Microsoft-backed Lumenisity researchers have achieved a significant breakthrough in fiber optic technology, unveiling a new hollow-core fiber optic cable with what they claim is the lowest signal loss ever recorded. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Photonics.
The research team reports that their novel design, dubbed the Double Nested Anti-Resonant Non-Touch Fiber (DNANF), achieves a signal loss of just 0.091 dB/km at a wavelength of 1550 nanometers. This surpasses the performance of even the best silica-based optical fibers, which typically exhibit losses around 0.14 dB/km – a figure that has seen little improvement since the 1980s. The implication of achieving such a low signal loss is profound, potentially revolutionizing long-distance data transmission.
Conventional single-mode fibers transmit light through glass, with signal velocities reaching roughly 200 million meters per second, or two-thirds the speed of light in a vacuum. Hollow-core fibers, on the other hand, primarily conduct photons through air, significantly reducing latency and minimizing non-linear effects, which become significant at high data rates. This latency reduction could be critical for applications requiring real-time data processing, such as high-frequency trading and advanced gaming.
The DNANF design addresses inherent challenges in hollow-core fiber construction by employing multiple layers of micron-scale concentric glass tubes acting as “mirrors.” These tubes effectively bounce light back into the hollow core, suppressing higher-order modes that can lead to signal degradation. This sophisticated architecture ensures minimal signal leakage and interference, while maximizing transmission efficiency. The architecture of using concentric glass tubes is particularly important, as this approach gives the fiber a high degree of mechanical stability, making it suitable for large-scale deployments and the manufacturing process.
Testing on a 15-kilometer cable confirmed an attenuation rate consistently below 0.1 dB/km. Furthermore, signal loss remained below 0.2 dB/km over a broad spectral range of 66 THz, exceeding the optimal performance range of silica-based fibers. This broad bandwidth performance is critical for supporting the increasing demands of modern data networks, which require high-capacity transmission across a wide range of frequencies, supporting multiple communication channels.
In addition to low signal loss, the new fiber also exhibits improved dispersion characteristics, with a reported dispersion rate seven times lower than that of traditional fibers. This reduction in dispersion simplifies transceiver design and lowers energy consumption in network equipment, making the new fiber attractive in terms of sustainability and cost savings. This dispersion reduction is achieved through the careful control of the waveguide geometry, which allows engineers to precisely tailor the optical properties of the fiber.
As part of a collaborative project with the research team, Microsoft indicated that approximately 1,200 kilometers of the new fiber are already in operation. They are planning to deploy 15,000 kilometers of this high-performance fiber within the Azure network over the next two years. The deployment of this novel fiber will give Azure a leading edge in network performance, resulting in faster data transmission speeds and improved network reliability for their clients. This investment emphasizes Microsoft’s commitment to staying at the cutting edge of networking technology.
According to Francesco Poletti, a co-inventor of the design, the low-loss characteristics of this fiber will enable operators to “skip one out of every two or three amplifiers, leading to a significant reduction in capital and operating expenditure.” By reducing the need for signal amplification, the new fiber not only contributes to cost savings but also reduces the energy footprint of network infrastructure, making it a more environmentally-friendly solution. This also increases system reliability, as fewer active components in the network mean fewer potential failure points. This represents a major step forward in fiber optics technology and promises significant advancements in data transmission and network infrastructure.
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