Setting the stage for 100GbE serial standard - the HECTO project

The standard for 100GbE will be adopted in 2010, defining transmission via 4 x 25 Gbit/s. A solution employing 1 x 100 Gbit/s would be cheaper - if the appropriate integrated components were available. These components now have been developed in the project HECTO. The project is shortly described and the main results are presented: the achieved performance of the components itself and the achieved system performance in a field trial. The complete ETDM system with monolithically integrated transmitter and receiver modules featured BER performance below standard FEC threshold (2 - 10
^-3
) in a field-link transmission with 112 Gbit/s over 42 km standard single-mode fibre.