Photonic ICT Research Center

                    

We conduct R&D on ultra-high-capacity photonic networks to support the rapid growth in communication traffic, access technologies that harmoniously integrate optical and wireless communications, and flexible network technologies for the Beyond 5G era.

Overview

336 Tb/s Transmission with a Single Light Source
(Press Release: Oct. 4, 2024)
R&D of network systems including devices
World Record 402 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber
World Record 402 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber
with OESCLU-band
(Press Release: Jun. 26, 2024)
World Record 301 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber
World Record 301 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber with ESCL-band
(Press Release: Jan. 29, 2024)
World Record Optical Fiber Transmission Capacity Doubles to 22.9 Petabits per Second
World Record Optical Fiber Transmission Capacity
Doubles to 22.9 Petabits per Second
(Press Release: Nov. 30, 2023)
World’s First Demonstration of Terahertz Signal Transparent Relay and Switching
World’s First Demonstration of
Terahertz Signal Transparent Relay and Switching
(Press Release: Jun. 6, 2023)
World’s First Standard Cladding Diameter 19-core Optical Fiber with Record Transmission Capacity
World’s First Standard Cladding Diameter
19-core Optical Fiber with Record Transmission Capacity
(Press Release: May 10, 2023)
Press Release: World's first demonstration of optical transmission and switching of 15-mode multiplexed signals on a field-deployed multi-mode fiber network
World's first demonstration of optical transmission and switching of 15-mode multiplexed signals
on a field-deployed multi-mode fiber network
(Press Release: Nov. 22, 2022)
1.53 Petabit per Second Transmission in 55-mode Fiber with Standard Cladding Diameter
1.53 Petabit per Second Transmission in
55-mode Fiber with Standard Cladding Diameter
(Press Release: Nov. 10, 2022)
Press Release; World's First Successful Transmission of 1 Petabit per Second in a Standard Cladding Diameter Multi-core Fiber
World's First Successful Transmission of
1 Peta bps in a Standard Cladding Diameter Multi-core Fiber
(Press Release: May 30th, 2022)
Press Release; World’s First Transparent Fiber-Millimeter-wave-Fiber System in 100-GHz Band
World’s First Transparent Fiber-Millimeter-wave-Fiber System in 100-GHz Band Using Low-Loss Optical Modulator and Direct Photonic Down-Conversion
(Press Release: Aug. 6, 2021)
Press Release; Demonstration of World Record: 319 Tb/s Transmission over 3,001 km with 4-core optical fiber
Demonstration of World Record:
319 Tb/s Transmission over 3,001 km with 4-core optical fiber
(Press Release: Jul. 12, 2021)
  • Photonic Network Technology
    -Coping with ever-increasing traffic
    -Providing new flexibility for networks
  • Optical and Radio Convergence Technology
    -Seamless exchange
     between optical and radio networks
    -High-functional opto-electronic devices

About the Center

AWAJI Yoshinari, Ph.D.
Director General
Information and telecommunications networks have become an indispensable infrastructure of modern society, and network services covering the world are supported by optical fiber communications. Japan's optical fiber penetration rate is among the highest in the world, and the abundant bandwidth enables the comfortable use of various network services and applications.
However, to steadily advance the development of future network services, such as the recently launched 5G service and beyond, the underlying optical fiber communication technology will be required to make even greater strides. For example, it is expected to support higher-volume data traffic, realize flexible and advanced network management, and provide a seamless bridge between optical fiber and high-performance wireless communication systems.
To realize these requirements, the Photonic ICT Research Center is engaged in cutting-edge research and development of technologies for ultra-high-capacity optical fiber networks utilizing the spatial and wavelength domains, technologies for using optical network resources more efficiently, and access technologies that integrate optical and wireless communications.
By collaborating with various research institutions in Japan and overseas, we are not only promoting the penetration and dissemination of these technologies, but also are contributing to the revitalization of the research community, as well as to the education of human resources that will constitute the next generation.

Labs

Photonic Network Laboratory

We are researching massive channel optical network technologies to extend the capacity limit and cope with ever-increasing traffic, and dynamic and flexible reconfiguration technologies of optical networks for efficiently providing network resources in response to service requests. Further research is terabit high-capacity transmission technologies for short distances.

Optical Access Technology Laboratory

For realization of more flexible operation of networks in the Beyond 5G era, we are focusing on the R&Ds of following technologies in the research field of optical access networks:

  • Massively integrated all-band ICT hardware technology for hardware-level conversion between optical and radio systems and broadband waveform processing,
  • Next-generation radio-over-fiber technology with ultra broadband and high availability
  • Scalable bandwidth control technology, and
  • Transmission-media-independent access infrastructure technology such as effective conversion of transmission media and precise signal distribution technology.

Press Release

Date TitleAuthors from NICT
Oct. 4, 2024
(Jul. 24th in Japanese)
336 Tb/s Transmission with a Single Light Source
- A simple, wide-band optical communication system realized with optical comb and frequency reference distribution-
SAKAGUCHI Jun
FURUKAWA Hideaki
Jun. 26th, 2024
(Mar. 29th in Japanese)
World Record 402 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber
- Achieved with novel technologies to open new wavelength regions for future optical communication infrastructure -
PUTTNAM Ben
FURUKAWA Hideaki
Jan. 29th, 2024
(Nov. 30th in Japanese)
World Record 301 Tb/s Transmission in a Standard Commercially Available Optical Fiber
- Achieved by developing technologies that open up new wavelength regions for future optical communication infrastructure -
PUTTNAM Ben
FURUKAWA Hideaki
Nov. 30th, 2023
(Oct. 5th in Japanese)
World Record Optical Fiber Transmission Capacity Doubles to 22.9 Petabits per Second
- Significant increase achieved with combination of cutting-edge technologies -
PUTTNAM Ben
SAKAGUCHI Jun
FURUKAWA Hideaki
June 6th, 2023
(May 15th in Japanese)
World’s First Demonstration of Terahertz Signal Transparent Relay and SwitchingPham Tien Dat
YAMAGUCHI Yuya
AKAHANE Kouichi
May 10th, 2023
(Mar. 15th in Japanese)
World’s First Standard Cladding Diameter 19-core Optical Fiber with Record Transmission Capacity
- Key technology for long-distance optical communication after Beyond 5G -
Jun Sakaguchi
Hideaki Furukawa
November 22nd, 2022
(Sep. 22nd in Japanese)
World's first demonstration of optical transmission and switching of 15-mode multiplexed signals
on a field-deployed multi-mode fiber network
Ruben S. Luís
November 10th, 2022
(Oct. 3rd in Japanese)
1.53 Petabit per Second Transmission in 55-mode Fiber with Standard Cladding Diameter
Georg Rademacher
May 30th, 2022
(May 19th in Japanese)
World's First Successful Transmission of 1 Petabit per Second in a
Standard Cladding Diameter Multi-core Fiber
Benjamin J. Puttnam
August 6th, 2021
(Jul. 15th in Japanese)
World’s First Transparent Fiber-Millimeter-wave-Fiber System in 100-GHz Band
Using Low-Loss Optical Modulator and Direct Photonic Down-Conversion
Pham Tien Dat
KANNO Atsushi
July 12th, 2021
(Jun. 21st in Japanese)
Demonstration of World Record: 319 Tb/s Transmission over 3,001 km with 4-core optical fiberBenjamin J. Puttnam