Next generation optical transport beyond 100G

In three previous issues of IEEE Communications Maga- zine on 100 Gb/s Ethernet (100 GbE) in 2007 and 2010, we covered the key enabling technologies, implementation issues, network requirements, and field experiments. In this fourth installment of our series on 100 GbE, we explore technology trends for next-generation systems beyond 100 Gb/s with contributed articles on key technolo- gies for the applications of telecom, datacom, and comput- ercom. We also continue the investigation on up-to-date 100 Gb/s technologies, such as real-time digital signal pro- cessing (DSP) advances and ultra-long trans-oceanic transmission challenges.