Anritsu will present a live demonstration of a quality evaluation solution for multi-core optical fibre attracting attention as a next-generation optical communications technology at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2025), to be held in Copenhagen from 29th September to 1st October, 2025.
Anritsu’s multi-channel OTDR solution for weakly coupled multi-core optical fibre provides comprehensive quality evaluation by visualising inter-core crosstalk distribution, transmission loss, and optical return loss along the distance axis. The solution identifies specific locations with degraded performance along multi-core optical fibre, enabling optimisation of installation conditions during R&D field tests. By evaluating all cores simultaneously without fibre reconnection, the solution significantly improves inspection efficiency for multi-core optical fibre systems while providing detailed analysis of parameter changes at connection points, streamlining both research and operational deployment phases.
With the rapid growth of AI and Cloud services, demand for higher transmission capacity of optical submarine cables and data centre interconnects continues to rise. Conventional single-mode fibre provides only one optical path per fibre, limiting per-fibre transmission capacity.
Recent R&D has focused on multi-core optical fibres with multiple independent cores within a single fibre as a solution. Weakly coupled multi-core fibre, which suppresses interference between cores, is expected to enable both stable signal quality and high-capacity transmission. However, to use weakly coupled multi-core fibre in communications infrastructure, it is necessary to characterise inter-core crosstalk because it affects transmission quality. Reliable measurement methods are required across design, manufacturing, and operational phases to identify factors that cause crosstalk variation.
Anritsu will continue to support and contribute to deployment of multi-core optical fibre as a next-generation optical communications technology across both R&D and fibre manufacturing.
