 Genetic analysis of light assists faster internet
Tuesday 5 February
2008
 Australian
scientists have used genome analysis tools to create a patented technology to
investigate the fate of the laser beams zapping through the optical fibres that
connect our cities.
Their ideas have
broken the back of a communications industry problem – how to identify the
causes of noise in these optical cables that form a key part of the backbone of
the internet.
The device that
they and their fellow engineers at NICTA,
Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of
Excellence, have invented, will, for a few thousand dollars, do a job
that today would cost $100,000 plus and would require multiple types of test
equipment.
And it will allow
phone companies to confidently increase the speed ratings on long haul optical
fibres – from 10 gigabits per second to 40 gigabits per second or more without
losing data in the noise in line.
“We developed a
way of presenting an optical signal as a two dimensional image,” says NICTA
Principal Researcher , Trevor Anderson, who is based at NICTA’s Victoria
Research Laboratory and directs the Managing and Monitoring the Internet (MAMI)
Project.
“We thought that
it would allow us to recognise the ‘fingerprint’ of the various kinds of optical
noise that can interfere with the signal,” he says.
“But we didn’t
know how to analyse the image,” he says. “Fortunately in the next door
laboratory NICTA has a team of geneticists analysing vast lengths of genetic
code to find patterns of gene sequences that would indicate a tumour.
“Dr Adam Kowalczyk
looked at our problem and laughed – ‘This is easy – biology is so much more
complex,’ he said to me.
“We have to
identify cancer subtypes using a handful of noisy examples to learn from rather
than the thousands that are available to you, so Dr Kowalczyk said lets try our
algorithms on your data,” Mr Anderson said.
The result is a
new device known as a multi-impairment monitor. And it can identify the distinct
visual patterns created by the common forms of noise and distortion in optical
fibres.
The six most
common sources of impairments are:
§
Optical amplifier noise
§
Too much dispersion as the laser beam travels down the fibre
§
A fibre that’s not quite symmetric – leading to more
dispersion of the signal
§
Power levels that are too high
§
Interference from adjacent channels
§
Unwanted reflections.
“The current tools
available in the marketplace only count the errors in the data, telling the
operator a problem exists but not what that problem is, where the problem is or
what caused it,” Mr Anderson said. “Our device can already identify the top four
sources of noise and we expect to be able to do all six.”
He anticipates the
device will be ready for market in 12 months.
“In the long-term
we hope it will be small enough and cheap enough to be embedded throughout long
haul networks.”
Patents have been
lodged for the technology in the new device and telecommunications companies are
lining up to discuss the potential.
It’s a second
major win for the NICTA team. Another device – an optical signal-to-noise ratio
(OSNR) monitor – has already been licensed to an industry partner, Optium. It
can distinguish and measure the impairment caused by optical amplifier noise,
improving the ability to manage the network.
“We expect the
information provided by the monitor could save telecommunications carriers the
time and expense that is currently required to deploy a truck and technicians to
fix a problem on a network and to provision new services.”
Why does the technology matter?
We’re all placing
more and more demands on optical fibres: YouTube, video on demand, Facebook,
industry – everyone wants to send more and larger files and data streams through
the web.
But laying new
fibres is expensive. So the phone companies are using new technologies to push
more information through the fibre.
Fibres which were
originally carrying 10 gigabits per second are now carrying 40 gigabits per
second or more. And they’re being automatically reconfigured to automatically
switch channels between fibres.
NICTA’s tools will
allow phone companies to carry out advanced tests in the field which otherwise
could only be conducted in the laboratory.
The result:
companies are lining up to participate in the field trials – which will be
focused on long-haul landlines like the Sydney-Melbourne cable.
The cost will be
dramatically cheaper than the $100,000 plus suite of equipment that would be
needed to emulate NICTA’s system using existing hardware.
In the future
NICTA anticipates that the devices will be small enough to be embedded
throughout the optical network
About NICTA
National
ICT Australia Limited (NICTA) is a national research institute with a charter to
build Australia’s pre-eminent Centre of Excellence for information and
communications technology (ICT). NICTA is building capabilities in ICT research,
research training and commercialisation in the ICT sector for the generation of
national benefit.
National
ICT Australia is funded by the Australian Government as represented by the
Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the
Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program.
NICTA was
established and is supported by its members: The Australian Capital Territory
Government; The Australian National University; NSW Department of State and
Regional Development; and The University of New South Wales. NICTA is also
supported by its partners: the University of Sydney; University of Melbourne;
the Victorian Government; the Queensland Government; Griffith University;
Queensland University of Technology; and The University of Queensland.
Kelly Mills, NICTA
Communications Specialist, 02 8374 5489 or 0448 434 858
http://www.nicta.com.au/news/current/genetic_analysis_of_light_assists_faster_internet
Photographs
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Credit: NICTA
Caption: (Left) Dr Adam
Kowalczyk, project
leader and (right) Trevor Anderson, Principal
Researcher who is based at NICTA’s Victoria Research Laboratory and
directs the Managing and Monitoring the Internet (MAMI) Project. |
|
|
Credit: NICTA
Caption: (Left) Dr Adam
Kowalczyk, project
leader and (right) Trevor Anderson, Principal
Researcher who is based at NICTA’s Victoria Research Laboratory and
directs the Managing and Monitoring the Internet (MAMI) Project. |
|
|
Credit: NICTA
Trevor Anderson and his
colleagues at NICTA have discovered that genome analysis can be applied
to fault tracking in optical fibres. |
|
|
Credit: NICTA
Caption: This
two-dimensional image
is used to analyse cancer-related DNA |
|
|
Credit: NICTA
Caption: Image analysis of clean
and faulty optical fibres |
| 
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