Supporting data rates up to 1.2 terabits per second (1.2Tbps), the CIM 8 is the first commercial single optical carrier coherent transceiver that breaks into the “Terabit Era.” It is powered by Jannu, Acacia’s 8^th generation digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC, which is based on 5nm CMOS and features the latest in Silicon Photonic technology.  This solution delivers industry-leading performance in a small faceplate pluggable module by combining the Jannu DSP with 3D Siliconization packaging technology. The CIM 8 supports multi-haul applications by using second-generation 3D Shaping technology and continuous baud rate adjustment up to 140Gbaud, enabling customers to scale their networks efficiently and cost-effectively.

“The ability to maximize transmission data rate across a wide range of multi-haul network applications is key for cost-effectively scaling networks,” said Bill Gartner, SVP / GM Optical Systems and Optics Group at Cisco.  “Not only does the CIM 8 deliver exceptional performance, but it also consumes less than half the power per bit of competing solutions, allowing us to support terabit transmission with a small pluggable module.”

“Shipping CIM 8 Terabit Era optical transceivers with 140Gbaud capability to customers and seeing them tested in carrier networks is very exciting,” said Mehrdad Givehchi, VP of Engineering for Acacia. “Delivering the highest channel capacity and longest reach with maximum fiber utilization, the CIM 8 transceiver enables a wide range of multi-haul network applications including DCI, metro, long-haul, and subsea.”

Benefits of Increased Baud Rates

Increasing baud rate is an efficient way to enable more cost-effective optical networks by reducing the number of optics needed to support a given transmission capacity. By doubling the baud rate between successive generations, CIM 8 supports twice the capacity per carrier over greater reaches than earlier generations such as our widely deployed AC1200 coherent module. Three 400GbE client interfaces can be transmitted over virtually any network application, delivering 1.2Tbps per carrier capacity for high-capacity DCI interfaces, 800G per carrier capacity over most optical links using 4 bits/symbol (~16QAM) modulation and 400G QPSK over ultra-long-haul and subsea distances.

Performance Optimizing Features Enabled by the Jannu DSP

A key feature of the Jannu DSP is Acacia’s second-generation 3D Shaping technology, which includes advanced Probabilistic Constellation Shaping, Adaptive Baud Rate, and enhanced transmission impairment compensation algorithms providing superior performance using a single carrier implementation. This technology gives service providers unprecedented transmission flexibility to match their network’s architecture, optimize fiber utilization, simplify deployment, and save on both CAPEX and OPEX.

The Jannu DSP provides customers with continuous baud rate adjustment up to 140Gbaud and continuous modulation to optimize utilization of available spectrum in point-to-point DWDM or cascaded ROADM paths. As a single carrier design, the Jannu DSP incorporates Acacia’s most advanced line-rate processing algorithms to efficiently overcome fiber transmission impairments across various fiber types and fiber cable installation conditions. These power-efficient algorithms are designed to compensate fiber non-linearity to achieve longer transmission distance, automatically compensate for very large chromatic dispersion over trans-Pacific submarine cables, tolerate older deployed fibers with high Polarization Mode Dispersion, as well as provide fast state-of-polarization tracking required for aerial fiber cables in stormy weather conditions.

Leverages Acacia’s 3D Siliconization

The CIM 8 continues Acacia’s history of technology leadership by delivering industry leading performance based on the same silicon photonics used in high-volume pluggable modules. 3D Siliconization, a key enabler for the industry leading 140Gbaud, uses highly scalable and reliable volume semiconductor manufacturing processes, leveraging 3D stacking technology to enable a single packaged device to include all the high speed electrical and opto-electronic functions necessary for coherent transceivers. This device decreases footprint by integrating the DSP, Photonic Integrated Circuit, modulator drivers, and Transimpedance Amplifiers, and is manufactured using standard CMOS packaging processes that offer improvements in reliability, cost, and volume scaling.

To learn more, visit the Coherent Interconnect Module 8 page or contact us.

Supporting Resources

Acacia Unveils Industry’s First Single Carrier 1.2T Multi-Haul Pluggable Module

How Industry Trends are Driving Coherent Technology Classifications

The Road Ahead for Next Generation Multi-Haul Designs (Part 1 of 3)

The Road Ahead for Next Generation Multi-Haul Designs (Part 2 of 3)

The Road Ahead for Next-Generation Multi-Haul Designs (Part 3 of 3)

100GBaud+ Silicon Photonics Solutions Drive Optical Network Evolution

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.

1.2T Delivering Maximum Capacity, Reach & Fiber Efficiency

Acacia, now part of Cisco, is once again introducing a ground-breaking coherent solution with the industry’s first 1.2 terabits per second (1.2T) faceplate pluggable coherent module, highlighting a new 8th generation Coherent Interconnect Module family, powered by Acacia’s Jannu 5nm CMOS digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC. This solution delivers industry-leading performance with single carrier 1.2T operation and combines the Jannu DSP with 3D Siliconization packaging technology which includes the silicon photonics integrated circuit (SiPh PIC), high-speed modulator driver and transimpedance amplifier (TIA) in a single optoelectronic package.

The Jannu DSP is designed to offer network operators the ability to maximize transmission data rate across a wide range of multi-haul network applications including DCI, metro, long-haul and subsea. “By leveraging the latest 5nm CMOS process node and our advanced signal processing algorithms, we’re delivering exceptional performance with less than half the power per bit of competing solutions, enabling a pluggable deployment model,” says Christian Rasmussen, Sr. Director, DSP and Optics Engineering and Founder at Acacia.

The Industry’s Next Class of Coherent Interconnect

The architecture of the new Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8) solution builds upon the success of the Acacia AC1200 product family and aligns closely with the latest client data rates and coherent industry standardization efforts. The CIM 8 is designed to enable network operators to double their transmission capacity over even greater reaches. For links requiring maximum capacity, the new module can provide 1.2T capacity over a single wavelength.

“Historically, Acacia has been a groundbreaker in advancing coherent technology, and the company continues to demonstrate a long-term vision for how multi-haul coherent optics should evolve over time,” said Dr. Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst for Optical Components at Cignal AI. “Acacia’s new Coherent Interconnect Module is a great example of market leadership. This solution is a logical next step following the widely adopted Pico DSP-based products and will provide pluggability that is attractive to both traditional and cloud operators.”

The below figure illustrates how coherent technology has evolved in response to growing bandwidth demands. Different baud-rate classes are grouped based on technological capabilities, industry standardization (such as OIF, IEEE, Open ROADM, OpenZR+ MSA, CableLabs, ITU) and common industry investments. As the below figure depicts, the next class of coherent optical products, Class 3, enables a doubling of baud rates from the current Class 2 technology. Class 2 products include both multi-haul embedded modules and 400G faceplate pluggables where the latter was driven by standardization efforts that drove heavy investments into products centered around 16QAM, 60+Gbaud per 75GHz channel transmission.

Throughout this evolution, it has been critical that each successive class provide network architecture compatibility to the previous class, primarily reach and channel width. Acacia’s Class 3 product will support 150GHz channels with double the capacity per carrier and longer reach than that of the previous class, providing a simple, scalable path that is compatible with the previous network architecture generation.

The CIM 8 family is a Class 3 solution that can address transmission of multiple 400GbE client interfaces over virtually any network application, delivering 1.2T per carrier capacity for high-capacity DCI interfaces and 800G per carrier capacity over most optical links using 4 bits/symbol (~16QAM) modulation.

Leading in Performance and Fiber Utilization

The Jannu DSP features Acacia’s second-generation 3D Shaping technology, which leverages enhanced probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) algorithms and Adaptive Baud Rate, a feature introduced in Acacia’s Pico DSP and widely embraced by network operators. The Jannu DSP provides customers with continuous baud rate adjustment up to 140Gbaud to optimize utilization of available spectrum in a single-span or in cascaded ROADM paths. These 3D Shaping features give service providers unprecedented transmission flexibility to match their network’s architecture, optimize fiber utilization, simplify deployment, and save on both CAPEX and OPEX.

As a single carrier design, the Jannu DSP also includes Acacia’s advanced line-rate processing algorithms to efficiently overcome fiber transmission impairments over greenfield or brownfield fiber infrastructures. These power-efficient algorithms are designed to compensate for linear and non-linear impairments, as well as provide state-of-polarization (SOP) tracking with industry leading response times. In addition, the Jannu DSP leverages Acacia’s new innovative soft-decision error correction (SD-FEC) to further enhance performance.

Scaling Optical Network Architectures

Acacia has been working towards a clear vision of how to cost-effectively scale network capacity for many years. The Jannu DSP builds on the performance and architectural benefits that have made the Pico DSP such a successful Class 2 coherent solution, but with double the baud rate and enhanced performance that supports transmission up to 1.2T in 150GHz channels. With adaptive baud rate capabilities, the CIM 8 also offers maximum capacity over any reach and channel plan.

“Today is an exciting new milestone in Acacia’s history as we once again introduce an exciting new product that delivers the type of disruption needed to cost-effectively scale network capacity in the future,” said Mehrdad Givehchi, Sr. Director of Engineering for Hardware and Software and Founder at Acacia. “With every generation of product, we have been able to deliver higher transmission data rates, lower power consumption and higher performance and I am proud to see this new product carry on that legacy.”

Crossing the Pluggable Terabit Threshold with High-Density Integration

Acacia’s 3D Siliconization is a major contributing factor in how the CIM 8 can cross the terabit capacity threshold and support faceplate pluggable optics that simplify network deployment and maintenance. 3D Siliconization applies integration and 3D stacking packaging techniques to enable a single device to include all the high-speed optoelectronic functions necessary for coherent transceivers. This device decreases footprint by including the DSP, SiPh PIC, drivers, TIAs, and is manufactured using standard CMOS packaging processes that leverage the same reliability, cost, and volume scaling advantages. With 3D Siliconization, the high-speed RF interfaces are tightly coupled together, resulting in improved signal integrity for high baud rate signals.

The high-density packaging as well as an advanced high-speed modulator design provides superior frequency response that enables the 140Gbaud performance as explained in this white paper.

Acacia Technology Leadership and Vision

Transforming industry trends into a development strategy takes the kind of vision Acacia has repeatedly shown in driving the adoption of pluggable digital coherent optical (DCO) modules based on silicon photonics. However, Acacia’s silicon photonics expertise expands beyond just pluggable coherent solutions. As shown in the above figure, Acacia has previously introduced multi-haul products in previous classes. In fact, the AC400 Class 1 product was the first commercially deployed all silicon photonics-based coherent module for submarine applications and the silicon photonics-based AC1200 was the industry’s first Class 2 multi-haul solution. The newly introduced CIM 8 continues this history of technology leadership by providing industry leading performance based on the same silicon photonics used in high volume pluggable modules. In addition, Acacia is leveraging the investments being made in next-generation standardized solutions. Aligning these developments helps Acacia to accelerate time to market for both standardized and multi-haul products and benefit from the combined scale.

Acacia was a pioneer of silicon photonics for coherent applications in 2012 when it was the first coherent module vendor to envision silicon as the platform for the integration of multiple discreet photonic functions, increasing the density and reducing cost of optical interconnect products.

“Acacia’s vision and technology leadership has enabled us to transform coherent transmission. Our pioneering role in silicon photonics has led to the introduction of industry leading coherent pluggable and multi-haul solutions,” said Benny Mikkelsen, CTO and Founder of Acacia. “With every new product introduction, we have delivered the right solution at the right time to help our customers meet their growing bandwidth demands, and this new product introduction is a culmination of this proven technology leadership.”

To learn more, visit Coherent Interconnect Module 8 page or contact us.

Acacia was a pioneer of silicon photonics in 2012 when it was the first coherent module vendor to envision silicon as the platform for the integration of multiple discreet photonic functions while increasing the density and reducing cost of optical interconnect products. According to Gazettabyte, Acacia’s choice to back silicon photonics for coherent optics was an “industry trailblazing decision.”

Leveraging advancements in silicon photonics processing, Acacia was able to deliver generations of high-volume silicon photonics-based products that continually enabled higher transmission data rates, lower power, and higher performance than the generation before it. Early on, some skeptics dismissed silicon photonics as incapable of achieving the performance required for coherent optical transmissions over long-haul distances. As evidenced by today’s deployments of Acacia’s 1.2T multi-haul AC1200 coherent optical module in well over a hundred customer networks which include subsea, long-haul, regional, metro and DCI applications, it is clear that silicon photonics can achieve industry leading performance.

Today, Acacia’s solutions leveraging silicon photonics are available in a wide range of coherent optical interfaces, from edge and access to subsea applications, to enable high-speed transmission and excellent performance.

Acacia’s silicon photonics leadership timeline for coherent transmission.

The Power of 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 pieces, silicon photonics allows all those pieces to fit onto a single silicon chip.  This tight integration is what has allowed component vendors to continually drive reductions in the cost and size of optical solutions. For network equipment manufacturer customers, using the silicon photonics chip means they can design more ports per linecard, increasing the capacity of their system.

Below are a few reasons that silicon photonics has been so successful and has emerged as a key technology for existing and future optics solutions.

• Leverages CMOS Processes– Silicon photonics leverages the higher yields and lower cost associated with CMOS. Leveraging mature silicon process technologies means that much larger wafers can be made in silicon than traditional optics materials. Today’s silicon photonics solutions run on lines that accommodate up to 12-inch wafers or larger. These larger wafers result in an order of magnitude more dies per wafer, which lowers cost.
• Enables Package Level Integration – As the industry continues to move toward higher data rates and lower power, the interface between the DSP and high-speed optics is quickly becoming a bottleneck. Every time a high-speed signal needs to transition across an additional electrical interface (solder bumps, wire-bonds, vias, PCB traces) there is loss and distortion. Compensating for this additional loss adds power dissipation, and distortion limits performance. Using silicon photonics enables package-level integration that can better optimize these high-speed interfaces and accelerate the realization of higher data rates at lower power.  In addition, silicon photonics is temperature tolerant and thus is not affected by the heat-generating DSP.
• Ensures High Reliability –
  • Overall, silicon photonics increases reliability with the high level of integration reducing the number of component interconnects, which are a common source of failure
  • Traditional optics degrade in high-moisture environments, requiring optics to be packaged in costly hermetic gold boxes, which are historically one of the most common sources of failure for optics. Silicon, on the other hand, does not require hermiticity so by using silicon photonics the costly gold boxes are eliminated which improves reliability
  • In addition to having higher yields than traditional optics materials, silicon photonics can also be tested at the wafer level. Good die can be identified early in the process, and there is no labor wasted on material that will ultimately fail thereby reducing cost.
• Simplifies Deployment and Management – Pluggable modules with industry standard interfaces allow vendors to simplify their networks.

Higher baud rate designs

The next battle for the industry is achieving higher baud rates in a cost-effective way. As the gap to Shannon’s Limit narrows, it is becoming more difficult to increase channel capacity by increasing the modulation order while keeping the same transmission distance. This leaves higher baud rates as a preferred method to increase capacity and decrease cost per bit. Silicon photonics and advances in packaging technology enabled by silicon photonics are key for enabling higher baud rate designs.

Component Stacking

In component stacking, electrical impairments are reduced due to very short electrical connections between key RF components, creating a robust signal path for extremely high frequency/baud rate operation. In this stacked design, the gold-box packaging is eliminated, 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.  Stacked design has a higher (better) frequency response than the traditional gold-box design. Advanced stacking designs can further reduce interconnect impairments, resulting in even higher frequency response.

Illustration of example electrical interconnect frequency response comparing traditional gold-box and stacking integration shows that stacking provides a path to >100Gbaud.

New, Innovative Architectures and Future Innovations

Because of its ability to drive performance and volume manufacturability, silicon photonics has the potential to unlock new architectures needed to keep up with rising demand.  An example is pluggable coherent transceivers that can be plugged directly into switches and routers offering the same density for both coherent DWDM and client optics in the same chassis.  It can also drive future generations of optics design that push the envelope on performance, cost, complexity, and size.

The industry is now turning to silicon to produce a wide variety of devices, using mainstream silicon manufacturing process technologies that have matured over many years.  As optical transceivers need to support higher data-rate, driven by the demand for higher speed networks that can handle the rising bandwidth demand, we believe silicon photonics will once again allow the capacity to grow without significantly increasing the size and cost of the devices needed for the future. For this reason and the benefits discussed above, Acacia plans to use silicon photonics in all coherent applications going forward to help customers stay ahead of the curve.

5G Driving Increased Bandwidth Demands
According to Cisco’s Annual Internet Report, globally, there will be 1.4 billion total 5G connections by 2023.  Network infrastructure being deployed to support 5G is driving bandwidths higher than legacy infrastructure can support based on traditional optical transmission technology. 5G networks are expected to have traffic from a higher number of endpoints to aggregate, compared to legacy 4G LTE. These drivers for increased bandwidth [demand] are creating a challenge for legacy optical service provider edge and access infrastructure to support this traffic.

The application of coherent technology to the existing network infrastructure may be a competitive differentiator for service providers looking to support the scale and capacity needed in the 5G era.

Coherent Moves into Edge and Access
Much progress has been made over the past decade to reduce the size, power and cost of coherent solutions which has enabled its evolution from supporting long-haul to metro networks. More recently, requirements from data center network operators for high-capacity, high-density, solutions in pluggable form factors widely used in switch and router slots have driven industry-wide investments into ultra-compact, low-power and economical coherent solutions that can be manufactured in high volumes.

Coherent solutions have very good receiving sensitivity, and are extremely tolerant to fiber types, chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion (PMD), and back reflections, which can simplify operational deployment in edge and access networks. In particular, providers offering 5G wireless and enterprise services, can benefit from coherent technology because it has ample optical margins which can easily handle the condition and reaches of the access fiber plant resulting in shorter provisioning times.

Acacia’s Edge and Access Portfolio
With the coming of 5G and edge computing, the time is right for coherent optics to take the next step and migrate to edge and access networks. Acacia has a long-standing track record of driving coherent into new market applications by delivering the technology, scalability, feature set, and innovation that service providers need to maintain and grow their networks over time. Leveraging our 10 years of high-performance coherent transmission expertise, Acacia recently announced a portfolio of products to address 5G wireless X-haul applications.   This portfolio includes:

• A coherent bi-directional pluggable optical module for cable and 5G wireless X-haul applications. Acacia recently published a white paper on how coherent bi-directional modules can enable cable and 5G network providers to easily meet rising bandwidth demands in fiber limited networks.
• A 100G coherent point-to-point edge and access solution for 5G Wireless X-haul and Enterprise Services. Acacia published a white paper that examines the constraints that prohibit legacy point-to-point edge/access solutions from scaling to higher bandwidths, and discusses how coherent optical solutions can provide operational and scalability benefits in these networks when increasing bandwidth to 100Gbps and beyond.
• A 100G coherent DWDM module for new architectures in access networks, such as cable/fiber deep and 5G wireless X-haul applications. Acacia’s new 100G coherent DWDM module was designed to provide a scalable traffic aggregation solution, as well as an upgrade path to migrate from existing 10G DWDM networks to higher-performing 100G coherent links in access networks to boost capacity by a factor of ten.

All of Acacia’s edge and access solutions leverage its 3D Siliconization approach, which utilizes high-volume manufacturing processes and benefits from the maturity of Acacia’s silicon photonics technology.

5G Transport & Network Strategies Virtual Event
With the completion of 3GPP Release 16 this summer, 5G moves into an exciting new phase of advanced use cases and rich applications for consumers and, increasingly, enterprises.  This week, Light Reading’s 5G Transport & Networking Strategies Digital Symposium will discuss this, and more, and Acacia is excited to be speaking at this event.  If you plan to attend, don’t miss Tom Williams, Acacia’s VP of Marketing, on the panel “Transport Architecture Evolution for 5G Phase 2 Services” on Thursday, Nov 5th at 1:20 pm.

If you want to learn more about Acacia’s growing portfolio of edge and access solutions, feel free to contact us.

Acacia has many reasons to be excited about this year’s European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) and one of the top ones is demonstrating our new AC1200-SC² (SC ‘squared’) coherent module, the first single-chip coherent module to deliver 1.2 Terabit (1.2T) on a single-channel. Not only did we announce the details around the AC1200-SC² today, but we also had four customers participate in our press release by providing supporting quotes. Thank you to ADVA, Cisco, ECI Telecom, and ZTE for your continued support of our product innovations. Everything we develop is to make you and our other customers successful, and we’re proud to once again have the opportunity to help you solve your greatest optical networking challenges.

Powered by Acacia’s 1.2T Pico DSP chip, the AC1200-SC² was designed to enable network operators to support today’s 100GbE clients, as well as emerging 400GbE clients, across key network segments such as DCI edge, metro, long-haul and submarine in an efficient, scalable, and cost-effective manner. The module’s high-performance and flexibility make the AC1200-SC² module ideally suited for multi-haul applications ranging from high- capacity 1.2T DCI edge to the most challenging terrestrial and submarine networks that require 400G channels and QPSK modulation.

Optimize your Network

The AC1200-SC² leverages Acacia’s 3D shaping technology designed to optimize fiber capacity and reach by filling gaps in margin and spectrum. Fine-tune adjustment of the modulation order and baud rate

provides network operators with the ability to adapt the transmission characteristics to meet the requirements of both greenfield and brownfield deployments. Capable of adapting to any channel spacing up to 150 GHz, the AC1200-SC² provides network operators with a straightforward channel plan roadmap.

The single-chip, single-channel AC1200-SC² supports 3 x 400G transmission using 64QAM modulation for DCI edge applications, as well as 1 x 400G transmission using QPSK modulation for long-haul and submarine applications. This application flexibility facilitates network savings by enabling common hardware to address multiple deployment scenarios, including 100GbE/400GbE, as well as reducing the need for costly regeneration nodes for long-haul and ultra-long-haul links.

The software intelligent AC1200-SC² coherent module supports 1.2T in a footprint that is 40% less than the size of 5” x 7” modules supporting transmission speeds of 400G today.

Come See us at ECOC

If you are attending the show, we’d love to see you and show you a demonstration of our new AC1200-SC². To set up a meeting, contact us.

Figure 1: ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex terminal

According to ADVA, “By empowering communication service providers (CSPs) to boost capacity without major upgrades to the optical line system (OLS), the enhanced technology addresses the urgent need for more bandwidth despite significant space and cost constraints. The ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex is able to maximize bandwidth for any infrastructure using new fractional QAM capabilities. These support ultra-flexible bandwidth modulation for optimal performance across brownfield and subsea networks of all distances.”

Eric Fisher, Acacia’s Vice President of Global Sales, also commented on the announcement. “The ADVA FSP 3000 TeraFlex leverages Acacia’s AC1200 module, based on our Pico coherent DSP ASIC, to deliver a flexible transmission solution that was designed to address a wide range of multi-haul applications by leveraging 3D shaping features, including fractional QAM modulation and adaptive baud rate capabilities. For CSPs, we believe that translates into enhanced performance, as well as improved network and port efficiency, which helps to enable capex and opex savings. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with the ADVA team on the FSP 3000 TeraFlex and look forward to helping them to support CSPs with a differentiated solution.”

Figure 2: Acacia AC1200 coherent module based on the Pico DSP ASIC

According to ADVA, its FSP 3000 TeraFlex is a 1RU platform that enables super channels of up to 1200Gbit/s and a total capacity of 7.2Tbit/s. Its ultra-compact footprint and open API design offer unbeatable density and interoperability. And, with its new capabilities, it takes flexibility to a new level. According to ADVA, its FSP 3000 TeraFlex now optimizes all optical paths over every distance, ensuring the lowest cost per bit for any network. It achieves this through fractional QAM modulation, which switches between lower and higher schemes for maximum spectral efficiency, significantly boosting capacity or extending the reach of installed legacy infrastructure. ADVA believes this transforms existing carrier networks, with those designed for 10Gbit/s channels able to transport 30 times more traffic and outperforming upgrades based on 200Gbit/s by 50%.

A big thank you to ADVA for the opportunity to work together on the FSP 3000 TeraFlex. We are very pleased when our customers are successful and we look forward to seeing the great things you accomplish in the future.