The 400G OpenZR+ MSA expanded 400ZR reaches far beyond 120km by utilizing higher-gain forward error-correction coding (FEC) and increased compensation for chromatic and polarization mode dispersion. This enabled the use of 400G pluggables not only in hyperscale environments, but also in metro/regional service provider network environments. Service providers have thus been focusing on these “plus” versions of 400G modules for their network needs.

Brightening ROADM Networks
The latest expansion of 400G pluggable applications is being enabled by QSFP-DD form-factor modules, such as Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD, which have an optical transmitter power at least ten times greater than 400ZR. The higher transmitter power expands the applications that can be addressed by 400G coherent pluggable modules to include brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) nodes, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Recently introduced Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules expand applications of 400G coherent pluggables to brownfield and greenfield metro/regional networks with ROADM nodes.

ROADMs enable the ability to selectively add/drop wavelengths to/from the network, avoiding optical-electrical-optical (OEO) conversions on channels passing through the ROADM node. Enabled by wavelength selective switch (WSS) technology, ROADM-based architectures can provide operational advantages compared to fixed optical add/drop solutions that required manual intervention for reconfiguration.

These network elements operate in tandem with terminal DWDM equipment and amplified single-span or multi-span line systems. To ensure optimal aggregate optical SNR performance, a certain level of transmit optical power and uniformity is required across the entire DWDM wavelength band. Having a 400G coherent pluggable QSFP-DD solution with high transmit optical power would enable 400G router-based optics to be deployed in a ROADM network architecture with existing wavelength traffic.

Bright Applications
Figure 2 illustrates two general examples of how Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD modules can be used in ROADM networks for sites with or without existing DWDM transponder terminal equipment.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. 400G QSFP-DD pluggables with high transmit optical power can be used at a network node in new deployments (a) or with (b) existing DWDM transport/transponder terminal equipment.

IP-over-DWDM over ROADM Infrastructure
While point-to-point IP-over-DWDM architectures can be fully supported using 400ZR or OpenZR+ modules, there may be instances in which IP-over-DWDM traffic may need to traverse over a legacy ROADM infrastructure (Figure 2a), perhaps as an overlay with existing sites populated with DWDM transport terminal equipment (Figure 2b). Figure 2b also illustrates an alien-wavelength example where a router-port wavelength is inserted into a line system of a different vendor.

While there are network designs that support the use of -10dBm 400ZR+ modules over a ROADM network, it becomes a challenge when the DWDM transmission from these modules are adjacent to multiple legacy higher optical power channels (Figure 3a) resulting in relatively lower received optical power and OSNR. Legacy transponder terminal equipment typically have a per-channel ingress optical power in the 0dBm range. One solution is to add an external optical amplifier per module to boost the optical transmit power to the 0dBm level into the line system ingress.

By taking advantage of highly integrated silicon photonics design and packaging technology, such as Acacia’s 3D Siliconization, it is possible to eliminate the need for an external amplifier by incorporating the optical amplification into the compact QSFP-DD form factor module. Utilizing a 400G coherent pluggable with a higher optical transmitter power of at least 0dBm ensures sufficient optical power, relative to other DWDM wavelengths, to traverse through legacy ROADM nodes, as shown in Figure 3b.
(a)
(b)

Figure 3.  (a) A standard 400ZR/ZR+ module with transmitter output power of -10dBm co-exists with legacy higher power channels, subject to lower received optical power and OSNR; (b) a Bright 400ZR+ wavelength ensures channel power uniformity in ROADM/line-system ingress when combined with other line-system traffic.

Transmitting in High Fidelity
Many ROADM architectures utilize colorless multiplexing. This type of ROADM has a passive optical combiner element (Colorless MUX in Figure 4) that takes individual fiber inputs from different transmission wavelengths and combines them together into a single fiber without any optical filtering, hence the name colorless. In wavelength-agile network designs, external control of the tunable wavelengths avoids any contention issues. To minimize wavelength crosstalk/noise through colorless ROADMs, the transmitter OSNR of each ingress wavelength needs to be maximized. One way to achieve this is to attenuate the laser amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise using a band-pass optical filter to minimize optical crosstalk/noise into nearby channels. And to accommodate wavelength-agile networks, a tunable optical filter (TOF) is utilized.

Figure 4.   Illustration highlighting the benefits of a TOF inside a coherent module with internal optical amplification when multiple channels pass through a colorless multiplexer; comparison between (a) modules without TOF vs. (b) modules with TOF.

Figure 4 illustrates how multiple wavelengths are combined using a colorless MUX. In figure 4a, the noise from multiple modules without a TOF impacts nearby transmission channels through a colorless MUX. By using a TOF, not only does is transmit OSNR improved, but also the noise affecting adjacent channels is minimized. The Figure 4 inset illustrates how a TOF suppresses noise resulting in an optimal situation of a module wavelength insertion surrounded by legacy wavelength transmissions, shown in Figure 4b.

Higher Density DWDM Footprint
For network operators continuing to leverage an optical transport layer, the higher optical power QSFP-DD modules enable a higher density design for DWDM transponder terminal equipment. While high transmit optical power has been available in the CFP2 form factor for 400G, advanced integration and design has resulted in this capability in the smaller QSFP-DD housing.

The Acacia Bright Solution
Acacia recently introduced its Bright 400ZR+ coherent pluggable QSFP-DD module that transmits at least +1dBm of optical power to expand 400G coherent pluggable applications with brownfield and greenfield ROADM network architectures. This module leverages 3D siliconization to provide a highly integrated design enabling the silicon photonics integrated circuit (including TOF), coherent DSP, high-speed components, and optical amplifier to fit entirely into a compact QSFP-DD pluggable form-factor module. In addition to supporting interoperable OpenZR+ and Open ROADM modes, the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD module can aggregate 4x100GbE client traffic and also utilize FlexO mapping for OTN transport applications.

Bright 400ZR+ Expands Applications for 400G Pluggables
High transmit power 400G pluggables, such as Acacia’s Bright 400ZR+ module, surpass the market applications served by 400ZR module by enabling an optical transmit power that is at least ten times greater (i.e., brighter). This is another significant milestone because it enables service providers and hyperscalers to take advantage of 400G pluggables in brownfield and greenfield ROADM based optical network architectures.

Additional Resources:

• Bright 400ZR+ coherent pluggable QSFP-DD module Product Page
• Arelion completes first multi-vendor, multi-layer field trial using Acacia Bright 400ZR+ modules and Cisco Routers

Introduction
In Part 2 of this blog series, I discussed how the approach of common development based on silicon photonics (SiPh) benefits both performance-optimized multi-haul and MSA pluggable coherent products. In this blog, I expand on why the adoption of standardized baud rates to support Nx400GbE client traffic has been advantageous for MSA pluggable adoption as well as for maximizing multi-haul 400G network coverage in a service provider network. I also discuss how the growth in coherent pluggable shipments impacts the development of performance-optimized multi-haul coherent solutions.

Intuitive Coherent Classifications
With 400GbE becoming today’s unit of traffic currency, it is important to understand what coherent operating conditions are required to efficiently transport 400GbE client traffic. Prior generation leading-edge modulation technology for commercialization was at ~60-68Gbaud (Class 2), which utilized ~4 bits/symbol (~16QAM) modulation to support 1x400GbE client traffic over a 400G wavelength. We saw OIF 400ZR, OpenZR+ MSA, and Open ROADM adopt this transmission scheme for high-volume MSA pluggable applications. Performance-optimized multi-haul coherent solutions also leveraged Class 2 baud rates with dynamic transmission shaping that was centered at ~4 bits/symbol. In addition, multi-haul solutions supported higher capacity with 6 bits/symbol (~64QAM) for shorter reach DCI/Edge applications as well as maximum reach using 2 bits/symbol (~QPSK) for subsea applications. Multi-haul coherent DSPs can dial up or down the desired bits/symbol transmission within this dynamic range.

Moving to the next generation of coherent solutions, a similar approach is being followed to support Nx400GbE traffic per wavelength. In this case, leading edge ~120-136Gbaud Class 3 modulation technology can double the transport capacity compared to Class 2. With Class 3 technology, and using ~4 bits/symbol range, near complete coverage of a service provider’s network with 2x400GbE traffic (800G per wavelength line rate transmission) is possible, as discussed in a previous blog. By dialing the modulation bits/symbol down to ~2 bits/symbol, 1x400GbE subsea applications are possible, while dialing up to ~6 bits/symbol, 3x400GbE client traffic can be transported over a 1.2T wavelength for shorter reach DCI/Edge applications.

Figure 1 shows the number of supported 400GbE clients that can be transported over a single coherent wavelength as a function of baud rate class and ~2, ~4, and ~6 bits/symbol values.

Figure 1. Matrix showing the number of supported 400GbE clients that can be transported over a single coherent wavelength as a function of bits/symbol and baud rate class. Broad Nx400GbE network coverage becomes possible as we move to Class 3 baud rate implementations.

Figure 1 also illustrates how doubling the baud rate maintains the same network coverage (vis-à -vis reach) while doubling the capacity. With performance innovations, the coverage at this doubled capacity may even be greater than the previous class.

Implications of Shipment Trends
The good news is that the technology investments that went into supporting Class 2 coherent pluggable MSA solutions (green-shaded cell in Figure 1) are coming to fruition with high-volume shipments already occurring. In fact, Acacia recently announced over 50k port shipments of 400G coherent pluggable solutions. This is contributing to a notable transition: the number of pluggable coherent modules shipments is forecasted to exceed that of performance-optimized (embedded) coherent module shipments (Figure 2).

What are the implications of the growing adoption of MSA pluggable solutions? The overarching implication for coherent design evolution is that standardization/industry consensus (e.g., baud rates), design elements (e.g., high-speed electrical components), as well as materials and processes (e.g., silicon, SiPh, CMOS processes, co-packaging) that support high-volume MSA pluggable solutions all have a favorable impact on performance-optimized multi-haul solutions. In Part 2, I went into detail about how a common silicon platform enables a cycle of coherent development. The Figure 2 data below indicates that given this growth in MSA pluggable ports, we should see a greater beneficial impact to performance-optimized multi-haul designs because higher volume pluggable solutions can lead to better cost efficiencies, assuming both the multi-haul and MSA pluggable designs leverage a common technology platform.

Figure 2. LightCounting data showing the number of globally shipped MSA pluggable coherent ports exceeding the number of proprietary form-factor ports.

The Road Ahead for Multi-Haul Solutions—CIM 8
As the industry moves towards supporting higher transmission line rates, a natural path to higher steps in baud rate are becoming clearer. Doubling the Class 2 baud rates aligns with the Class 3 120Gbaud+ rates that are being standardized for transport of 800G client traffic. By leveraging common silicon processes and technology, performance-optimized solutions can benefit from the economies of scale.

The recently announced Acacia Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8) powered by Acacia’s Jannu DSP are in line with this approach. The CIM 8 is a performance-optimized multi-haul solution that delivers industry-leading performance with single carrier 1.2T operation using 3D Siliconization packaging technology that includes the silicon photonics integrated circuit (SiPh PIC), high-speed modulator driver and transimpedance amplifier (TIA) in a single opto-electronic package. The miniaturization of the module components has resulted in a 140Gbaud multi-haul module design capable of faceplate pluggability.

Figure 3. Acacia’s Coherent Interconnect Module 8 is designed to incorporate many aspects of technology leveraged from higher-volume products (e.g., SiPh, processes, components, packaging).

The CIM 8 can provide efficient transport of 400GbE client traffic across the entire network, including 90 percent coverage using 800G (2x400GbE client traffic), corresponding to the Class 3 row in Figure 1.

All Roads Lead to Multi-Haul

Figure 4. By utilizing common silicon technology, Acacia can leverage the advantages of volume and high-performance designs creating a generational development cycle, with advancements over time, that can result in cost efficiencies as well as time-to-market advantages.

Coherent solutions have evolved from long-distance applications at relatively moderate volumes and are now at a point in the road where shorter distance high-volume applications are driving a demand exceeding their long-distance counterparts. By leveraging standardized baud rates aligned with the corresponding bits/symbol modulation optimized for Nx400GbE, we can increase the overlap of silicon-based design and investments between high-volume MSA pluggable and performance-optimized multi-haul coherent solutions. This enhances the coherent cycle of development, resulting in multi-haul solutions benefiting from volume manufacturable designs while leveraging common technology, which are important for maintaining cost-efficiencies for network operators as bandwidth demand continues to grow.

Learn More About the Considerations Driving Next Generation Multi-Haul Solutions:

Part 2 of 3
Part 1 of 3

OptiNet China takes place on the heels of OFC this year and its program will be focused on highlighting how optical networking, transport and DCI technologies are now more essential than ever to support and meet the growing needs of 5G, cloud services, and other major infrastructure projects. Throughout the two-day event, leading industry experts will discuss their latest developments.  One of the trends we expect to be discussed is coherent evolving towards shorter reach applications.

The Evolution is Real
Once considered a long-haul technology, coherent is now firmly entrenched in the metro and moving to even shorter reaches such as service provider edge/access and data center interconnect to campus and intra-data center.  Today’s coherent technology solutions offer a smaller footprint and lower power consumption driven by advancements in silicon photonics and by leveraging high-volume manufacturing processes from the electronics world and applying integration and co-packaging techniques.

As data rates are increasing from 400G to 800G and even 1.6T, these coherent solutions can provide the scalability, flexibility, operational simplicity, and cost advantages that network operators need to address their evolving network needs.  With a history of proven innovation in coherent optical interconnects and high-performance DSPs, Acacia offers a broad range of optical coherent solutions to meet the wide variety of needs of our customers. Check out our portfolio of product offerings at this link.

Come See us Speak
Fenghai Liu, Acacia’s Director of Product Line Management, will virtually present a session titled “Coherent Evolving to Shorter Reaches” on Day 2, June 17^th at 14:15 Beijing time. In his presentation, he will discuss how coherent solutions are evolving towards shorter reaches for intra data center applications.  You can find more information on Fenghai’s talk at this link or you can go directly to the OptiNet China program here.

If you are attending or just want to connect with one of our executives, click here to set up a meeting.

400G Pluggables Enter Deployment Phase
We are now seeing our service provider and hyperscaler customers preparing for an aggressive ramp to 400G services in the second half of 2021. They see significant opportunities to use coherent optics in switches and routers to simplify architectures and achieve reductions in CapEx and OpEx. In the last 6 months, there have been trial and testing announcements from Windstream Wholesale , Telia Carrier, and Colt highlighting the use of 400G pluggables in a carrier network environment. More recently, ADVA announced interoperability of Acacia’s high-performance coherent platform in a QSFP-DD form factor with ADVA’s new DCI OLS, providing DCI networks a clear path to a compact and cost-efficient optical layer assembled with best-in-class innovation. The success of these ongoing trials and tests have demonstrated the architectural benefits that 400G pluggables can provide to cloud data center interconnect (DCI) and service provider network operators.

Going Further Faster with High-Performance Embedded Solutions
Demand for high-performance embedded solutions continues to climb as network operators look for solutions that improve efficiency and maximize capacity utilization while reducing network cost.

To meet these requirements, next generation embedded coherent solutions should be able to maximize spectral efficiency and include features such as 150GHz-wide channels that double the channel bandwidth of current 75GHz. A 150GHz channel plan is important for accommodating higher aggregate baud rates (128Gbaud and beyond) that can expand 400G capacity over a much greater distance compared to 64Gbaud.

With their ability to operate beyond 100Gbaud, next-generation embedded solutions can allow network operators to evolve their networks to meet growing bandwidth demands, without sacrificing reach or stranding network bandwidth when migrating from current-generation solutions. SiPh opto-electronic integration and packaging are important tools for delivering this increased performance and functionality in the future.

Today, solutions such as Acacia’s Pico-based, AC1200 1.2 Terabit coherent optical module are meeting the needs of many markets including cloud, metro, long-haul, and submarine network applications by providing high performance and flexibility features required to address these demanding requirements.  In fact, the AC1200 module is deployed in more than one hundred networks around the globe and adopted by three of the four largest hyperscalers.

Coherent in Access Networks
The wired and wireless network infrastructure supporting today’s aggregated residential customer traffic and enterprise business services is driving bandwidth capacity higher than legacy infrastructure can support based on traditional optical transmission technology. While direct-detect solutions in service provider edge and access links encounter capacity and reach limitations, coherent technology can bridge the gap to higher bandwidth and longer distances on any deployed fiber type. Coherent also provides an operationally simple solution and comes in a range of form factors, such as QSFP-DD and CFP2, to address different network applications for cable, 5G wireless X-haul and enterprise services such as single-transmission P2P links, DWDM links, and single-fiber BiDi links. Read more in this white paper.

Come See us During OFC
This year we are excited to be participating in 6 panels that cover some of the key trends mentioned.

Here’s the full line up of Acacia speakers at this year’s show. On behalf of all our speakers below, we hope to see you there virtually.

• Status of Optoelectronics Multi-chip Modules in Acacia, Long Chen
  Sunday, June 6, 2021 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM PDT
• Market Watch Panel III: Terabit WDM Channels: Beyond 100GBaud Operation, Tom Williams
  Tuesday, June 8 14:30 – 16:00 PDT
• Challenges of Coherent Transponders Approaching the Shannon Limit, Christian Rasmussen
  Tuesday, June 8, 2021 14:00 PM – 16:00 PM PDT
• Next Generation Optical Interfaces, an IEEE and Industry Update, Tom Williams
  Wednesday, June 9 13:30 – 14:30 PDT
• 400ZR Deployment and What’s Next – an OIF Update, Tom Williams
  Friday, June 11 11:30 – 13:00 PDT
• Silicon Photonic Based Stacked Die Assembly for 4×200-Gbit/s Short-Reach Transmission, Ying Zhao
  Friday, June 11 6:00 AM PDT

Acacia will have a virtual booth (#1041) during the show, which you can access at this link.  We look forward to virtually meeting with our customers, partners, and suppliers.  We are also excited that this is Acacia’s first year participating as part of Cisco. You can find their virtual booth (#1441) at this link.

If you are attending the show virtually and want to connect, we’d welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Click here to set up a meeting with Acacia spokespeople.

For instance, 3D Shaping is a key feature in the recently introduced Pico-powered AC1200, a 1.2Tb coherent transceiver module which supports two wavelengths up to 600G each. There are three elements to 3D shaping, with each providing a real-world benefit. There’s shaping of probability, shaping of location, and shaping of spectral width.

Senior Manager of Technical Marketing, Eugene Park, breaks down the elements of 3D shaping and what it means to Acacia’s technology. Learn more in our video.

In a few short days several members of the Acacia Communications team are scheduled to attend the annual European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) Conference and Exhibition at the Fiera Roma in Rome, Europe’s largest optical communications event. On the agenda for this year’s show are topics ranging from next-generation data centers to optics as an enabler for 5G. We are bringing a full team to talk to customers and partners and to learn more about the advancements our colleagues are making in optical communication technologies.

The 600G Era

We’re looking forward to discussing the progress of coherent optical technology and the industry transition to the 600G (per-wavelength) era which where capabilities, such as high-baud-rate optics, fine-tuned coherent transmission flexibility, and enhanced forward error correction (FEC) algorithms, are raising coherent performance to new levels.

In addition, today’s technology is designed to enable common coherent optical hardware to achieve the high-performance finesse of a long-distance link, the sheer raw capacity for shorter edge links, and scales to applications in between. This is the reason why some refer to the 600G era coherent technology as multi-haul technology since the same set of hardware can address long-haul, metro, and DCI-edge networks.

Learn more about the 600G era by reading “Fill Capacity Gaps in Your Optical Network” just published in the Autumn Edition of Optical Connections Magazine.

AC1200 600Gbps per Wavelength Coherent Transmission Demonstration

Acacia plans to show its AC1200 coherent module with dual-core design enabling 1.2 Tbps error-free transmission over fiber with 600 Gbps per wavelength coherent transmission. The AC1200 also features high-baud-rate high-performance capabilities as well as fine-tuning of the transmission using 3D Shaping which optimizes reach and capacity utilization. 600 Gbps performance requires DSP and optics technology with both high bandwidth and high performance. Acacia’s AC1200 module, which is based on its internally developed silicon photonics technology, uses advanced techniques to minimize implementation penalties and high-gain soft-decision forward error correction (FEC) to improve performance margin. Not only does this allow AC1200 to achieve high capacity 600 Gbps per wavelength transmission, with up to 1.2 Tbps, but it also results in improved performance at lower data rates, such as 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps, compared to existing solutions.

Plug coherent in edge and access

Also at the show, we expect to hear a lot of discussion around advances in coherent technology to help meet growing bandwidth demand beyond the core. Today, coherent is moving from metro core to access aggregation networks. The industry is working to standardize coherent solutions for even shorter reach interfaces including two new specifications recently announced by CableLabs that are the result of a focused effort to develop coherent optics technology for the access network and bring it to market quickly.

We look forward to discussing Acacia’s participation in the industry organizations such as Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), IEEE, and Cable Labs and the trend towards using coherent solutions such as Acacia’s award-winning CFP2 for shorter distances.

Acacia Communications’ Thought Leaders to Present

In addition, Acacia Communications experts plan to lead discussions and share knowledge covering topics such as Digital Signal Processing (DSP), subsea communications, and lab automation. See below for a complete listing of who, when, where and what each plans to share with ECOC attendees:

Sunday, September 23, 2018

• 9:00-12:30 – Timo Pfau, principal DSP engineer, will present on “What can DSP bring to optical access” in the DSP for Next Generation Optical Access Workshop.
• 9:00-12:30 – Christian Rasmussen, founder and vice president of digital signal processing and optics, will share his thoughts on the “Future scaling and capabilities of DSP algorithms” in the Coherent DSP in Optical Communications Workshop.
• 9:00-12:30 – Hongbin Zhang, principal DSP engineer, will present on the “Future of transponders for submarine transmission” in the Submarine Systems Workshop.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

• 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. – BinBin Guan, optical engineer, will lead the Lab Automation Hackathon in which there will be eight demonstrations for various common lab automation tasks.

Wednesday, September 25, 2018

• 1:30 p.m. – Timo Pfau will present his invited paper titled, “High performance coherent ASIC” as part of the SC3 – Digital Signal Handling Techniques for Optical Communication Systems session.

Our team of experts is available to discuss Acacia Communications’ latest innovations in optical interconnect solutions. If you’d like to meet with Acacia at ECOC, contact us. We’d love your feedback!

It’s wheels up again for the Acacia team! This time, Fenghai Liu is headed to Shenzhen, China to present at the 20th annual China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE), the world’s largest exhibition in the optoelectronic industry, which takes place September 5 – 7, 2018. He was invited by China Mobile to participate in the China Mobile – 5G Optical Network Development Summit on September 6^th.

At the conference, Fenghai is leading a discussion on Coherent Optical Modules in the 5G Era. His presentation will be first in the afternoon session on September 6, 1:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. CST (China Standard Time). He is Acacia’s Associate Vice President of Product Line Management & System Quality Assurance and has worked in optical transport systems and optical transceivers development for more than 25 years. His experience allows him to bring a unique perspective to what is needed for coherent solutions to thrive in 5G.

Over the last 10 years, coherent optical modules have been used widely in submarine, long-haul and metro networks, in part to the application of digital signal processing (DSP) and photonic integrated circuits (PIC). User expectations from mobile networks continue to escalate as wireless carriers prepare for 5G networking, which promises five times the bandwidth of today’s 4G networks. Liu is addressing the important role coherent optical modules can play in 5G transport networks as well as the new requirements and challenges in access, aggregation and core layers.

Coherent offers several benefits in these access aggregation applications compared to traditional direct detect solutions. At higher data rates, it becomes very challenging to deploy direct detect solutions over 10’s of km’s without using dispersion compensation. Alternatively, solutions may consider many parallel optical interfaces, but that drives up the cost of the solution.

Figure. 5G Backhaul network.

Today’s coherent implementations are generally based on tunable laser technology. While fixed laser implementations are a consideration in these applications, tunable solutions can offer operational benefits by significantly reducing the number of spares that need to be stocked. Tunable solutions also tend to support shorter lead times, accelerating the ability to turn up new services. Lastly, coherent solutions are future proof with the ability to scale capacity by increasing data rate or adding additional wavelengths

Adoption of coherent technology in access networks could offer an additional benefit that may not be obvious at first. Since the same solutions can address a wide range of network interfaces (e.g., access aggregation, metro, and regional), it may be possible to collapse the supply chain for multiple applications into a single solution. This could offer significant operational efficiencies for network operators.

If you’d like to meet with Fenghai at CIOC or learn more about the role of coherent modules in 5G networks, please contact us

See you in Shenzhen!

“We are honored to accept this prestigious award. Based on our experience, we see coherent moving from metro core to access aggregation networks such as 5G backhaul and fiber deep Remote PHY for cable access. Access networks delivering high bandwidth services could dramatically increase energy requirements to power and cool the equipment providing these services. We believe Acacia is on the forefront of providing the high performance, low power, compact form factor solutions necessary to help enable data centers to run on sustainable energy.”

• Raj Shanmugaraj, president and chief executive officer of Acacia Communications

We also marked our attendance at the show with the announcement of our Coherent ZR Optics Solutions for 100G CFP-DCO ZR and 100G/200G CFP2 ZR pluggable modules. Small coherent modules for very compact systems, they are designed to address 5G and fiber deep applications, as well as data center edge and enterprise campus applications.

In talking with customers about the CFP2 module, we heard that they like the capacity granularity for metro with 100G/200G per wave. We also had a lot of good discussion on the following key features:

• Support for 200G/ lambda – at a significant low cost/bit
• Simplified system integration with DCO interface
• Integrated functionality eliminating the need for additional ASICs: OTU framer function, Layer 1 Encryption
• Easy network maintenance with rich performance monitoring such as link dispersion/PMD/PDL/OSNR

To learn more about how the CFP2 pluggable coherent module can help network operators reduce CapEX and OpEx, increase reach, and prepare for future growth, watch this video.

We look forward to seeing everyone at ECOC, September 23 – 27 in Rome, Italy.

Last week, Acacia introduced coherent ZR Optics solutions for CFP and CFP2 Pluggable Modules. Let’s take a look at why these solutions have evolved to address the need for growing capacity in network access and edge applications.

It should come as no surprise that rising commercial and consumer bandwidth demands linking the end user to core networks have created the need to increase the capacity within the access portion of the network infrastructure. Today, deployed fiber-optic access networks typically utilize 10Gbps optical links, transporting either Ethernet or SONET/SDH protocol traffic with Ethernet being a dominant protocol. Direct-detect optical transceivers adhering to IEEE 10GBASE-ER Ethernet specifications enabled 40km link distances without requiring any optical amplification. To fulfill network demands that required reaches beyond 40km in the access network, transceivers meeting 10Gbps “ZR” requirements entered the market. IEEE actually never formally created a 10GBASE-ZR specification. Instead, ZR became a market de facto standard, typically understood to meet 80km reach requirements based on SONET/SDH optical specifications.

In today’s environment, cloud services, broadband and 5G applications are imposing significant bandwidth demand in access/edge networks. And the need to upgrade from 10Gbps to 100Gbps and beyond over the same distance is becoming increasingly important. We have, in a previous blog post, discussed how coherent technology has progressed from long-haul network applications to shorter reach applications (access, DCI/edge, campus). Because of its inherent intradyne detection and digital signal processing, a coherent transceiver solution fits well in these access/edge network environments that require ≥100G links to overcome high dispersion and high loss conditions. Also, designing coherent ZR transceivers with the same form factors as similar low-power consumption pluggables (such as CFP and CFP2) enable the access equipment to support different distances by simply swapping transceivers.

Figure 1. Acacia’s CFP-DCO ZR and CFP2 ZR pluggable modules

With this as a backdrop, to meet the need for growing capacity in network access and edge apps, Acacia introduced ZR coherent optics solutions to support unamplified applications beyond 40km reaches, extending to 80km and beyond. The introduced CFP-DCO ZR and CFP2 ZR coherent optical interconnect products are capable of supporting the 18W power class that was widely deployed for 10km client applications.

Both Acacia’s CFP-DCO ZR and CFP2 ZR modules have the ability to provide greater than 80km of equivalent loss budget and dispersion budget, over single mode fiber. Acacia’s CFP2 can also support 200G over these types of links. We also expect to see industry support for 400G in the CFP2 form-factor as well. These coherent ZR plug-and-play modules do not require external dispersion compensation or external optical amplification for 80km point-to-point distances.

Evolving Nomenclature

Some may recall during the rise of 10G Ethernet, there was a period of time when terms like “SR” and “LR” meant different reaches whether one came from the “telecom world” versus the “datacom world”. To a telecom person, “SR” could mean SONET OC-192 “SR-1”, a ~10km single mode reach. Whereas, to a datacom person “SR” meant IEEE Ethernet 10GBASE-SR, a 300m multimode reach. “LR” to the telecom person could mean “LR-2”, an 80km single mode link. Whereas, to the datacom person, “LR” referred to a 10GBASE-LR 10km single mode link.

As stated in the beginning of this blog, “ZR” at 10Gbps refers to an 80km-reach optical link. The good news is that the current standardization efforts to define coherent “ZR”, primarily within Optical Internetworking Forum’s 400ZR implementation agreement efforts, also include 80km reach, with the current understanding is that the “ZR” generally refers to a coherent DWDM optical reach from 40km to 80km and beyond. Stay tuned to this blog for future posts on 400ZR developments.

Nice, France here we come! The Acacia team is excited to attend NGON & DCI Europe 2018 this month for the fifth year in a row. There is always something fun to do in Nice, from attending NGON and the annual beach party at le galet to taking in the some of the local architecture designed by Buzzi, Bernasconi, and Baptiste.

We, of course, most look forward to hearing updates from industry luminaries about the future of optical networking and discussing Acacia Communications’ optical interconnect solutions and how they help meet the demands of today and tomorrow’s optical networks. We think some of this year’s hot topics will be:

• Addressing the need to grow capacity in access and edge networks with coherent ZR optics solutions
• Optimizing multi-haul network capacity
• Expanding data center interconnect bandwidth to 400G and beyond
• Leveraging coherent pluggable modules for applications including access, metro, and DCI to help reduce CapEX and OpEx and accelerate time to market
• Using coherent optics in wireless backhaul for 4G/5G

We look forward to connecting with our peers to discuss these topics. To schedule a meeting with Acacia Communications, please submit a request through our contact form.

You can follow our updates from the show on Twitter @AcaciaComms or #NGON2018.

We look forward to seeing you in Nice!