Photonics start-up raises €300k to tackle web's best-kept secret

The investment will allow company directors Dr Philip Perry and Dr Frank Smyth to find a route to market for their optical networking research which has the potential to dramatically increase the speed of the internet.

The research inventors

Enterprise Ireland's commercialisation funding allowed the research inventors, Perry, Smyth, Dr Prince Anandarajah, Prof Liam Barry from DCU and Prof Andrew Ellis from Tyndall, to bring the commercially-relevant aspects of their work to a spin-out ready state.

Pilot Photonics is developing research that allows more information to be packed into existing optical fibres by cleverly bonding at the same time several data channels in the fibre, cutting down on wasted bandwidth. Their first product to enable these so-called "Super Channels" is an Optical Wavelength Comb Source and they are developing furthermore technologies that will as well reduce cost and power consumption.

"One of the best-kept secrets is that the accessible bandwidth of the optical fibre that makes up the core of the internet is nearly full - there's very little spare capacity in there," said Perry, CEO of Pilot Photonics.

“Using our innovation, you can get more data down existing fibre-optic cables to put it more exactly than having to dig up roads to lay new fibre."

The need for faster

The need for faster and more efficient optical fibre links will continue to grow, particularly as end users of the internet move to cloud computing and video-intensive applications.

“We breathe new life into their systems so that network operators will be able to get more value out of their existing investment."

Pilot Photonics launched its first comb source product at the world's largest optical fibre communications conference and exhibition in Los Angeles in March, which produces multiple wavelengths from a single laser.

The number of channels

“By carefully selecting the number of channels and their speed, we can significantly reduce cost and the power consumption for network operators. For the end user of the internet it means a faster, higher quality link through the internet."

The new research is compatible with the existing optical fibres that currently connect countries and continents around the world, according to Perry, and Pilot Photonics is now working with equipment vendors as they develop new approaches to support better internet connections over the then and there decade.