Case Study: Nokia Bell Labs achieves record-breaking optical transmission speeds with Keysight's UXR-Series oscilloscope

Full Coherent Receiver Tests Enabled At Record Speeds

Nokia Bell Labs, led by Dr. Peter Winzer, was pushing the limits of long-haul fiber‑optic communications and needed to validate ultra‑high‑bandwidth, coherent optical designs while combating distortion and noise over transoceanic distances. The team required precise, simultaneous detection of four channels (two polarizations × two phase states) at electrical bandwidths around 100 GHz, and turned to Keysight’s UXR‑Series oscilloscope to meet that test challenge.

Keysight supplied its 4‑channel, 110 GHz UXR oscilloscope, which captured all four polarizations simultaneously and enabled a full coherent receiver at unprecedented symbol rates. Using Keysight’s UXR, Nokia Bell Labs immediately set world records (March 2018), demonstrating 720 Gb/s QPSK operation and a per‑carrier line rate of 1.6 Tb/s (with demonstrations over thousands of kilometers, e.g., 4,480 km), proving the UXR removed bandwidth and channel constraints and materially accelerated their research outcomes.

Nokia Bell Labs

Peter Winzer

Director of Optical Transmission Subsystems Research