Project description
The Challenge:
The advent of cloud applications and the proliferation of mobile devices have imposed a dramatic increase of the IP traffic. The emerging ZetaByte Era forces operators to seek a cost-efficient way of upgrading their network in order to accommodate the vast amount of data without compromising QoS and wasting bandwidth resources. Technology paradigms shift towards coherent modulation formats for upgrading channel capacity, yet at the cost of power-hungry DSP residing outside the transceiver line cards and bulky component configurations. What is more, current implementations rely on fixed-grid network elements ignoring efficient spectrum management that can benefit from high-order QAM modulation.
Vision:
SPIRIT aims to build a fully programmable transceiver in a single package for Terabit optical transport networks capable of superchannel grooming on a gridless basis and SDN functionality on board. The new transceiver technology platform targets power and cost savings up to 50%.
Project Objectives:
SPIRIT aims to fulfill the existing telecommunication gap with a near-to-market transceiver product merging the benefits of high performance and mature photonic and electronic technologies into a single platform. In order to achieve its mission, SPIRIT has defined the following ambitious objectives:
- Fabrication of high-speed, low-voltage drive, InP modulators with segmented electrodes
Fabrication of low-power CMOS Periodically Amplified Travelling-wave Hybrid (PATH) modulator logic and driver arrays
Fabrication of an optical MUX/DEMUX based on tunable Si micro-ring filter arrays for superchannel grooming on a gridless basis
Development of fully-programmable, high-speed, low-power, integrated photonic and electronic flexible transceivers
Fixed-grid and gridless 400G, 1T and flexible (super)channel data transport with advanced DSP and monitoring built-in functions enabled by software control
Bandwidth‐hungry end‐user applications are stretching physical layer capacity and dictating the migration towards software-defined flexible architectures. Fully-programmable optical components supporting rate- and format-adaptation are urgently needed.SPIRIT will fabricate low-cost, energy-efficient flexible transceivers that are capable of gridless operation and are compatible with both current and future applications. Single- and multi-carrier (OFDM) QAM formats will be supported up to a spectral efficiency of 16 bits/s/Hz (DP-256-QAM), for throughputs of up to 1Tbit/s from a single-package transceiver. Interfacing to an external FPGA will allow dynamic adjustment of the symbol rate (up to 32GBaud) and modulation format. Novel segmented-electrode InP IQ-MZMs with Vπ≈1V will be developed. This allows direct digital drive using mature, high-yield CMOS electronics; SPIRIT will therefore benefit from the dominant technology in IC fabrication, constituting a cost-effective, ultra-low-power solution. On‐chip, 5-bit multi-level functionality will enable arbitrary optical waveform generation and transmitter-side DSP. Record-low power consumption (1.8W per MZM arm) for a device of this resolution is targeted. Compared to current transmitters, more than 50% power consumption reduction is expected for 400G and 1T applications.The CMOS electronics and InP photonics will be integrated on a SOI platform, including coherent receivers and a novel, flexible MUX/DEMUX based on micro-ring filters, enabling spectrally efficient aggregation/segmentation of superchannels. The latter will be tunable across the entire C-band for truly gridless operation and fine-granularity spectrum slicing.SPIRIT will introduce intelligence in the optical layer. It envisages development of a software-defined network emulation platform that includes DSP performance monitoring for QoS management at the physical layer.Participation by industry leaders ensures a clear commercial exploitation path.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications telecommunications networks optical networks
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-ICT-2013-11
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
106 82 ATHINA
Greece
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.