Where applicable, we will seek to exploit our results through new start-up companies, joint ventures or industry-led deals. Research that has the potential for commercial exploitation will be reviewed on a quarterly basis, with invention disclosure forms documenting the names of inventors and their respective percentage contributions to the invention. Results of the research will be exploited via the University's Research Support Services, who provide valuable commercial and legal resources. We also work with the SETsquared Partnership, a successful entrepreneurship collaboration. Throughout the course of the Programme, we will undertake the training and development of the next generation of scientists and engineers (starting with 5 new Postdocs and 6 Students) to expand the knowledge and skills-base, and through it the competitiveness of the UK economy. This will be carried out through the institution's graduate training programme and staff development schemes. A marketing manager will assist in the communication and dissemination aspects of the Programme, to reach out to a wider audience and raise the visibility of the research. Where appropriate, Postdocs and students will be involved in the impact activities as part of their training and broader skills development, e.g., in user engagement discussions, writing of technical reports, research publications, etc.
Organisations
- University of Southampton (Lead Research Organisation)
- Oclaro (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- Coriant (Collaboration)
- National Physical Laboratory (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Collaboration)
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (Collaboration)
- BT Group (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- Yangtze Optical Fibre & Cable (Shanghai) Company Ltd. (Collaboration)
- University College Cork (Collaboration)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (Collaboration)
- ASTON UNIVERSITY (Collaboration)
- IS Instruments (Collaboration)
- Pulitzer Arts Foundation (Collaboration)
- Eindhoven University of Technology (Collaboration)
- OFS Denmark (Collaboration)
- Phoenix Photonics Ltd. (Collaboration)
- Oclaro (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Fianium (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Alam S.U.
(2013)
Thulium doped fiber amplifiers for 2 µm telecommunications
in 2013 18th OptoElectronics and Communications Conference Held Jointly with 2013 International Conference on Photonics in Switching, OECC/PS 2013
Amaya N
(2013)
Introducing Node Architecture Flexibility for Elastic Optical Networks
in Journal of Optical Communications and Networking
Amaya N
(2011)
Field trial of a 1.5 Tb/s adaptive and gridless OXC supporting elastic 1000-fold all-optical bandwidth granularity.
in Optics express
Amaya N
(2011)
Architecture on demand for transparent optical networks
Amaya N
(2013)
Fully-elastic multi-granular network with space/frequency/time switching using multi-core fibres and programmable optical nodes.
in Optics express
Amaya N.
(2011)
Gridless optical networking field trial: Flexible spectrum switching, defragmentation and transport of 10G/40G/100G/555G over 620-km field fiber
in European Conference on Optical Communication, ECOC
Amaya N.
(2012)
Adaptable infrastructure for future scalable flexible and resilient optical networks
in 2012 International Conference on Photonics in Switching, PS 2012
Amaya N.
(2012)
First fully-elastic multi-granular network with space/frequency/time switching using multi-core fibres and programmable optical nodes
in European Conference on Optical Communication, ECOC
Amaya N.
(2011)
Field trial of a 1.5 Tb/s adaptive and gridless OXC supporting elastic 1000-fold bandwidth granularity
in European Conference on Optical Communication, ECOC
Anastasopoulos M
(2013)
Stochastic Planning of Dependable Virtual Infrastructures Over Optical Datacenter Networks
in Journal of Optical Communications and Networking
Anis M
(2013)
Field Trial Demonstration of Spectrum Defragmentation and Grooming in Elastic Optical Node
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Baddela N.K.
(2013)
First Demonstration of a low loss 37-cell hollow core photonic bandgap fiber and its use for data transmission
in CLEO: Science and Innovations, CLEO_SI 2013
Belal M
(2013)
Demonstration of a 2um-OTDR
Belardi W
(2015)
Hollow Core Antiresonant Fibers in Borosilicate Glass
Belardi W
(2017)
Composite material hollow antiresonant fibers.
in Optics letters
Bogoni A
(2016)
Foreword to the Special Issue on European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2015)
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Bottrill K
(2016)
Phase Regeneration of QPSK Signal in SOA Using Single-Stage, Wavelength Converting PSA
in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Bottrill K
(2017)
Optical Predistortion Enabling Phase Preservation in Optical Signal Processing Demonstrated in FWM-Based Amplitude Limiter
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Bottrill K
(2015)
FWM-based, Idler-free Phase Quantiser with Flexible Operating Power
Bottrill K
(2014)
Suppression of Gain Variation in a PSA-Based Phase Regenerator Using an Additional Harmonic
in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Bottrill K.R.H.
(2017)
Flexible seheme for measuring chromatic dispersion based on interference of frequency tones
in 2017 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, OFC 2017 - Proceedings
Bottrill K.R.H.
(2015)
Investigation into the role of pump to signal power ratio in FWM-based phase preserving amplitude regeneration
in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe - Technical Digest
Bottrill K.R.H.
(2014)
An Optical phase quantiser exhibiting suppressed phase dependent gain variation
in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2014
Bottrill KR
(2017)
Full quadrature regeneration of QPSK signals using sequential phase sensitive amplification and parametric saturation.
in Optics express
Bottrill KR
(2016)
Optimisation of amplitude limiters for phase preservation based on the exact solution to degenerate four-wave mixing.
in Optics express
Castro C.
(2017)
200 Gbit/s 16QAM WDM transmission over a fully integrated cladding pumped 7-Core MCF System
in 2017 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, OFC 2017 - Proceedings
Channegowda M.
(2012)
First demonstration of an openflow based software-defined optical network employing packet, fixed and flexible DWDM grid technologies on an international multi-domain testbed
in European Conference on Optical Communication, ECOC
Chen Y.
(2015)
Demonstration of an 11km hollow core photonic bandgap fiber for broadband low-latency data transmission
in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2015
Chen Y.
(2014)
Understanding wavelength scaling in 19-cell core hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers
in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OFC 2014
Džanko M
(2014)
Evaluating Availability of Optical Networks Based on Self-Healing Network Function Programmable ROADMs
in Journal of Optical Communications and Networking
Ettabib M
(2016)
All-optical Phase Regeneration with Record PSA Extinction Ratio in a Low-birefringence Silicon Germanium Waveguide
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Ettabib M
(2016)
Polarization Insensitive Wavelength Conversion in a Low-Birefringence SiGe Waveguide
in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Ettabib M.A.
(2014)
Highly nonlinear tellurite glass fiber for broadband applications
in Conference on Optical Fiber Communication, Technical Digest Series
Ettabib M.A.
(2012)
All-optical phase regeneration in a highly nonlinear lead-silicate fiber
in Optics InfoBase Conference Papers
Ettabib MA
(2012)
Phase sensitive amplification in a highly nonlinear lead-silicate fiber.
in Optics express
| Description | Fabrication of a 11-km-long Photonic Bandgap fibre: This is a new type of optical fibre that allows light to travel in air (rather than the glass core of conventional optical fibres). The technology has the potential to revolutionise technology, especially in applications requiring very low latency. Amplifiers covering the whole spectral region 1650 - 2150nm: We are developing amplifiers that will allow a much broader spectrum of wavelengths to be used in optical transmission, than what is currently typically used in communications (1530 - 1560nm). This will allow much more information to be accommodated within a single optical fibre. Bismuth doped fibre amplifiers in the 1300-nm region. The development of an effective solution for optical amplification in this wavelength region is considered important in transforming the useability of a number of communication applications. We have achieved significant developments in this direction. Multi-element Multi-mode fibre amplifiers: We develop new types of optical fibres and associated technologies that rely on spatial division multiplexing (SDM) to increase the information capacity carried in optical communication systems. "Idler-free" phase-sensitive amplification: We have demonstrated optical systems that 'clean' signals from noise, after they have been transmitted over long lengths of amplified transmission links. SDM-to-WDM conversion: The new high-capacity SDM networks will need to be backward-compatible with conventional systems. We are developing the sub-systems that will allow this. Optical phase conjugation for nonlinearity mitigation in transmission: We have performed transmission experiments on EPSRC's NDFIS that have shown that deleterious nonlinear effects that arise from the presence of several wavelength-division multiplexed channels can negated through the use of an optical phase conjugator placed approximately at the middle of the transmission link. Intra- and inter- data centre networking using SDM technologies: The new fibre technologies we develop will have a pervasive impact in several aspects of communications networks. We have demonstrated the benefits of employing SDM technologies in data centre communications. |
| Exploitation Route | We are discussing with a number of leading industrial partners and research institutions who might benefit from our technologies. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | A new EPSRC Programme grant aiming to explore Metamaterials in Communications has been funded at Southampton. This new grant stems from the communications-related activity in Hyperhighway and combines finding from this Programme with other technologies explored at the ORC. A new EPSRC Programme grant was funded (Airguide Photonics), that progressed further the hollow core fibre technology and novel fibre amplifier technologies. New H2020 project Safari (ORC, Fujikura, NTT, Coriant, DTU) Amplification in multicore fibres. The introduction of new wavelength bands in optical communications, which was pioneered within the Photonic Hyperhighway, has been widely adopted as a major research direction in optical communications today. Career development of researchers: David Wu - EPSRC Pioneer in ICT Prize winner Zhihong Li - Shortlisted for Best Student Paper award at ECOC'14 Eric Numkam Fokoua, Zhihong Li, Victor Rancano, Saurab Jain awarded PhD degrees. Eric Numkam Fokoua and Greg Jasion proceeded to winning RAEng Fellowships based on work that had been initiated in the Programme. Victor Rancano moved on to a job with the major telecommunications systems vendor Ciena. Hyperhighway Student Workshops have taken place at both Southampton and Bristol. Bristol is Open (http://www.bristolisopen.com) A £75M investment to build a city scale experimental testbed. The optical metro network will be deploying architecture-on-demand (AoD) nodes developed within this grant. Commercialisation of technology developed in the project through the SME Phoenix Photonics; One spin-off company was created at Southampton (Lumenisity); Interactions with Industry (Google, eunetworks, Honeywell, Coriant, Polatis, II-VI, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs, etc) Collaboration with Programme Grant UNLOC, run jointly between UCL and Aston Universities. Discussion - participation in workshops Joint funding bids Members of the consortium have a central role in the EPSRC National Dark Fibre Infrastructure Aurora2 (NDFF) Dark Fibre infrastructure linking the Bristol with Southampton universities, and also UCL and Cambridge Critical facilitator of collaboration in Hyperhighway and beyond Fully automated network allowing both networking and transmission experiments Leading roles of members of the consortium in major Conferences (ECOC, OFC, CLEO) ORC Photonics Day at Southampton Two-day event Keynote speeches from international research leaders Presentation of new results from students and young researchers |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | Consolidator Grant (Poletti) |
| Amount | € 2,750,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 07/2016 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | European Union Framework 7 |
| Amount | £1,200,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 224547 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | |
| Description | European Union Framework 7 |
| Amount | £3,000,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 258033 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | |
| Description | Exploiting the bandwidth potential of multimode optical fibres |
| Amount | £468,475 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/J008591/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2012 |
| End | 12/2016 |
| Description | Horizon2020 (COSIGN) |
| Amount | € 10,000,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 619572 |
| Organisation | European Union |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 01/2014 |
| End | 12/2016 |
| Description | Horizon2020 (SAFARI) |
| Amount | € 1,500,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 642928 |
| Organisation | European Union |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2017 |
| Description | Industrial - Hollow core fibre fabrication |
| Amount | £30,415 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Lumenisity |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2016 |
| End | 10/2016 |
| Description | Industrial - Hollow core fibre programme |
| Amount | £1,170,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Lumenisity |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2017 |
| End | 02/2019 |
| Description | Industrial funding supported by RCUK Impact Acceleration Account Award |
| Amount | £220,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Southampton |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2019 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Industry - FMF isolator |
| Amount | £750 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Phoenix Photonics Ltd. |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Industry - Multimode amplifiers |
| Amount | £14,750 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Phoenix Photonics Ltd. |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Manufacturing Advanced Functional Materials |
| Amount | £3,125,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M015130/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2015 |
| End | 01/2020 |
| Description | Manufacturing the Future |
| Amount | £2,476,881 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M015173/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2015 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | NDFIS Mid-range infrastructures |
| Amount | £2,500,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | NS/A000021/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2013 |
| End | 10/2018 |
| Description | NTU (singapore) |
| Amount | £175,222 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Nanostructured Fibre and Mid-IR Fibre |
| Organisation | Nanyang Technological University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Singapore |
| Start | 04/2013 |
| End | 07/2014 |
| Description | National Dark Fibre Facility |
| Amount | £4,900,552 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S028854/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 05/2024 |
| Description | National Hub in High Value Photonic Manufacturing |
| Amount | £10,220,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/N00762X/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 12/2022 |
| Description | Photonic Phase Conjugation Systems (PHOS) |
| Amount | £574,498 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S002871/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2018 |
| End | 10/2021 |
| Description | Programmable channel reconfiguration |
| Amount | £169,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2016 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Description | Programme Grant - AirGuide Photonics |
| Amount | £6,160,545 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P030181/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2017 |
| End | 05/2023 |
| Description | University Research Fellowship |
| Amount | £467,623 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 10/2020 |
| Description | Application of HC-PBGFs for high capacity, low latency transmission |
| Organisation | Coriant |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Development of state of the art hollow core fibres for data transmission |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided access to commercial grade state of the art data transmission testbeds worth several £100k for carrying out trials of realistic scale. |
| Impact | Assessment of hollow core PBGFs for data transmission. First demonstration of DWDM high capacity transmission in HC-PBGFs; record transmission capacity and distance over this type of fibres |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Aston - Doran |
| Organisation | Aston University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Prof N Doran participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof N Doran participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Impact | Research progress and direction was openly discussed in regular meetings. The collaboration helped shape the research in the Programme. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | BBC - Chambers |
| Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | C Chambers participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | C Chambers participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Impact | Research progress and direction was openly discussed in regular meetings. The collaboration helped shape the research in the Programme. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | BT - HCPBGF |
| Organisation | BT Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Provided special optical fibre for transmission experiments. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Passive optical network testbed and associated expertise. |
| Impact | This is work currently in progress. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | CERN radiation hard fibres |
| Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
| Department | CERN - Other |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our centre has developed novel Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres for short and medium range data transmission links, which guide light in an air core and thus are thus expected to have significantly higher radiation hardness as compared to standard all solid fibres. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group at CERN has carried out experiments and demonstrated a 100x reduction of radiation induced loss in pilot trials even under very high dose gamma irradiation. |
| Impact | Participation to specialist conference (TWEPP 2013) and publication on high impact journal: L Olanterä et al 2013 JINST 8 C12010 doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/12/C12010 |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Cambridge - Selective mode excitation in fibres |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Fibre expertise, characterisation and test. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Design (Oxford) and implementation (Cambridge) of devices for selectively exciting modes in few-mode fibres |
| Impact | Publication of four joint publications: [1] F. Feng, X. Q. Jin, D. O'Brien, F. Payne, Y. M. Jung, Q. Y. Kang, P. Barna, J. K. Sahu, S. U. Alam, D. J. Richardson, and T. D. Wilkinson, "All-optical mode-group multiplexed transmission over a graded-index ring-core fiber with single radial mode," Optics Express, vol. 25, pp. 13773-13781, Jun 2017. [2] X. Q. Jin, A. Gomez, K. Shi, B. C. Thomsen, F. Feng, G. S. D. Gordon, T. D. Wilkinson, Y. M. Jung, Q. Y. Kang, P. Barua, J. Sahu, A. Shaif-ul, D. J. Richardson, D. C. O'Brien, and F. P. Payne, "Mode Coupling Effects in Ring-Core Fibers for Space-Division Multiplexing Systems," Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 34, pp. 3365-3372, Jul 2016. [3] F. Feng, X. H. Guo, G. S. D. Gordon, X. Q. Jin, F. P. Payne, Y. Jung, Q. Kang, S. Alam, P. Barua, J. K. Sahu, D. J. Richardson, I. H. White, T. D. Wilkinson, and Ieee, "All-optical Mode-Group Division Multiplexing Over a Graded-Index Ring-Core Fiber with Single Radial Mode," in 2016 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, 2016. [4] F. Feng, G. S. D. Gordon, X. Q. Jin, D. C. O'Brien, F. P. Payne, Y. Jung, Q. Kang, J. K. Sahu, S. U. Alam, D. J. Richardson, T. D. Wilkinson, and Ieee, "Experimental Characterization of a Graded-Index Ring-Core Fiber Supporting 7 LP Mode Groups," in 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, 2015. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Cambridge - Selective mode excitation in fibres |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Fibre expertise, characterisation and test. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Design (Oxford) and implementation (Cambridge) of devices for selectively exciting modes in few-mode fibres |
| Impact | Publication of four joint publications: [1] F. Feng, X. Q. Jin, D. O'Brien, F. Payne, Y. M. Jung, Q. Y. Kang, P. Barna, J. K. Sahu, S. U. Alam, D. J. Richardson, and T. D. Wilkinson, "All-optical mode-group multiplexed transmission over a graded-index ring-core fiber with single radial mode," Optics Express, vol. 25, pp. 13773-13781, Jun 2017. [2] X. Q. Jin, A. Gomez, K. Shi, B. C. Thomsen, F. Feng, G. S. D. Gordon, T. D. Wilkinson, Y. M. Jung, Q. Y. Kang, P. Barua, J. Sahu, A. Shaif-ul, D. J. Richardson, D. C. O'Brien, and F. P. Payne, "Mode Coupling Effects in Ring-Core Fibers for Space-Division Multiplexing Systems," Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 34, pp. 3365-3372, Jul 2016. [3] F. Feng, X. H. Guo, G. S. D. Gordon, X. Q. Jin, F. P. Payne, Y. Jung, Q. Kang, S. Alam, P. Barua, J. K. Sahu, D. J. Richardson, I. H. White, T. D. Wilkinson, and Ieee, "All-optical Mode-Group Division Multiplexing Over a Graded-Index Ring-Core Fiber with Single Radial Mode," in 2016 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, 2016. [4] F. Feng, G. S. D. Gordon, X. Q. Jin, D. C. O'Brien, F. P. Payne, Y. Jung, Q. Kang, J. K. Sahu, S. U. Alam, D. J. Richardson, T. D. Wilkinson, and Ieee, "Experimental Characterization of a Graded-Index Ring-Core Fiber Supporting 7 LP Mode Groups," in 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition, 2015. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Coriant High data rate HC-PBGF transmission trials |
| Organisation | Coriant |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Our centre has developed novel Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres for low latency data transmission applications. These fibres can be operated both as single mode and as few mode fibres over the distance of few hundred meters to a few kilometres. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Coriant has carried out transmission system tests using high specs commercial equipment and have achieved several record data transmission rates in the HC-PBGFs developed by the ORC, using spatial division multiplexing and a variety of advanced data transmission formats. |
| Impact | Y. Jung, V. Sleiffer, N. Baddela, M. Petrovich, J. R. Hayes, N. Wheeler, D. Gray, E. R. Numkam Fokoua, J. Wooler, N. Wong, F. Parmigiani, S. Alam, J. Surof, M. Kuschnerov, V. Veljanovski, H. Waardt, de, F. Poletti, and D. J. Richardson, "First Demonstration of a Broadband 37-cell Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fiber and Its Application to High Capacity Mode Division Multiplexing," in Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference 2013, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optical Society of America, 2013), paper PDP5A.3. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OFC-2013-PDP5A.3 Poletti, F., Wheeler, N., Baddela, N., Jung, Y., Wooler, J., Gray, D., Numkam, E., Hayes, J., Slavik, R., Alam, S.U., Sandogchi, S.R., Sleiffer, V.A.J.M., Kuschnerov, M., Petrovich, M. & Richardson, D.J. (2013). Recent advances in photonic bandgap fiber technology. Conference Paper : Proceedings IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topicals Meeting 2013, 8-10 July 2013, Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA, (pp. TuC4.4-(115/116)). Invited paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/PHOSST.2013.6614513 |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Customized Hollow core fibres for novel Gas sensing schemes |
| Organisation | IS Instruments |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Development of hollow core fibres tailored for IS gas sensing applications |
| Collaborator Contribution | Support of a CASE Studentship; awarded and leading an Innovate UK grant in late 2015 |
| Impact | Support of new high value gas sensor instruments at IS Instruments (commercially sensitive) |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Development of custom SDM fibres |
| Organisation | OFS Denmark |
| Country | Denmark |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Characterisation of novel few-mode fibres for spatial division multiplexing |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided about 12 samples of state of the art SDM fibres to be tested at the ORC and used for transmission tests value >£20,000 |
| Impact | Support of new products at OFS (commercially sensitive) |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Development of custom active and passive fibres for spatial division multiplexing |
| Organisation | Yangtze Optical Fibre & Cable (Shanghai) Company Ltd. |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Characterisation of novel few-mode fibres for spatial division multiplexing |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided about 5 samples >1km length of state of the art SDM fibres to be tested at the ORC - value >£10,000 |
| Impact | Support of new products at YFTC (commercially sensitive) |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Development of custom spatial division multiplexing (SDM) and low latency fibres and their use in datacom systems. |
| Organisation | Pulitzer Arts Foundation |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Design and fabrication of custom low latency fibre and multicore fibre for integration with Polatis' Devices |
| Collaborator Contribution | Provided test equipment worth £65,000 on a long term loan; Testing of custom designed ORC fibres in a device configuration. |
| Impact | Support of ongoing activities and new products at Polatis (commercially sensitive) |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | High-capacity transmission in HC-PBGFs |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Department | Speech, Hearing & Phonetic Sciences |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Provision of specialty fibre. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Telecommunications systems expertise. |
| Impact | On-going work. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | NPL thermal sensitivity HC-PBGF |
| Organisation | National Physical Laboratory |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our centre has developed novel Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres for data transmission applications. These fibres guide light in an air core and thus are thus expected to have significantly lower sensitivity to thermal phase noise, and thus to be more suitable to transfer ultraprecise timing signals as compared to standard all solid fibres. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group at NPL has carried out experiments and demonstrated a >18x reduction in thermal sensitivity in HC-PBGFs as compared to standard single mode fibres. |
| Impact | publications planned & applications for further funding. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Oclaro - A Carter |
| Organisation | Oclaro |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | A Carter participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | A Carter participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Impact | Research progress and direction was openly discussed in regular meetings. The collaboration helped shape the research in the Programme. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Phoenix Photonics |
| Organisation | Phoenix Photonics Ltd. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Contributed on the development of components of a few-moded fibre amplifier |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise on product development. Commercialisation of research |
| Impact | Developed commercial product. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | TuE HC-PBGF transmission trials |
| Organisation | Eindhoven University of Technology |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our centre has developed novel Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres for low latency data transmission applications |
| Collaborator Contribution | . The group at TU/e has carried out transmission system tests achieving the higher capacity x distance demonstrated to date in a HC-PBGF. |
| Impact | R. van Uden, C. Okonkwo, H. Chen, N. V. Wheeler, F. Poletti, M. Petrovich, D. J. Richardson, H. de Waardt, and A. Koonen, "8.96Tb/s (32×28GBaud×32QAM) Transmission over 0.95 km 19 cell Hollow-Core Photonic Bandgap Fiber," in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optical Society of America, 2014), paper W4J.3. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OFC-2014-W4J.3 |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | UCC 2 micron HC-PBGF transmission |
| Organisation | University College Cork |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our centre has developed novel Hollow Core Photonic Bandgap Fibres with low loss at the 2 micron wavelength. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group at UCC/Tyndall has carried out full transmission system experiments within the novel transmission window at 2 microns. |
| Impact | M. N. Petrovich, F. Poletti, J. P. Wooler, A.M. Heidt, N.K. Baddela, Z. Li, D.R. Gray, R. Slavík, F. Parmigiani, N.V. Wheeler, J.R. Hayes, E. Numkam, L. Gruner-Nielsen, B. Pálsdóttir, R. Phelan, B. Kelly, John O'Carroll, M. Becker, N. MacSuibhne, J. Zhao, F.C. Garcia Gunning, A.D. Ellis, P. Petropoulos, S.U. Alam, and D.J. Richardson, "Demonstration of amplified data transmission at 2 µm in a low-loss wide bandwidth hollow core photonic bandgap fiber," Opt. Express 21, 28559-28569 (2013) http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-21-23-28559 N.MacSuibhne, Z.Li, B.Baeuerle, J.Zhao, J.P.Wooler, S.U.Alam, F.Poletti, M.N.Petrovich, A.M.Heidt, N.V.Wheeler, N.K.Baddela, E.Numkam Fokoua, I.P.Giles, D.J.Giles, R.Phelan, J.O'Carroll, B.Kelly, D.Murphy, B.Corbett, A.D.Ellis, F.C.Garcia Gunning, D.J.Richardson "WDM transmission at 2 microns over low-loss hollow core photonic bandgap fiber" OFC '13 Los Angeles 17-21 Mar 2013 |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | UCL - Seeds |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Prof A Seeds participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Collaborator Contribution | Prof A Seeds participated in the Technical Advisory Board of the Programme |
| Impact | Research progress and direction was openly discussed in regular meetings. The collaboration helped shape the research in the Programme. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Title | APPARATUS AND A METHOD FOR THE CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF GLASS INSULATED MICROWIRE |
| Description | APPARATUS AND A METHOD FOR THE CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF GLASS INSULATED MICROWIRE |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
| Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
| Impact | None |
| Company Name | Lumenisity Ltd |
| Description | Lumenisity is a University spin out concerned with commercialising hollow core optical fibre technology for diverse applications. |
| Year Established | 2016 |
| Impact | Company has secured funding, expanded to employ ~100 people and set up manufacturing facilities in Romsey. It was acquired by Microsoft at the end of 2022.. |
| Description | Family Science and Engineering Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Family Science and Engineering Day 3 separate events, UoS campus |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Outreach Event - Pint of Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | F Parmigiani presented the importance of her research and its societal impact at a general audience. This was organised as part of the annual "Pint of Science" national event, during which prominent scientists and engineers discuss their work at events organised in public houses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Science Museum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | London Science Museum 2 x Shows. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Science and Engineering Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Science and Engineering Day |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Skype presentation to secondary-school students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Prof P Petropoulos presented the work carried out at the clean-rooms of the University of Southampton to a group of secondary education students attending from their local school in Greece. The presentation was over a Skype video teleconference from within the clean-room area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | outreach in schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Visit to schools, engagement with 4,200 pupils and members of general public, interactive experience with photonics. increased number of schoools asking for outreach activities. requests from museums. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015 |