Project EMBRACE

IP traffic is averagely growing around 40% a year. The imminent deployment of 5G and high-speed optical access networks will further stress transmission and capacity requirements of optical connections. Consequently, a substantial change in designing optical systems is needed. To cope with this challenge, the EMBRACE project proposes a cost-effective solution for agile Petabit/s optical networks. EMBRACE will develop, investigate, and demonstrate the required photonic technology for a complete optical system exploiting the entire spectrum of the single mode fibre (SMF) for applications from metro to long-haul reach. This solution is supported by the large availability of SMFs with almost negligible water peak and thus extended low-loss spectral window. To this end, we will investigate and provide solutions to exploit the whole 1260-1625 nm spectrum. Such a system will significantly increase the total optical network capacity, adding >300 nm exploitable bandwidth (compared to 35-nm bandwidth of C-band). Within the project, the designed and prototyped multi-band (MB) components (coherent transceivers, optical amplifiers, wavelength selective switches, lasers) will be integrated into a permanent project demonstrator and tested over real installed fibres owned by the operators participating to the consortium.

Our primary targets are:

1. to provide a realistic backhaul solution for the upcoming 5G systems;
2. to deliver unprecedented capacity over SSMF (≥ 250 Tb/s/fibre for metro), ≥ 1 Tb/s/channel, and Petabit/s/node capacity with different classes of services over different bands;
3. to demonstrate the EMBRACE end-to-end solution over existing infrastructures;
4. to help operators to fully leverage the enormous investment for the deployed fibres by prolonging their lifetime (both domestic and leased fibres) and by complying with network operator requirements and future roadmaps; and
5. to secure European leadership in a brand-new field of technology and deployment.