Source: China Unicom Science and Technology Innovation 2024-04-24 17:32
With the acceleration of the comprehensive digital development of society, new quality productivity has become an important driving force for social progress. Among them, optical networks are leading the new trend of communication technology with their characteristics of high speed, large capacity and low loss, providing strong support for the development of new quality productivity in the future. In 1966, Charles Kao published a paper "Dielectric-fibre surface waveguides for optical frequencies", proposing that quartz glass fiber (optical fiber) is used to transmit optical signals for communication, which can realize long-distance and large-capacity communication, and the invention of optical fiber has caused a revolution in communication technology and is an important cornerstone of the information revolution in the 21st century. According to the optical waveguide theory, the capacity of the wavelength windows of 1.3 microns and 1.55 microns commonly used in optical fiber communication is at least 25,000 GHz, and there are massive optical communication spectrum resources.
Over the past three decades, fiber optic communications have gone from basic research to commercial applications to widespread adoption. With the advent of the information age, people's demand for information is increasing, and traditional communication methods can no longer meet people's needs for high-speed, large-capacity, and low-latency communication. At the same time, the development of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, and computing power networks has also put forward higher requirements for communication networks. As an advanced communication technology, optical fiber communication has become a key technology to meet these needs with its unique advantages. Nowadays, optical fiber has penetrated into all aspects of people's lives, whether it is home broadband, mobile communication or enterprise network, it is inseparable from the support of optical fiber. However, with the continuous advancement of technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, people's requirements for optical fiber communication are getting higher and higher. It is in this context that the proposal of the next generation of optical networks came into being.
Optical network evolution is a leap forward in the times
Since its inception, optical fiber communication has undergone a leap from laboratory to practical use. From segment-by-segment photoelectric regeneration to amplified dispersion management to amplified digital coherent systems, transmission capacity has exploded. In the early days, it relied on the increase in transceiver interface speed, but later thanks to EDFA and WDM technology, optical fiber communication entered a new era. Nowadays, digital coherence technology is further driving the spectral efficiency of the system, but nonlinear effects are the limiting factor. Although it is close to the nonlinear Shannon limit of single-mode optical fiber transmission capacity, the research and application of optical fiber communication continues to make breakthroughs, writing a new chapter in the history of human communication.
Today's world is ushering in a new era of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, and the total amount of network data is jumping from terabytes and petabytes to EB, ZB, YB and even BB at an astonishing speed.
The development of next-generation optical networks involves many technical fields, including optical transmission technology, optical switching technology, optical access technology, etc. The continuous innovation and progress of these technologies will promote the development of next-generation optical networks in the direction of higher speed, higher capacity, and lower latency.
First, optical transmission technology is the core of next-generation optical networks. With the continuous development and improvement of wavelength division multiplexing technology, the capacity of optical transmission has been greatly improved. In the future, with the development and application of new optical fiber materials, the effective expansion of optical transmission bands will further improve the optical communication capacity, further reduce the loss of optical transmission, and further extend the transmission distance. This will provide more reliable support for long-distance, high-capacity fiber optic communications. The gradual maturity of special optical fiber communication technologies such as space division multiplexing and air-core optical fiber will also further improve the spectral efficiency of optical communication systems.
Second, optical switching technology is an important part of next-generation optical networks. Due to problems such as electronic bottlenecks, the traditional electrical switching mode can no longer meet the needs of high-speed and large-capacity communication. The optical switching technology can directly exchange and process signals in the optical domain, which greatly improves the efficiency and speed of communication. In the future, with the continuous improvement and maturity of optical switching technology, optical networks will achieve more flexible and efficient resource scheduling and management, effectively improve the quality of services with low latency, and provide users with high-quality network access.
Optical access technology is also the key to the development of next-generation optical networks. With the continuous popularization of broadband services and the increasing demand for bandwidth, traditional access methods can no longer meet the demand. Optical access technology can provide users with access services with higher speed and larger capacity. In the future, with the continuous innovation and application of optical access technology, optical fiber will penetrate into more homes and enterprises, providing users with a better network experience.
In addition, with the increasing scale and complexity of optical fiber network construction, the operation and maintenance management technology of optical network has also been gradually innovated, such as optical network digital twin technology, optical network synaesthesia integration technology, etc., optical network digital twin technology relies on optical network real-time data collection, The integrated technology of optical network synaesthesia realizes the effective integration of communication and sensing functions at the level of optical fiber resources, which not only realizes the active perception of optical fiber resources and the prevention of optical fiber faults, but also becomes the "perceptual nerve" of the future digital society, and will play an important role in the future digital society by improving the ability to perceive all scenarios in the physical world.
Optical network intelligence, the future is here
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, it will also play an important role in the development of next-generation optical networks. By using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, optical networks can achieve more intelligent O&M and management, and improve network reliability and stability. Traditional fault detection and location methods often rely on manual experience and trial-and-error methods, which are inefficient and error-prone. With artificial intelligence technology, fault prediction and location models can be established through the analysis and learning of a large amount of historical data to achieve fast and accurate fault detection and location. Second, AI can also help optical networks achieve intelligent resource scheduling and optimization. Resource scheduling in optical networks is a complex problem that requires consideration of multiple factors, such as traffic distribution and network topology. By using artificial intelligence technology, network traffic can be monitored and analyzed in real time, and dynamic resource scheduling and optimization can be carried out according to network status and service requirements, so as to improve the utilization and performance of optical network resources. In addition, AI can also provide intelligent security for optical networks. With the increasing prominence of network security issues, how to ensure the security of optical networks has become an important issue. Using artificial intelligence technology, a cybersecurity threat detection and defense mechanism can be established, potential security threats can be monitored and identified in real time, and corresponding measures can be taken to prevent and respond to them.
Believe in the light, believe in the future
In the face of the development of new quality productivity, the next generation of optical networks will play a more important role. Although optical networks are facing multiple problems such as the Shannon limit, the nonlinear effect of optical fibers, the limitation of bandwidth resources, and the performance bottleneck of optoelectronic devices, it is believed that through continuous innovation and progress, optical networks will achieve new breakthroughs in speed, capacity, and latency, and provide more reliable, efficient, and intelligent communication support for the future information society. At the same time, with the continuous integration and application of artificial intelligence technology, optical networks will achieve more intelligent and automated O&M and management, bringing users a better and more convenient network experience. We have reason to believe that in the near future, the development of next-generation optical networks will be more dazzling, injecting new vitality and impetus into the development of new quality productivity.