European Research Consortium to Unveil Breakthrough of Gigabit Transmissions over POF at OFC 2011


logo POF-PLUS, an EU sponsored research consortium backed by some of Europe’s largest telecom operators, including France Telecom and Telecom Italia, will present at OFC 2011 results of its research into and development of new commercially viable technologies for transmission at Gigabit speeds over Plastic Optical Fiber (POF).

This new technology will be highlighted on two booths, and in a talk at the POF Symposium. On the POF-PLUS booth, # 2830, consortium members Firecomms, Luceat, and Rosetta IP will provide live demonstrations of Gigabit Ethernet transmissions utilizing media converters. Member organizations Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits and POF Application Center (POFAC) will showcase novel developments of this new Gigabit transmission technology on the Plastic Optical Fiber Trade Organization (POFTO) booth, #2615. The developments of parallel optical transceivers for transmission of multi-gigabit transmission speeds also will be featured on the POFTO booth.

Attendees interested in a full overview of the results of the Gigibit transmission project will be rewarded by a talk given by Professor Roberto Gaudino of the Politecnico di Torino. Hugh Hennessy, Firecomms VP of sales and marketing, will conclude the presentation with a discussion of the roadmap to commercial deployment of Gigabit technology. The presentation will be held at the POF Symposium in Expo Theater 3 on the exhibition floor at 10:00 am on Thursday, March 10.

“For several years major operators across Europe have deployed POF in home networks because of the simplicity and ultra-thin nature of POF,” says John Lambkin, CTO of Firecomms. “With these presentations,

POF-PLUS is demonstrating how POF home networks, with guaranteed reliability and the lowest maintenance costs, are future-proofed for the next twenty years or more.”

The OFC 2011 Exposition will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California on March 8-10, 2011.

About POF-PLUS

The POF-PLUS project develops new photonic components and transmission technologies for large core POF systems, aiming at the unprecedented implementation of tens of Gbps transmission over this medium. The project targets next-generation home networks, and optical interconnects in short-reach broadband connectivity applications, including storage area networks, enterprise communications, and consumer displays for uncompressed video (e.g. HDMI).

Launched in January 2008, the POF-PLUS project is supported by Europe’s largest telecom operators.

Members of the POF-PLUS consortium include:

• Eindhoven University of Technology

• Firecomms Ltd.

• France Telecom

• Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits

• Institute Superiore Mario Bella (ISMB) (Project Manager)

• POF Application Center (POFAC)

• Luceat S.p.A.

• Politecnico Di Torino

• Rossetta IP

• Telecom Italia

Further Information:

Rene’ Williams
Firecomms Ltd.
Tel. 949.360.7770
rene@firecomms.com