AIs Effect on Optical Transport Network
While the near-term focus on high-capacity interconnects for AI applications has been on short reach connections within AI clusters, the industry is already seeing bandwidth requirements begin to increase, requiring additional coherent connectivity between datacenters supporting AI. And while there is general agreement that the resulting bandwidth demand from AI applications translates to increased traffic across the network, the industry is in the early stages of understanding how specific segments of the network are affected.  Coherent optical interconnects for high-capacity transport beyond the data center already provide performance-optimized transponder solutions at 1.2T per wavelength as well as 400G router-to-router wavelengths moving to 800G using MSA pluggable modules. As discussed in this recent blog, we believe this technology can continue to play a role with expanding traffic demands in the metro, data center interconnect, long haul, and beyond.

To learn more about how AI will impact optical networks, stop by the ECOC workshop on 9/22 at 14:00 CET and listen to Acacia’s Timo Pfau give a talk titled “How Will AI Affect Future Transmission Systems?”

Interoperable 400G and 800G Demonstrations
Following the explosive growth of 400G pluggables, next-generation switch/router ASICs are now being introduced with 800G I/O port speeds, creating the need for 800G optical interfaces for data center interconnect (DCI.) As we will hear at this year’s ECOC, these pluggables are following the same 400G MSA pluggable cycle, with multiple standardization bodies such as OIF, Open ROADM and the IEEE working in parallel to provide industry standards for 800G optical transmission and 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE).  Interoperability will be key for driving the economies of scale that can enable these modules to experience similar levels of success as 400G while also helping to define the path to 1.6T pluggables in the future.

As a leader in 400G coherent pluggable shipments, Acacia is excited to be participating in the OIF interoperability demo showcasing both its 400G and  800G pluggables. The demos will take place in the OIF booth #B83 and will spotlight interoperability innovations in 800ZR, 400ZR and multi-span optics and Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) – all pivotal for shaping the next decade of industry standards.

Announced earlier this year, Acacia’s newest portfolio of silicon-based 800G coherent pluggables are powered by Delphi, Acacia’s 9^th generation DSP.  These modules have been designed to provide double the connectivity speed from 400G to 800G to support DCI upgrades, and the high baud rate design has already been proven in Acacia’s deployed CIM 8 module. In addition, the Interoperable 800G ZR+ modules in this family were the first in the industry to support the OpenROADM specifications that include interoperable PCS transmission capability, which expands the market for 800G pluggables beyond simple DCI into regional and even long-haul networks. Acacia will be hosting private demonstrations of its Interoperable 800G ZR+ module in its private meeting room.

To meet customer needs and drive future adoption, it’s important for 800G coherent MSA pluggables to have several key features and capabilities including optical transmission, client traffic, low power consumption, and interoperable module management.  One of the key functional requirements that operators are looking for is Coherent-CMIS compliance. This feature provides a well-defined mechanism to initialize and manage optical and copper modules in a standard way, while still providing the capability to provide custom functionality. This commonality makes integration into different host platforms easier for both the host and module vendors.

To learn more about CMIS compliance, come see Acacia’s Doug Cattarusa give an ECOC Market Focus presentation titled “CMIS:  Is Plug-and-Play Possible?” on Monday, 9/23 at 14:40 CET.

Expanded Use Cases for Router-based Optics
The introduction of 400G coherent pluggable optics in metro reach applications enabled the collapsing of network layers, converging the optical transport and IP layers. A recent report from Cignal AI predicts IP-over-DWDM port deployments to top 700k in 2027. Recent advances in coherent technology allowed for the expansion of coherent and interoperable MSA pluggable module capabilities into long haul and ultra long haul reaches as well as migration from 400G links to 800G links. Acacia’s 400G ultra-long-haul (ULH) modules leveraging 130+ Gbaud data rate technology enable the reach capability of 400G to extend from metro/regional reaches to ultra long-haul reaches, reducing the barrier for network operators to deploy IP-over DWDM adoption for network operators desiring IP-over-DWDM beyond metro/regional applications.

OIF Takes the Lead in Defining 1600ZR and 1600ZR+ Standards
The OIF launched efforts last year on 1.6T coherent optical interconnect solutions and is already making progress towards interoperable 1600ZR and 1600ZR+ implementation agreements.  While there is still much work to be done in the standards bodies around 1.6T, we expect this year’s ECOC to be a sounding board for the industry to discuss solutions for some of the key challenges around this transition. This includes the use of advanced technologies for high baud rate modulation and smaller CMOS nodes not yet supported in volume for high baud rate modulation, power consumption, options for single or dual optical carrier, internal optical amplification requirements, and backwards compatibility to 800ZR/ZR+ and 400ZR/ZR+ interfaces.

See Us at ECOC 2024!
If you are attending ECOC this year and want to connect, we’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Click here to set up a meeting. We hope to see you in Frankfurt!

I sat down with Argemiro Sousa, Chief Operations Officer for Equipment at Padtec, who shed some light on the development of this new product line and the company’s plans for the future. As Argemiro pointed out “The LightPad Max platform not only demonstrates our commitment to offer state-of-the-art innovative products, but it also furthers Padtec’s goal to extend our leadership in the Brazilian market while expanding our presence in the international market.”  This includes a focus on Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Africa.

Development Goals:  Performance, Time-to-Market, Form Factor and Robustness
As Argemiro explained, developing a new transponder is a long-cycle project and the transmission module is a key component for its success. Each year, coherent technology is improving its power consumption, advanced DSP algorithms and maximum GBaud rate. As the industry approaches the Shannon limit in fiber optics, these improvements are what make it possible to continue lowering the cost per bit in Padtec’s customers’ networks. Padtec chose Acacia’s CIM 8 because it enabled them to meet the following key requirements:

• Performance: Enabling channels with up to 140 GBaud is essential to continue reducing the cost per bit in DWDM networks. The minimum received OSNR required by the CIM 8 enabling rates of 400G and above, making these high rates feasible in ultra-long-haul and long-haul networks.
• Time to market: As an equipment manufacturer, Padtec starts developing its products before the optical modules are commercially available. “From previous experiences, we see Acacia as an aggressive player in getting to the market first and delivering cutting edge technology,” added Argemiro.
• Form factor: The CIM 8 is a module focused on performance and yet is pluggable. Since its transponder design considers two modules, Padtec can offer a pay-as-you-grow model to its customers.
• Robustness: Padtec needed a module that was highly reliable and had low rates of defect and they knew from experience that this was an Acacia strength.

Disaggregated Design Drives Cost Effectiveness in New LightPad Max Platform
Padtec’s goal with the LightPad Max was to repeat the success of its TM800G in Latin America by entering the Terabit era with a very competitive product that lowers total cost of ownership. Designed to optimize density and legacy compatibility, each line interface has 6 associated client interfaces capable of working both with 400GbE based on QSFP-DD and 100GbE QSFP-28 legacy interfaces, which are still prevalent in Padtec’s customers’ routers and switches.

One Product Family Spanning Multiple Markets
Targeting medium, long and ultra-long distances, the LightPad Max platform not only delivers scalability and cost effectiveness, but its disaggregated design also reduces space on customers’ infrastructure. And as a bonus, the standalone form factor makes the product more attractive to Alien Wavelength scenarios and the architecture is aligned to SDN technological trends.

Since the LightPad Max is a programmable transponder, operators can configure it with different rates and operational modes according to its needs. “This feature has great potential for the product to adapt to several network characteristics,” claimed Argemiro. “For instance, LightPad Max will make it possible to reach long haul and ultra long haul distances with 400G line rate, as well as higher rates of 1T or above in short distances such as data center interconnect scenarios.”

Padtec and Acacia’s Long-Standing Partnership
With the successful launch of the first LightPad Max family members, Padtec also plans to release future versions with advanced functionalities to be delivered by firmware updates throughout 2024 and 2025. The company already has agreements with some of its main customers to deploy in their networks.

At Acacia, we could not be more thrilled to see Padtec succeed on a global scale. We are also extremely proud of our long-term partnership, which dates back to 2016 when Padtec launched its 200G line cards based on Acacia’s CFP2-DCO.  Recently, these same line cards were adapted and qualified to use Acacia’s new generation 400G CPF2-DCO, based on the Greylock DSP.

Padtec was an early adopter of Acacia’s AC1200 module with its TM800G and TM1200G products, which Padtec has sold thousands of units of since 2020.  And we can’t forget our 400G pluggable family – the fastest growing coherent ramp-up of all time.  Padtec launched a disaggregated TMD400G standalone offering using Acacia’s 400G QSFP-DD OpenZR+ in 2023.

Lighting up the Future with Padtec Innovation and Customer Loyalty
Padtec ended 2023 with net revenue of R$ 368 million (US $70 million) which represented record gross profit and distribution of dividends. It was also the year the company saw a significant increase in its customer loyalty index, measured by survey based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology. Padtec achieved a NPS index of +77, a result that places it in the “Excellence zone.” This was a significant jump compared to 2022, when the company’s NPS was +55, and the highest historical level since the survey began in 2017.

As Argemiro explained, “The NPS survey showed that we are on the right path, by reinforcing our position of commitment to the success of our customers and investing increasingly in the technological evolution of our solutions and in expanding our service portfolio. The flexibility to meet customer needs, both from a commercial point of view and in the offering of products and services, is an important differentiator for Padtec that was recognized in this research. We are constantly seeking ways to expand and enhance our services, and as a result, we aim to serve our customers better with each passing day.”

Customer loyalty and technological innovation are clearly what drives Padtec day in and day out.  On behalf of the entire Acacia team, we look forward to seeing what the company achieves in the future and are excited to continue our trusted partnership to help them grow and succeed.

Once again, I was fortunate to join many of my Acacia and Cisco colleagues at this event. According to show organizers, this is the nation’s largest conference for women with more than 9,500 people attending! With an A-list of speakers on the agenda, it was hard to choose which were the best, so I’ll just pull out a few of my favorites:

Dr. Joy Boulamwini was the first keynote to take the stage. She is an artificial intelligence (AI) expert, founder of Algorithmic Justice League, a groundbreaking MIT researcher, a model and an artist. On stage, Joy shared her powerful poem “AI, Ain’t I A Woman” and talked about some interesting research she discovered around equality and AI. Through her research, she has shown that lighter skinned men are generally more easily identified by AI than people with darker skin. This creates bias in emerging AI applications such as facial recognition technology. As my colleague Victoria Fernandez pointed out, “Her work reminded us that for all the great things AI can provide, we need to consider how they are built and how this impacts different groups within our society.”

Another interesting presentation was from America Ferrera. While I knew her from her break-out roles in Ugly Betty, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Barbie – I did not realize she was also a long-time activist! America launched Poderistas in 2020, a digital lifestyle community and non-profit built to inform, affirm and inspire Latinas to leverage their power and transform their lives, their community, and their nation. She also co-founded HARNESS in 2016, a community of artists, influencers and grassroots leaders leveraging art and storytelling to power change and create a more equitable world.

America stressed the importance of women and leadership and our relationships with each other. As she stated, “Showing up for the women in our life creates a sense of sisterhood and a sense that we are not in this alone.” I could not agree more and was so grateful to spend the day with some incredible women colleagues!

The conversation with Margaret Atwood, two-time Booker Prize-winning Author of over 50 books, including The Handmaid’s Tale, was educational and entertaining. Her sharp wit and historical knowledge are evident in her writing. One of the inspiring messages she shared with the audience included “While you may not get a choice in making a bad environment way better, you do have a choice of keeping it from getting way worse.”

Connection and Inspiration

Victoria Fernandez (left) and Rachael Sozio at the 2023 Mass Women’s Conference

Colleagues Victoria Fernandez and Rachael Sozio both shared with me some of their favorite presentations. Victoria enjoyed Dame Jacinda Ardern’s presentation – who became the Prime Minister of New Zealand at just 37 years of age and has been a champion of woman’s empowerment. As Victoria pointed out, “Her discussion showed that you can be an effective leader with empathy and sincerity.”

Victoria also spent one of the breakout sessions listening to Jenny Odell’s presentation titled “Reclaim Your Time: A Tool to Revive Your Career.” Instead of providing tips on how to maximize your time, Jenny challenged the audience to consider the very construct of time itself. As Victoria recapped, “She showed the history of the time clock and how it was used to determine costs for laborers. This taught me to reframe the concept of time.” To make her point clear, Jenny gave an example of a flower blooming in February. As she explained, “When that happens, people often say the flower bloomed early, but the flower does not know it’s February. What the flower knows is it has gone through its own cycle and now it is time to bloom.”

One of Rachael’s favorite presentations was by Kimberly Brown who is a career + leadership expert whose mission is to help women and people of color navigate the workplace, make more money, and become industry leaders. Her presentation titled “Next Move, Best Move” provided a framework to help create a career strategy and determine what’s right for you short-and-long term. As Rachel stated, “the idea is to regain control so you can take a strategic approach for making your next best move.” Key takeaways included:

• Get clear on where you are coming from before you decide where you are going.
• Evaluate your past experiences to understand where you want to go.
• Establish a personal and professional brand that aligns with where you want to go.
• Put your plan into action and advocate for yourself in the workplace.

Massachusetts Women Leadership

As a resident of Massachusetts for most of my life, it was exciting to hear from the Massachusetts women leaders, Michelle Wu and Maura Healey, who are both firsts in their respective roles.

As the Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu is the first woman and first non-white person to have been elected mayor of Boston. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was also the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council.

Governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, is the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person elected Governor in Massachusetts history. She is committed to building an experienced, diverse team that is focused on bringing people together and delivering results for Massachusetts residents.

Until Next year

A big thanks to Cisco for being a sponsor of this conference and making our participation possible. We all left feeling bolder, braver and more daring….and we have the benefit of being able to attend the first National Conference for Women, a groundbreaking virtual gathering on March 14, 2024! As Victoria said after attending this year’s event, “We get further in life when we provide meaningful support for one another.”

 Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen rapid increases in capacity per wavelength by increasing modulation order from QPSK to 16QAM to 64QAM, as well as increasing baud rate supported by opto-electronic devices. However, beyond the coherent modulation order of 64QAM, the achievable performance isn’t sufficient to address target applications due to the reduction in reach.  As a result, increasing baud rates has been looked to as the primary means of increasing capacity per wavelength.  This requires innovative and cost-effective implementations to provide higher baud rate solutions and packaging advancements.  Opto-electronic integration and co-packaging are techniques that were discussed by Acacia’s Founder and Chief Technology Officer Benny Mikkelsen in his OFC 2019 Plenary talk and continue to be critical to support the ever-increasing need for higher data rates and smaller, cost-effective optical interfaces for cloud, access, and transport applications.

Opto-Electronic Integration and Co-Packaging Explained
These techniques are used to reduce components in size and power while also increasing functionality and performance of the solution. Opto-electronic integration generally refers to the process of integrating a wide range of optical functions on a single chip, such as the large amount of optical and opto-electronic functions being achieved in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). While co-packaging is the ability to combine multiple chips into a single package which can be further integrated into a transceiver module. The main benefit is that it can then be manufactured as if it’s a single component with even more functions.

Opto-electronic integration, particularly through silicon photonics, enables the miniaturization of coherent transceivers. The benefits of opto-electronic integration can be seen in the below graphic, which shows how the size of a coherent transceiver was reduced significantly over a few product generations.  By leveraging these techniques, each new generation was able to raise the bar to increase capacity while reducing power and size.

Figure 1. Opto-electronic integration and co-packaging have enabled coherent transceivers to become significantly smaller over the last decade.

Three Main Benefits of Opto-electronic Integration and Co-Packaging

1. Reduced Power

It takes a massive amount of power to operate data centers, which is why sustainability ranks top on data center operator’s agendas. Opto-electronic integration and advanced packaging helps lower the power consumption of the coherent modules used for moving data across networks.

The benefit of having multiple devices packaged into one compact component means fewer interfaces and the ability to support higher speeds per lane. Electrical compensation of PCB routed high-speed signals, which consumes power, is essentially eliminated.  As an example, by co-design and co-packaging the trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) and driver chips with the silicon photonics-based PIC on the same substrate as the digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC, the DAC termination can be eliminated and can result in a 35 percent DAC power reduction.

Figure 2. Co-design and co-packaging of the TIA and driver chips with the silicon photonics-based PIC on the same substrate as the DSP ASIC eliminates the DAC termination and can result in a 35% DAC power reduction.

2. Reduced Size

Silicon Photonics
Using silicon as an optical medium and leveraging CMOS fabrication processing technology, silicon photonics allows tighter monolithic integration of many optical functions within a single device. While traditional optics systems used many discrete devices, silicon photonics allows all those devices to fit onto a single silicon chip reducing the size.  Silicon photonics has been a key enabler for achieving the tremendous size reduction in Figure 1.

Component Stacking
In component stacking, the DSP and PIC are tightly co-packaged on the same substrate, and the high-speed modulator driver and TIA components are stacked on the PIC which also reduces the size.  Component stacking is a process widely adopted in the electronics manufacturing process that is now being applied to opto-electronic technology manufacturing.

Co-packaging and Integrated Control IC
Size reductions are achieved by integrating functions and the control IC through co-packaging techniques. Smaller devices can translate into either more functionality within the same form factor and power consumption footprint or a smaller form factor with the same functionality and power consumption as the previous generation. For example, in the Acacia CFP2 form factor, the integration of multiple discrete control ICs into one integrated device led to a 500 percent reduction in board footprint.

3. Increased Capacity

Enhancing DSP and Increasing Baud Rate
With network capacity demands increasing, network operators are challenged with an ongoing need to deploy solutions that can keep up with these capacity demands while being power, size and cost efficient. High speed opto-electronic integration and advanced packaging can deliver high-capacity transport from the state-of-art DSP.

Increasing baud rate has always been an efficient way to enable more cost-effective optical networks by reducing the number of optics required to support a given transmission capacity. By doubling baud rate over previous generations, we can support twice the capacity per carrier over greater reaches than prior generations. This approach provides a simple, scalable path that supports higher capacity per carrier over the reaches needed for existing and new network architectures.

Acacia’s Implementation: 3D Siliconization
Acacia’s approach to co-packaging is called 3D Siliconization technology. This process utilizes highly scalable and reliable volume electronics manufacturing processes which applies 3D stacking packaging techniques to enable a single device to include all the high speed opto-electronic functions necessary for coherent transceivers. With 3D Siliconization, the high-speed RF interfaces are tightly coupled together, resulting in improved signal integrity for high baud rate signals.

Figure 3.  3D Siliconization improves signal integrity and performance via the reduction of electrical inter-connects, in addition to the benefits in cost, reliability, power, and size.

This device decreases footprint by including the DSP, PIC, drivers, and TIAs, and is manufactured using standard CMOS packaging processes that leverage the same reliability, cost, and volume scaling advantages.  This approach is utilized by Acacia’s 400G pluggable family and the 1.2T 140Gbaud Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8).

This year’s recipients of the Acacia-built playhouse were the Frappier Family from Connecticut, whose two boys aged 2 years and 3 months selected a log cabin theme for their dream home. Their Dad, Nathan Frappier, is an active military member of the U.S. Air Force who served in combat during Operation Noble Eagle 2020, Operation Noble Eagle 2022, and T32 AGR. Recognized for his expertise and bravery, Nathan was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal for Operation Noble Eagle 2020.

Here are a few pictures of Nathan accepting the playhouse for his boys.

“When we built our first playhouse last year, we knew instantly we wanted to do it again when we saw the joy it brought to the children,” said Victoria Fernandez, Principal Corporate Counsel at Cisco, supporting the Acacia business. “When a veteran is serving our country to keep us free and safe, it’s the entire family that has to sacrifice and they deserve to be recognized, rewarded and thanked. I know I speak for the entire team when I say we had a lot of fun building and customizing this new playhouse and adding the finishing touches and toys that made the log cabin really come to life.”

Here’s a picture of the Acacia team who built the cabin in the parking lot of our office at Mill and Main in Maynard, Massachusetts.

Thanks to Cisco for Being a Long Time Supporter
Cisco is a long-time supporter of Habitat for Humanity. Since the 1990s, the company has donated more than $18.1 million to Habitat for Humanity in cash and products to support the development of homes for very low-income families in need of a place called home.  As part of its Operation Playhouse sponsorship, Acacia, now part of Cisco, raised more than $3000.  We encourage employees and friends to build a playhouse or donate to Habitat for Humanity to bring more playhouses to our local veteran families.

Thanks to the Frappier Family
On behalf of Acacia and Cisco, we want to say thank you to the Frappier family for all you have done to help protect our freedom. We hope your children enjoy their log cabin as much as our team enjoyed building it.

Like some of the other women’s conferences I have attended, it was inspiring to hear from so many successful women. Gatherings like this are essential for bringing us together and celebrating those accomplishments. It’s nice to see women advancing in every industry – even in optical communications, which has traditionally been male dominated. I was thrilled to see recently that three of the five plenaries will be women at the industry’s biggest event next year,  OFC: Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition.  This is the first time I can remember that happening in the many years I have been attending.

MA Conference for Women Highlights

My favorite interview at this year’s event was with Reese Witherspoon, an award-winning actress, entrepreneur, producer, and New York Times bestselling author. As an advocate and activist for women’s issues across the globe, she established Hello Sunshine, a media brand and content company dedicated to female authorship and storytelling across all platforms.

I appreciate Reese’s passion for literature and her work ethic.  When she was told by a movie studio head that the studio was only developing one women-centric story per year and no more, she flipped the script and turned being underestimated into an advantage by investing her own money to develop projects with women at the center of the story. That changed her entire career.  A great tip she shared was, “Look for inspiration in other people’s actions.” Well, I’m certainly inspired by her story.

One of my colleagues, Wen Wu, also had some insightful feedback from the show.  This was her first time attending the conference and she was in awe at how large scale and inclusive it was. According to Wen, “I loved networking with women from different backgrounds, particularly after a tough three years where we were not able to connect face-to-face that often. One of my favorite presentations was from Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett who co-designed one of the first vaccines for COVID in only 66 days from the viral release. Her dedication to viral immunology, as well as being an advocator for STEM education and vaccine awareness in some underserved communities, was truly inspiring. I admire Dr. Corbett as a scientist, an advocator and as a women leader. I can’t wait to attend again next year and learn more about the amazing group of women!”

A few other notable presenters from the conference include:

• Viola Davis,the first black actress to win Tony, Oscar, and Emmy awards. With her husband, she founded JuVee, which focuses on giving a voice to the voiceless through strong, impactful, and culturally relevant narratives.
• Misty Copeland, a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre and the author of the New York Timesbestsellers Life in Motion, Ballerina Body, Black Ballerinas, and the children’s picture book Bunheads, as well as the award-winning children’s book, Firebird.
• Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Olin College and an MBA from Harvard. She spoke about how she made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on Facebook.
• Marlee Matlin, academy award-winning actress and advocate who became deaf at 18 months old, gave solid advice on how to make your voice heard.

Big thanks to the organizers for putting on such an insightful and inspiring show.  If you have the opportunity, I recommend attending. My colleagues and I can’t wait for next year.

The playhouse was presented to two adorable girls ages 3 and 6 from the Ruiz family. Their father is a veteran who began serving our country in June 1990 and over the course of 20 years was deployed to Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Operation Playhouse is a program designed specifically for families such as this to provide a special place for family members to bond, play, dream, and think.

The Ruiz Family received a Certificate of Occupancy for the playhouse.

“To see the faces on the Ruiz children as they received their very own playhouse, designed to the Barnyard theme that they chose, was an inspirational moment for all of our employees,” said Victoria Fernandez, Principal Corporate Counsel at Cisco, supporting the Acacia business. “The team had a lot of fun customizing it with creative additions including a silo and coral with lots of farm animals.  We enjoyed it so much that we are planning to continue to raise funds and hopefully build even more playhouses for our local veteran families in the future.”

Building the Dream House
Below are pictures of our employees building the playhouse in the parking lot at the Acacia Maynard Office.

Painting is the first step in the playhouse building process.

Next, the shingles were attached to the roof, and the playhouse was assembled.

Finally, the special touches including curtains made from bandanas and chalkboards were added.

Once everything was ready, the front of the roof was added.

The team also had some fun along the way. These two are hoping for a playdate!

As part of its Operation Playhouse sponsorship, Acacia, now part of Cisco, began raising money to build a playhouse about two months ago.  The team raised more than $3000 and thanks to Cisco, employee contributions submitted through Bright Funds will be matched by Cisco. In fact, Cisco is a long-time supporter of Habitat for Humanity.  Since the 1990s, the company has donated more than $18.1 million to Habitat for Humanity in cash and products to support the development of homes for very low-income families in need of a place called home. The Operation Playhouse program, provided by Habitat for Humanity MetroWest/Greater Worcester, was a natural extension of that long-term commitment.

Once Acacia decided to sponsor a playhouse, Habitat for Humanity MetroWest/Greater Worcester began looking for veterans or military members living in New England with young children up to 12 years of age who would like to receive a playhouse as a thank you for their service. The Ruiz family was soon identified, and their girls were asked to pick a theme for the playhouse. Both girls picked a barnyard theme and the Acacia team got working on gathering the building supplies, decorations and other materials needed to create the best barnyard-themed playhouse possible. It all came together on September 28^th when Acacia employees volunteered their time to construct the playhouse in the parking lot of their office at Mill and Main in Maynard, Massachusetts.

Donate or Build a Playhouse!

On behalf of Acacia and Cisco, we want to say thank you to the Ruiz family for all you have done to help protect our freedom. We also urge employees and friends to build a playhouse or donate so that we can keep providing local veteran families with playhouses of their own.

Acacia is excited to be participating once again in person!  We expect a number of hot topics to be front and center at the show – from the path to coherent lite, interoperable 400ZR/ZR+ pluggables ramping, and of course high-performance multi-haul solutions.

Coherent Lite

Over the last year, the industry has been abuzz around a new effort called “coherent lite,” which is a simpler implementation of coherent transmission that is designed for use in short reach campus and intra-DC applications. It essentially removes the features required for traditional transport DWDM applications.

Coherent lite pluggables can provide a competitive cost structure at 800G and beyond, utilizing fewer lasers, while meeting campus and intra-DC requirements. This solution can be a candidate for applications typically addressed by IM-DD solutions. We believe this will be a hot topic at the show.

The Rise of Standardized 400G Pluggables

The 400G coherent pluggable market is one of the most important developments in optical networking today. According to Cignal AI’s 4Q21 Transport Applications Report, shipments of 400ZR/ZR+ modules are expected to triple in 2022 as cloud operators such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are joined by traditional network operators such as AT&T, Windstream, and COLT rolling out high volume deployments.  Similarly, LightCounting’s Market Forecast from April 2022 estimates that the opportunity for pluggables based on 400ZR and 800ZR technology will surpass $2.8 billion by 2027.

Clearly, interoperable standards have played a key role in the rapid growth of pluggables. Standardization helps carriers by providing simplicity, interoperability and volume-driven cost. This has helped increase demand. The aggressive ramp of these products has been faster than any previous coherent technology generation. Several OIF members including Acacia are set to showcase multivendor interoperability for critical networking technologies at ECOC 2022.

OIF’s 400ZR project is proving successful in facilitating new and simplified architectures for high bandwidth inter-data center interconnects and promoting interoperability among coherent optical module manufacturers including Acacia’s 400ZR QSFP-DD. This 400ZR interop demo shows a full implementation across an 80km DWDM ecosystem using multiple form-factor pluggable modules, 400GbE routers, a 75 GHz C-band open line system, and test equipment solutions from multiple vendors. The demo provides evidence of widescale 400ZR deployment readiness based on a broad ecosystem of interoperable solutions.

Acacia’s newest entrant to the pluggable module category is the high transmit power 400G pluggable, which we are calling our “Bright” module.  We recently introduced the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD pluggable coherent optical module with high optical performance designed for seamless deployment in ROADM line systems. These modules are designed to expand the applications for this technology by addressing a variety of ROADM architectures such as those with colorless multiplexing. With greater than +1 dBm transmit optical power and high transmit OSNR, Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ gives network operators more flexibility to address a range of brownfield and greenfield applications utilizing the high-density QSFP-DD form factor.

High-Performance Multi-Haul Solutions

While pluggables are becoming extremely popular for router-based solutions in DCI, metro and some long-haul applications, transponder-based solutions are still required for long-haul, ultra-long haul and subsea. Transponders that include multi-haul high-performance modules can help network operators maximize their fiber investment, reduce power, simplify operations, and decrease costs.

The industry has shifted its focus to increasing the baud rate per carrier, while also introducing performance-improving innovations, to enable end-users to achieve cost-efficiencies as bandwidth demand continues to grow. As an example, newly introduced Class 3 120+Gbaud solutions based on silicon photonics offer a path to cost-effectively double capacity over a single carrier compared to earlier implementations.

Acacia’s performance optimized multi-haul coherent solutions have proven to be extremely effective at helping service providers meet these challenges.  Earlier this year, Acacia announced it had shipped more than 100,000 ports of its Pico DSP which powers the company’s highly successful AC1200 1.2TB module.

Building on this success, Acacia introduced its Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM8), which is based on the company’s newest DSP technology, the 8^th generation Jannu 5nm DSP, and includes second generation 3D Shaping and continuous baud rate adjustment of up to 140Gbaud.  This new module achieves several industry firsts:

• The first single-carrier 1.2TB multi-haul pluggable module
• The first coherent module to support 140Gbaud
• The first 5nm multi-haul DSP

Acacia successfully demonstrated 140Gbaud performance with our high-performance silicon photonics at this year’s OFC 2022.

Speaking Sessions

To hear more about the topics discussed in this article, don’t miss our speaking sessions.

• Workshop: Adaptive everything! Do optical networks really need more flexibility?
  • Presentation title: 400ZR and OpenZR+: Enabling New Network Architecture Optimization
  • Speaker: Lorenzo Ghioni
  • Date/time:  Sunday September 18^that 9:15-9:25 am
• Market Focus Panel: Modules/Sub-Systems/Connectors/Line-Cards
  • Presentation title: Next Generation Coherent Interfaces: Standardized Pluggable vs Proprietary Multi-haul
  • Speaker: Tom Williams
  • Date/time: Tuesday September 20^that 10:00-10:25 am

Come See Us!
If you are attending the show and want to connect, we’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Click here to set up a meeting. We hope to see you in Switzerland!

OptiNet China Conference 2022 was postponed due to the pandemic and has been rescheduled to August 3-4 at the Sheraton Beijing Lize Hotel.

This conference provides the opportunity to explore new optical technologies along with cutting-edge research, and new product innovations that carriers can consider adopting for future performance and efficiency requirements.

One of the topics on the agenda is coherent migrating into the data center. Coherent is considered to be an effective solution to address intra-data center applications because of its scalability, flexibility, operational simplicity, and cost advantages. Acacia’s Fenghai Liu, Director of Product Line Management, will be discussing this trend in detail in a virtual presentation during the conference.

Below are some key points that Fenghai plans to discuss in his presentation:

• Data center traffic is continuing to increase, driven by cloud computing, augmented/virtual reality, and cloud storage.
• To support this data center traffic increase, switch/router capacity and port speeds have been doubling every two years.
• In the 400G port generation, it is the first time that coherent pluggable modules with 120km reach in DWDM links can be inserted into the same slot used by the IM-DD counterparts which only need to go 2km.
• As the port data-rate continues to double, IM-DD based intra-data center solutions are encountering physical limitations such as fiber chromatic dispersion, four-wave-mixing, as well as limited receiver sensitivity. Mitigation of these limitations increase the IM-DD design complexity and cost.
• Leveraging coherent’s high detection sensitivity, high tolerance to dispersion and other impairments, coherent tailored for short distance is becoming a competitive solution for intra-data center applications, as we move towards 800G and 1.6Tbps port speeds.

Fenghai’s presentation is scheduled for August 4th at 14:00 Beijing time and is titled “Coherent Migrating into the Data Center.” For more information, you can access the full OptiNet China program at this link.

To learn more, below are a variety of resources on this topic:

• OFC Workshop: Coherent Technology for Intra-Datacenter Applications
• 400G Pluggables Usher in an Architectural Change to High-Bandwidth DCI
• 400G for Edge DCIs with 400ZR
• DCI Edge Transforming with Today’s 400ZR Modules
• Coherent Applications – Trending to the Edge

We’re excited to be sending members from the Acacia China team to attend this year. If you will be at the show and want to connect in person or virtually, we’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Click here to set up a meeting.

Connecting the Un-Connected with LEO Satellites
Current statistics show that more than a third of the world’s population is currently without internet access. LEO satellites can play a significant role in closing this digital divide because they can be distributed to provide connectivity to anywhere it’s needed on earth. With advancements in rocket launch technology, LEO satellites require less energy to deploy and less power for transmissions because they are closer to earth. This makes them more affordable and easier to replace. Their proximity to earth also provides lower transmit/receive latency compared to traditional satellites, enabling the use of more latency sensitive applications that were not viable with a traditional satellite network. For these reasons, many companies around the world have been getting into the business of LEO satellites to create a communication network in space.

As noted by the World Economic Forum in February 2022, below are just a few of the more notable LEO constellation launches:

• SpaceX’s Starlink has deployed nearly 2,000 satellites in orbit and has applied for licenses to fly more than 40,000 satellites.
• Amazon has announced plans to deploy more than 3,000 satellites later this year.
• The European Union is developing a LEO satellite system worth €6 billion.

These networks are like the worldwide telecommunications infrastructure we have on earth, except instead of sending signals across fiber optic cables, signals are sent via laser beams through free space.

Why Optical Communications Technology?
Just as key fiber optic advancements helped to improve our global telecommunications infrastructure, these technologies can be used to power the future of space communications. Leveraging technologies such as coherent optical networking, the terrestrial communications industry has been able to migrate to higher performing networks, and today we are reaping the rewards with next generation 400G, 600G and even 1.2 Terabit network speeds. Coherent technology is evolving rapidly and continuing to push the envelope on low power consumption, performance, cost, and small form factors. These are attributes that can be key for building an inter-satellite communications network.

Optical communication in space uses what is referred to as “free space optics (FSO)”. With FSO, data can be transmitted at high speeds by laser beams outside the visible spectrum. Free space optics has been used for many years between satellites with 10 Gbps capacity. Today there is massive deployment of FSO due to the increased LEO constellation launches. This has led to the need for 100 Gbps and above speeds leveraging high Rx sensitivity coherent technology receivers to meet the large data traffic demand between satellites.

Our Connected World
As this space network evolves and connects to our global terrestrial telecommunications network, there can be many benefits. For some that may mean more bandwidth for existing and new applications, while for others it may mean that wireless communications are more affordable such as on airplanes, in the ocean or in remote areas.

Airplanes could soon provide faster, more secure, and more affordable communications for passengers by leveraging these space networks. And for the more than a third of the global population without internet access, it has the potential to bring education to rural areas, create jobs, and help people rise out of poverty. It can even help during natural or man-made disasters when terrestrial networks are knocked out, bringing emergency internet connectivity to wherever it’s needed.  For example, according to Reuters, SpaceX made its Starlink satellite broadband service available in Ukraine after its communication services were disrupted as a result of the Russian invasion.

It is exciting to see the innovation and product development taking place to build out a large-scale space communication network. While there are challenges to overcome, there is already so much innovation taking place. At Acacia, we believe satellite technology can enable the next generation of broadband infrastructure and we’re excited that high-capacity transmission enabled by our coherent technology could help make these revolutionary networks possible.