DESCARTES is an acronym for “Device Experiments and Signal Characterizations for Advanced Research in optical Telecommunication Systems”. The platform contributes mainly to demonstrate functional aspects of new telecommunication devices. It gathers some high-frequency equipment that allows to achieve a specific own set-up in each project. Thus the platform configuration has been flexible both in the transmission part and in the reception part in order to be able to be adapted to numerous signal formats or to different clock frequencies, despite the sensitive settings on each broadband access. The platform meets the demands both from industrial and academic laboratories. It also plays a wide transverse role inside C2N by supporting other requirements around more physics parameter measurements in the high frequency area.

The equipment makes the transmission data rate available up to 100Gbit/s in the electrical NRZ area and up to 170Gbit/s carried by one single wavelength in the optical IM-RZ format. The optical PSK format that is the basis element to access to complex modulations can be analyzed as well. WDM can be achieved in the whole C-Band. The analysis of the device behavior is performed through direct BER measurements and it is complemented thanks to some generic equipment as a streak camera, time correlators, a 50GHz spectrum analyzer, a 60GHz oscilloscope.