Multicore fiber Applications and TeCHnologies (MATCH) is a doctoral training network funded by the European Commission, under the MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023 | Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and proposed by a multidisciplinary and intersectoral consortium of international experts.       - MATCH directs PhD research toward multicore fibre (MCF) technology;       - MATCH aims at developing leading solution for scaling future optical fibre communication networks towards emerging information capacities, while offering the potential to lower costs, reduce power consumption and significantly boost network capacity by over tenfold;       - MATCH programme outlines a comprehensive set of research and training objectives tailored to 13 doctoral candidates (DCs);       -The cohort of DCs will be hosted by 14 partners (10 from academia and 4 from the industrial sector);       - The planned training activities of DCs include 32 secondments, 7 mini-symposiums, 3 transferable skills workshops, summer schools, and tutorials, among others.    In MATCH program, DCs will acquire expertise in diverse areas, encompassing: (i) Design and fabrication of MCFs with transmission capacities surpassing the state-of-the-art; (ii) Design and implementation of MCF components and subsystems, with a focus on optical amplifiers and switches, multiple frequency comb sources, and parallel-scalable signal processing architectures; (iii) Development and implementation of machine learning techniques for end-to-end performance optimization of MCF networks; (iv) Design and evaluation of coexistence of telecom and non-telecom signals in MCF networks. By engaging the expertise of MATCH academic and industrial partners, DCs will acquire distinct skills and knowledge to transform them to globally-minded scientists and engineers, who will help to shape Europe’s ICT future and societal wellbeing.   For more information see: https://match.iscte-iul.pt/

One major goal in this project is to develop an analytical formulation,as well as a stochastic Monte-Carlo (MC) simulator, that allow us to study in a rigorous way the impact of in-band crosstalk, both incoherent and coherent, originated in CDC ROADMs in the performance of flexible grid networks, considering 16-QAM and 64-QAM 400 Gbps signals.On a network-side perspective, the emergence of modulation formats with higher-order constellations and, consequently, with stricter performance margins has increased the importance of physical impairment awareness in the network planning process. Thus, it is essential to incorporate the effects of in-band crosstalk, along with other effects, in an impairment-aware routing and spectrum assignment (RSA) framework. This framework should be able to efficiently provision paths and spectrum for superchannels based on M-QAM carriers in a CDC-ROADM network, while using the physical model as a performance validation tool for candidate optical paths

This project aims at developing and analysing models for the statistical characterisation of ICXT in MCFs, proposing techniques for mitigating those effects in MCF-based networks, and using those achievements in the development of ICXT-aware algorithms for routing, spectrum and core assignment (RSCA) in MCF-based elastic optical networks (EONs). The project focuses on the theoretical and simulation studies of the statistical characteristics of ICXT in MCF and techniques for mitigating its impact on MCF-based networks. These studies are complemented by the experimental demonstration of the main outcomes of the theoretical and simulation studies. The project takes advantage of the expertise on experimental work and system design on MCF technology of NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, from Japan) combined with the experience of IT (Optical Communications Group at Lisbon site of Instituto de Telecomunicações) on theoretical modelling and analysis of optical fibre telecommunication systems and networks.

  The general objective of this project consists in demonstrating the new paradigm related to the increase of the flexibility and granularity of the transmission capacity in metropolitan (metro) optical networks. Particularly, the implementation of metro networks based on high data-rate multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signals employing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is analysed and demonstrated as an excellent solution to provide, simultaneously, high flexibility in capacity allocation, high spectral efficiency and the possibility of upgrading the network capacity while keeping the system architecture almost unchanged.

FIVER project proposes and develops a novel integrated access network architecture employing only OFDM signals for the provision of quintuple-play services (Internet, phone/voice, HDTV, wireless WiMAX, UWB and LTE femtocell and home security/control). FIVER architecture is completely integrated: The optical access FTTH, the in-home optical distribution network and the final radio link become part of the access. This permits a streamlined network architecture avoiding most of the conversion stages and proving cost, space and energy savings.  FIVER is a fully OFDM-based network. This permits a cost-effective, fully centralised network architecture where the transmission impairments (both optical and radio) compensation and network management is done only at the Central Office. No further compensation, regeneration or format conversion is required along the network giving the streamlined network architecture capable of handling future services of interest. FIVER services are fully converged: Both OFDM data (Gigabit-Ethernet provision) and standard wireless (WiMAX, UWB, LTE and DVB-T) signals are transmitted in radio-over-fibre through the FTTH, the inbuilding optical infrastructure and also the final user radio link. The use of full-standard wireless signals for optical and radio transmission gives two advantages: Fully standard receiver equipment can be used by the customer, and no ad hoc detection, remodulation or frequency conversion is required. All the transmission compensation algorithms, electro-optical subsystems and network management are developed by FIVER consortium. FIVER architecture is future-proof. The project demonstrates HDTV service provision in the 60 GHz radio band at the last stage. Other wireless services operation in other bands can be included in the FIVER network architecture as long as they are OFDM-based. This is due to the powerful transmission impairment compensation algorithms developed in the project. FIVER-ENLARGED EU initiative brings l...