Transport Innovation Laboratory

The Transport Innovation Laboratory has been researching and developing photonic network technology since the dawn of optical communications. Today, it continues to provide a foundation for NTT network services by working to develop high-capacity, long-distance, and cost-effective optical link systems through the use of many innovative technologies including optical amplifiers and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). From here on, though, we can expect an explosive increase in traffic brought on by the Internet of Things (IoT) and other groundbreaking technologies, and to meet this demand, we are taking up the research themes summarized below. Our aim is to develop the worldç—´ most advanced high-capacity optical transport technology and create a new social infrastructure. The research achievements of the Transport Innovation Laboratory are being used not only in Japan but also in networks that interconnect countries around the world. In this way, they support the daily lives of many people as an information-communications network infrastructure.

With the aim of achieving a high-capacity optical transmission system on the order of 100 Tbps per optical fiber, we are researching and developing digital-coherent optical transmission technology to extract the optical-wave property of coherency to the fullest and dramatically improve transmission efficiency through large-scale digital signal processing. Furthermore, as a key device in such a digital-coherent optical transmission system, we are developing a large-scale digital signal processor (DSP) with more than a hundred million gates featuring ultra-high-speed digital signal processing and low power consumption.

With the aim of achieving proactive maintenance of the optical network without human intervention, we are researching and developing an autonomous diagnosis and control system that repeats testing and control based on the results of collecting and analyzing information tied to network faults. With this system, we seek to achieve autonomous and proactive maintenance without affecting communication services by combining various technologies such as optical-fiber physical state estimation technology using machine learning and protection switching technology.