Tom and Stephen discussed how network operators can turn unused margin gaps into usable capacity with Acacia’s innovative technology. As technological advances enable solutions approaching the theoretical Shannon capacity limit, gains are becoming more incremental, and reducing cost-per-bit is becoming more challenging. Acacia’s innovative technology and feature set enables a path to breaking through the optical terabit barrier allowing users of the technology to deliver optical networks with high performance while lowering cost and power for various network applications including long haul, metro, and DCI-edge.

In this video, Tom discusses how 3D Shaping enables fine-tune adjusting of the line-side coherent modulation characteristics helping network operators optimize capacity and reach for their network. This is enabled by Acacia’s Pico DSP which powers our AC1200 coherent module. You can watch Tom and Stephen’s full conversation below.

This interview was just one of the many conversations the Acacia team took part in at ECOC this year. We had a full schedule of thought leader presentations, AC1200 1.2T demonstration and customer and partner conversations. Check out our pre-ECOC blog post to learn more about what we were up to at the show.

Stay tuned to the blog for more updates on Acacia’s Pico DSP, AC1200 coherent module, and the rest of our technology portfolio.

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!

At the end of last year, we announced general availability of our CFP2 module, which Cignal AI analyst Andrew Schmitt called “the darling device of 2H17.” Acacia designed this module to help cloud and telecommunications providers reduce operational and capital expenses, increase reach and accelerate time-to-market of high-capacity solutions.

These pluggable modules are suitable for a wide range of network applications, including data center interconnect, metro access, metro core, and long-haul, as well as emerging applications including remote PHY and client optical interfaces up to 80 km.Acacia CFP2 Coherent Module

Yesterday, Oclaro and Acacia announced that the companies are teaming up to enable a multi-vendor environment of fully interoperable CFP2 modules based on Acacia’s Meru DSP. I talked with John LoMedico, VP of Corporate Development, who worked with Oclaro to ink the deal to find out more.

John LoMedico, VP of Corporate Development, Acacia Communications

Q: What exactly are Acacia and Oclaro announcing?

Until now, Acacia has been the only provider of production CFP2 modules, having announced general availability back in December of 2017. Now, the supply chain will have a second source — Oclaro and Acacia have entered into an agreement that allows Oclaro to launch a new CFP2 module based on the Acacia Meru DSP that will feature plug-and-play compatibility with the Acacia CFP2 module.

Acacia Meru DSP

Q: What does this mean for customers?

It means that customers will be able to buy fully interoperable CFP2 modules from two prominent coherent optical module companies, thereby providing a more robust supply chain with two sources, which customers’ desire.

With this agreement, we believe we have addressed a significant adoption hurdle for those Tier 1 network operators who require multiple sources. Acacia and Oclaro believe that this collaboration will increase the pace of adoption and degree of penetration of the Meru-based CFP2 format worldwide, thereby enabling Acacia to accelerate the adoption of the CFP2 DCO form factor at 100G/200G.

Q: Will the Oclaro and Acacia modules have common specifications?

The companies are working closely together to ensure that the specifications are interoperable with common specifications.  The modules will be plug-in replacements for each other.

Q: Will modules from other companies interoperate with Oclaro or Acacia modules?

To ensure interoperability at the higher performing proprietary 200G mode, it is necessary to use the same Acacia DSP leveraging SD-FEC.

Q: What about at 100G mode? Are there no interoperable modes available for other companies using lower performance industry standard FEC?

Interoperability is possible in the lower-performing 100G mode using HD-FEC. However, we believe the majority of use cases for CFP2 modules will require the highest performance possible for metro and regional networks thereby demanding the use of SD-FEC. As such, interoperability at the higher performing and proprietary 200G mode is only supported between Oclaro and Acacia Meru-based CFP2 modules.

Q: Does this signal a transition of the Acacia model toward merchant chip sales?

Acacia has always selectively engaged in chip sales where we feel it is strategically beneficial. While sales to an interoperable module vendor is a new model for us, we entered into this agreement with Oclaro based on our determination that this should be an opportunity for us to grow our sales. In the short and mid-term, we don’t believe there will be a significant impact to our historical mix of module and component sales. Over time, if the collaboration meets our expectations, we could see an increase in the volume of DSP sales through the relationship. We have also talked about our standalone PIC sales potentially impacting the mix of modules and components over time, as well.

Q: Do you think this will open up new markets?

We have been hearing from network operators that they would be more likely to deploy a CFP2 solution, in metro core and regional applications as well as emerging cable access and 5G applications, if there were a second source. We also know that larger NEM customers tend to prefer a multi-sourced ecosystem.

With a multi-vendor environment, customers will be able to buy fully interoperable CFP2 modules from Acacia and Oclaro. We see this as an exciting opportunity for Acacia and we believe a multi-vendor environment will help accelerate the adoption of the Meru-based CFP2 modules.

Transmission reaches for metro applications have to be above 50 km for metro/access and below 1000 km for metro/regional applications. This requires compact, scalable, cost-efficient, and easy-to-use digital coherent transport solutions such as the Acacia CFP2 module.

Figure 1: CFP2 coherent module

Acacia’s engineering team led by Hongbin Zhang recently demonstrated real-time transmission of 16 Tb/s (80x200Gb/s) over 1020km TeraWave ULL fiber with 170km span length using the 200Gb/s CFP2 module. The length, while much longer than typical metro/regional spans, was chosen to stress the OSNR budget while showing achievable amplifier spacing with ultra-low loss fiber. The results showed a record low power consumption less than 0.1W/Gbps. This is the lowest reported power consumption per bit for coherent optical transceivers.

Figure 2: Circulating loop setup for transmission experiments.

For the purpose of this experiment the CFP2 module was implemented in multi-source agreement (MSA) 107.5 mm x 41.5 mm form factor. Test specifics include:

• To test the 200Gb/s transmission performance as a function of OSNR for PM-8QAM on a 50GHz grid (4 bits/s/Hz SE) and PM-16QAM on a 37.5GHz grid (5.33 bits/s/Hz SE), we placed the 4 CFP2 channels next to each other in the middle of the C-band. One of the middle CFP2 channels was selected by a 50GHz optical demux in front of the coherent receiver and the real-time BER was measured as a function of received OSNR by varying the EDFA output power and subsequently converted into Q2-factor.
• To test the transmission performance as a function of the wavelength, we determined the Q2-factor from the measured real-time BER of the two middle channels among 4 consecutive CFP2 50GHz-spaced channels as they are moved across the C-band.

Relying on pluggable CFP2 transceiver modules, we were able to demonstrate successful 200Gb/s real-time transmission of 80 PM-8QAM and PM-16QAM channels at 4 bits/s/Hz spectral efficiency over 1020 km distance using very long 170km spans of TeraWave ULL fiber showing 2.8dB and 1.2dB Q²-margin, respectively. We were also able to prove an increase in system capacity as well as a decrease in power consumption per bit for coherent optical transceivers.

The research paper, published by Optics EXPRESS, is available to read or download here.