The annual European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), together with the associated exhibition, is one of the world's largest events in the field of optical communication technology. After the metropolises of Geneva, Amsterdam, London, Cannes and Valencia, this year Düsseldorf was the host and was able to accommodate 314 exhibitors from 27 countries at the exhibition center on the Rhine and attract a total of 5,234 visitors.

This time, the optoelectronics experts from Duisburg were involved in the IPHOBAC-NG EU project coordinated by Professor Andreas Stöhr. The aim was to present the world's first millimeter-wave radio system capable of transmitting data rates that can otherwise only be transmitted via optical fiber over the air using directional radio.

In Germany, fast Internet access to private households is still a scarce commodity, even in large cities. Other European countries are much further ahead: In Poland, for example, the international telecommunications giant Orange operates an extensive fiber optic network (GPON) that can deliver up to 2.5 gigabits per second to customers in the current expansion stage.

Since laying new fibers can be very cost-intensive when expanding the network, Orange is looking for solutions to wirelessly bridge distances of up to several kilometers Together with University College London and Finisar, the world market leader for optoelectronic components, as well as Siklu, a provider of radio relay technology, the Duisburg scientists led by Professor Stöhr have succeeded in implementing such a system, The so-called CRof technology is used here, in which the carrier frequency of 70 gigahertz is generated optically together with the modulated data packets It was therefore not surprising that well-known companies such as Google-Fiber, Corning, Huawei, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Rohde & Schwarz and Huber+Suhner came to the UDE stand to find out about the current research results.

"However, it will certainly be some time before we have a market-ready product" said Andreas Stöhr. "Unfortunately, I was not able to attend ECOC 2016 myself, as the review of our co-applied collaborative research center MARIE was scheduled at the same time." However, the absence was worth it: The newly proposed SFB was approved by the German Research Foundation on November 18, 2016 and will start on January 1, 2017.

Contact: Andreas Stöhr