New Forward Error Correction (FEC) technology from PMC-Sierra, Inc. is desiged for high performance, cost-effective 40G and 100G Optical Transport Network (OTN) deployments. The company’s Swizzle FEC delivers high Net Effective Coding Gain (NECG) of 9.45dB, enabling 35 percent greater optical reach than other hard FEC technologies based on the seven percent overhead specified in the ITU G.709 standard.
The explosion of bandwidth demand from mobile data, video and enterprise data services is driving network operators towards deployment of 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s OTN links in their metro and regional networks. These data rates require higher symbol rates and complex modulation schemes, both of which increase sensitivity to optical impairments in optical networking gear. The FEC compensates for these impairments, correcting up to four times as many errors as competitive solutions, maximising optical spans over the existing fibre infrastructure.
The FEC delivers 9.45dB of NECG within a low OTN overhead of 6.7 percent specified in the ITU G.709 standard, nearly reaching the theoretical maximum defined by the Shannon Limit. For long haul deployments, the FEC architecture delivers 10dB or higher NECG for OTN overhead configurations of greater than the 6.7 percent.
