Japanese firm develops optical fiber with 4x traffic capacity, could be used for undersea cables

NTT developed a four-core multicore optical fiber (MCF) that provides four times the capacity of conventional fiber without increasing thickness or diameter.

The MCF contains four separate cores enclosed by glass cladding.

Signals are transmitted through the MCF using spatial multiplexing.

The cable’s cross-sectional profile is preserved to ensure compatibility with existing infrastructure.

If undersea cables bundle up to 48 fibers, a single cable run can carry up to 192 cores.