Alcatel-Lucent Announces New Breakthroughs for Optical Networking and Optoelectronic Components at OFC 2008

PARIS, February 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Optical Transmission With Capacity x Distance Product Record at 
41.8 Petabit/s.km, and Three New Photonic Integrated Circuits

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) today announced, in
four post deadline papers accepted at the OFC/NFOEC conference in San Diego,
California, new optical networking milestones, including a new optical
transmission record and three novel new photonic integrated circuits.

In a post deadline paper, Bell Labs researchers in its
Villarceaux, France center, in partnership with Alcatel-Thales' III-V Lab and
the optical solution company Kylia announced the successful transmission of
16.4 Terabits per second of optical data over 2,550 km. This transmission was
achieved using 164 Wavelength-Division Multiplexed (WDM) channels modulated
at 100 Gbit/s and represents a world record for capacity x distance at 41.8
Petabits/s.km. Several new technologies were used, including a highly-linear,
balanced optoelectronic photoreceiver and an ultra-compact,
temperature-insensitive coherent mixer. This result is a critical step
forward in enabling 100 Gbit/s Ethernet. It ensures the maximum exploitation
of the fibre bandwidth to cope with future capacity needs, by providing very
high information spectral density at 2bit/s/Hz.

Three other papers from Bell Labs researchers at Holmdel, NJ
were accepted. They describe the development of three new photonic integrated
circuits developed to achieve 100 Gbit/s with a high spectral efficiency. In
the first of these papers researchers developed an integrated high-speed
receiver using DQPSK modulation that is about 1,000 timers smaller than
existing DQPSK receivers which are built out of discrete components. This new
receiver could significantly lower the cost and size of 100 Gbit/s
components. Another of these papers demonstrated a dual-polarization
modulator with a 40 Gbit/s data stream in one polarization and a different 40
Gbit/s data stream in another one. This technique doubles the capacity of a
link without requiring any additional bandwidth. The last paper in this
series presents a modulator producing a 16-QAM signal format, used for
systems with extremely high spectral efficiency. While this format is well
known in wireless and satellite communications, its use in optics is new.

"These breakthroughs highlight the depth and breadth of the
work done by Bell Labs researchers in optical networking and physical
technologies around the world, and show how they must constantly improve and
innovate across various technical areas, to pave the way to the future of
communications" said Gee Rittenhouse, Research VP at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell
Labs. "Particularly interesting is that these papers highlight the many
different dimensions of optical networking research that the new Bell Labs,
the result of the merger between Bell Labs and the former Alcatel's R&I, is
doing to advance optical networking and give Alcatel-Lucent powerful
innovations to continue to be a leader in this space."

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides
solutions that enable service providers, enterprise and governments
worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to
end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking,
IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the
end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for
people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130
countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company
has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the
largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the
telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8
billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located
in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet:
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com