Researchers from NEC Laboratories America in Princeton, New Jersey, and industry experts from NEC Corporation, Optical Networking Division, in Tokyo, Japan, have successfully performed the first industry lab trial with DWDM 400 G based transmission over 800 km. The trial was achieved by using a single carrier modulation with record-breaking spectral efficiency. NEC used an innovative approach in digital sampling, which enables signal recovery with an excellent margin just 5% above the theoretical limit. The results were officially presented in July 2010 at the OptoElectronics and Communications Conference (http://www.oecc2010.org/) in Sapporo, Japan.

"The successful demonstration of 400 G transmission illustrates NEC's continued commitment to technical advancement and continual innovation in leading-edge technologies," said Dr. Ting Wang, Departmental Head, Optical Networks Research, NEC Laboratories America. "Our research achievements in optical networking, next generation transmission and record-breaking results in the transmission of 100 G signals and beyond confirm our long-term intention to be leader in this area."

"This result represents an important milestone for NEC since it further demonstrates NEC's commitment to help operators implement advanced optical interfaces in Next Generation Network (NGN) environments, as well as the technology leadership in the area of optical networking. NEC clearly showed that future DWDM transmission will operate at bit rates higher than 100 G," said Dr. Milorad Cvijetic, Technology Strategy Director, Optical Systems, NEC Corporation of America.