Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Quasi-light Storage for Optical Data Packets
Published on: February 6, 2014
Gridless optical networking field trial: flexible spectrum switching, defragmentation and transport of
1School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK. namaya@essex.ac.uk
Abstract:
We present results from the first gridless networking field trial with flexible spectrum switching nodes and 620 km of installed fibre links. Signals at 10G, 12.25G, 42.7G, DP-QPSK 40G, DP-QPSK 100G and 555G are generated, successfully transported and switched using flexible, custom spectrum allocation per channel. Spectrum defragmentation is demonstrated using integrated SOA-MZI wavelength converters. Results show error-free end-to-end performance (BER<1e-9) for the OOK channels and good pre-FEC BER performance with sufficient margin to FEC limit for the 40G and 100G coherent channels as well as for the 555G super-channel.
Related Concept Videos
Energy Stored In A Coaxial Cable
In the simplest form, a coaxial cable can be represented by two long hollow concentric cylinders in which the current flows in opposite directions. The magnetic field inside and outside the coaxial cable is determined by using Ampère's law. The magnetic field inside...
Cable Subjected to a Distributed Load
Short-distance Transport of Resources

