ANAHEIM, Calif., March 26 -- Lucent Technologies and Corning Inc. announced at OFC 2002 that they are collaborating to dramatically improve the performance of optical long-haul systems with optical fiber properties that will enable service providers to continue to lower overall transport and operational costs. The companies are working to deliver longer reach at increasing data rates for both long haul and ultralong haul networks. The work will initially involve using Corning's LEAF fiber with Lucent's LambdaXtreme Transport, a dense wave division multiplexing ultralong haul and ultra high-capacity system. Corning said further optimization of LambdaXtreme Transport with Corning's prototype dispersion-managed fiber solution will allow the system to dramatically increase 40 Gb/s distance rates. DMF technology combines two or more fibers in a transmission span to deliver broadband dispersion compensation across the entire operating window without the use of externally compensating modules. Initial lab simulations have shown a 50 percent reach improvement over traditional fiber types, extending the system's reach to more than 2,000 kilometers, Corning said. The LambdaXtreme Transport currently supports up to 128 channels at 10 Gb/s over 4,000 km, or 64 channels at 40 Gb/s over 1,000 km, in a single transmission band.