Study: Fibre Bandwidth ‘Capacity Crunch’ Coming

The end is within sight for the growth of optical fibre capacity, according to a study from the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre published in the journal Science last week.

In the study “Filling the Light Pipe”, the university’s David Richardson recommended that scientists begin working on fundamental advances to fibre-optic technology if they are to avoid a coming capacity crunch.

Fundamental limits

The paper reported that in recent laboratory tests, including results presented at this year’s Optical Fibre Communication Conference (OFC 2010), several groups have achieved data rates that are more than half the theoretical limit of the technology used in current fibre-optic cables.

Those results suggest that researchers are beginning to hit the “fundamental limits” of the current technology, according to Richardson.

“Without radical innovation in our physical network infrastructure… we face what has been widely referred to as a ‘capacity crunch’ that could severely constrain future Internet growth, as well as having social and political ramifications,” he wrote in the paper.

In particular, researchers must look for “improvements in the key physical properties of transmission fibres and the optical amplifiers that we rely on to transmit data over long distances”, Richardson wrote.

A limited resource

While changes to optical amplifier technology could achieve short-term gains, the key work needs to be done in the physical properties of the transmission fibres themselves, according to Richardson.

However, changes to behaviour could also have a significant impact, if, for instance, users learn to accept that bandwidth is a limited resource.

“We may all increasingly need to get used to the idea that bandwidth – just like water and energy – is a valuable commodity to be used wisely,” he wrote.

Last month the European Commission presented a set of measures designed to spur the rollout of fast broadband across the EU. “Fast broadband is digital oxygen, essential for Europe’s prosperity and well-being,” digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a speech at the time.

EU money is needed In parts of the the UK, because although BT and Virgin are investing billions in rolling out fibre broadband, they are giving priority to areas where consumers can make it commercially viable. Rural areas need support, for instance in a project in Cornwall £78.5 million from BT is being topped up with £53.5m from the European Regional Development Fund in a bid to get fast broadband to between 80 and 90 percent of the county’s homes and businesses by 2014.

Rural broadband

Other areas have used government support for instance the village of iWade in Kent used a partnership between BT and the council. The other big fibre operator Virgin Media, along with smaller operators such as Vtesse Networks, are looking to compete with BT in the fibre market, but the government recently ruled out a review of business rates on fibre networks, seen as a barrier to fibre rollouts.

The government has signalled the importance of a next-generation network in the UK with a pledge to force water and electricity companies to open their ducting, although a sewer fibre rollout plan in Bournemouth came to nothing due to contractual problems between the two parties involved.