Market Adoption and Use Case Expansion
Coherent pluggables have seen remarkable market adoption, with 400G ZR/ZR+ coherent optics becoming the most widely adopted coherent technology in history. While some in the industry predicted early on that 400ZR pluggables would only be a small portion of the coherent market, Acacia has been laser focused on bringing these solutions to its customers to deliver the architectural change needed to transform networks to meet ever-growing bandwidth demands. As a result, Acacia is a market leader in shipments of 400G+ coherent pluggables.

During 2024, Acacia expanded this market-leading portfolio with the introduction of 800ZR and 800G ZR+ pluggables with Interoperable PCS in QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors. These solutions have already been proven in field trials, with Colt being the first provider to successfully trial enhanced performance 800G ZR+ coherent pluggable optics. These 800G router-based optics provide the capability to double Colt’s packet core capacity per link while reducing power per bit by 33.3%.

Acacia also introduced a 400G Ultra Long Haul QSFP-DD module for expanding 400G applications from DCI/metro to long haul applications. The 400G UHL has been proven in field trials, with Arelion announcing that it completed a live network field trial on its route from Chicago to Denver that demonstrated successful IP transmission at a spectrum of 112.5 gigahertz over 2,253 kilometers, with healthy margins, providing longer transmission distances and greater cost savings than currently deployed transponders. Acacia’s 400G ULH pluggables enable Arelion to reduce CAPEX by 35 percent and OPEX costs by 84 percent when expanding its network, providing wider reach with high capacities that support customers’ AI/ML and cloud applications.

The Terabit Era is Going Strong
According to Cignal AI, in 2025, 1.2T+ performance optimized solutions will contribute significantly to bandwidth growth as those solutions continue to be introduced. Acacia’s 1.2T Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8), powered by the Jannu DSP, has proven its outstanding performance with multiple record-breaking field trials across Metro, Long Haul and Subsea with Microsoft, Verizon, Windstream, and others. Acacia is also engaged with multiple webscale customers and expects CIM 8 to continue its ramp in 2025.

Looking Ahead…..Artificial Intelligence, 1600ZR/ZR+ and More!
AI certainly was a hot topic during OFC and ECOC in 2024 and Acacia believes it will continue to be in 2025. While a year ago, the industry was focused on single-site AI clusters, we will begin to hear more about methods for distributing AI training over different locations in 2025. And while there is still a lot of work to happen in this area, the optics industry is well positioned to be at the forefront of this evolution since higher speed optical interconnections will be necessary to mitigate bandwidth constraints within an AI networks. Read this recent blog for more information on future proofing your network for AI.

Router-based Coherent Optics
The proliferation of router-based coherent optics is paving the way to a converged IP+Optical network architecture. The benefits in 2024 were clear. Infrastructure provider Colt Technology Services reported a stunning 97% energy savings, and Arelion saved 64% in CapEx and 76% in OpEx. In 2025, we can expect to see more providers leveraging this architecture to achieve increased capacity, reduced energy consumption, and lowered network costs, complexity, and footprint.

1600ZR and 1600ZR+ Standards Agreement
The OIF launched efforts last year on 1.6T coherent optical interconnect solutions and is making progress towards interoperable 1600ZR and 1600ZR+ implementation agreements.  In 2025, the industry will be looking at ways to advance this migration using advanced technologies for high baud rate modulation and smaller CMOS nodes.

Looking to the Future
Acacia is looking forward to another year of industry-wide innovation. Helping to solve some of our customers’ most challenging problems has been part of our DNA since Acacia was founded in 2009 and as you can see from this historic timeline, we have continued to set new benchmarks for performance and efficiency. These innovations are not only addressing the current demands of high capacity networks, but are also paving the way for future growth and scalability. Key to this success has been listening to our customers and designing the products and features that they need to be successful. We look forward to continuing that tradition.

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.

400G Pluggables and Terabit Era Optics
The 400G coherent pluggable market has been the fastest growing coherent technology to date and, according to CignalAI, as of 2022, Acacia’s comprehensive 400G ZR/ZR+ portfolio is leading the market with 60% market share.

Acacia’s  Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD pluggable coherent optical module with high-transmit power is in high demand with a steady stream of trials and deployments. Leading up to ECOC, we saw Bright deployments announced from Arelion and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and earlier this year, Vodafone Turkey and Sipartech announced their own Bright field trials.

While pluggables or router-based DCOs (Digital Coherent Optics) are becoming popular for requirements in DCI, metro and some long-haul applications, transponder-based coherent solutions are still being used for long-haul, ultra-long haul and subsea. Acacia’s performance optimized multi-haul coherent solutions have proven to be extremely effective for these applications. Our single carrier pluggable 1.2T Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8), shipping since late 2022, is leading the industry into the Terabit Era. To date, we have seen record-breaking CIM 8 field trial announcements from Nysernet, China Mobile and Windstream Wholesale.  The CIM 8 enables these network operators to achieve the highest capacity and reach today while maximizing transmission data rate across a wide range of multi-haul network applications.

Defining the Path to 800G Pluggables
Following the explosive growth of 400G pluggables, next-generation switch/router ASICs are being introduced with 800G I/O port speeds, creating the need for 800G optical interfaces for DCI. Like the 400G MSA pluggable cycle, multiple standardization bodies such as OIF, Open ROADM and the IEEE are working in parallel to provide industry standards for 800G optical transmission and 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), helping to foster economies of scale. While module vendors are introducing the required technologies to enable low power 120+Gbaud solutions that would fit into small form-factor modules such as QSFP-DD and OSFP.

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.  We believe the key functional requirements that operators are looking for to make this transition include:

• Support for OIF 800ZR and high-performance interoperable Probabilistic Constellation Shaping (PCS) modes
• Multi-haul capable
• High transmit (Tx) optical power option
• 800GbE client traffic support
• Multiplexing lower speed 100/200/400GbE electrical client traffic
• Low power consumption
• Coherent Common Management Interface Specification (C-CMIS) compliance

With the first 800G pluggable deployments expected in 2024, these future solutions can plug directly into switch/router ports to further drive adoption of IP-over-DWDM router-based optical network architectures.

Coherent Interoperability Participation:  OIF and OpenZR+ MSA
Continuing its commitment to building an industry-wide ecosystem, Acacia is excited to be participating in the OIF’s largest-ever multi-vendor interoperability event in booth #304 at ECOC. Come see our participation in the 400ZR+ optics and Common Management Interface Specification (CMIS) implementations interoperability demonstrations.

In addition, Acacia has continued to play a key role as a member of the OpenZR+ Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) Group. Leading up to ECOC, the group announced that it had published the OpenZR+ Rev 3.0 specification, which defines a higher performing 400G 8QAM mode as well as a higher transmit power mode. This new specification is designed to further expand the application space for OpenZR+ with new modes that can address longer reaches and a wider range of network architectures.

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 Scotland.

As generational gains in spectral efficiency, size and power become less significant, increasing baud rate is proving to be effective at significantly decreasing power per bit.

Performance Matters for Verizon as They Plan to Use Both Embedded and Pluggable Optics
Glenn Wellbrock, Director Optical Transport Planning for Verizon, talked about pluggables versus performance optimized (a.k.a. embedded) coherent modules, and how it’s important to leverage the volume that the hyperscalers are using to drive lower cost and power consumption. Glenn commented that the performance of the pluggable modules they’ve tested has exceeded their expectations. While they still plan to use performance optimized optics, they also plan to take advantage of pluggables anywhere they can because of the benefits they can provide in lower cost and power consumption.

Embedded Optics Used Primarily in Ultra Long-Haul Routes Operating Above 400G
On the performance optimized side, Glenn explained how it’s all about getting high performance, which by default usually means higher cost and proprietary implementations. He then went on to describe a field trial that Verizon completed where they were running embedded optics at maximum data rate for metro distances. They tested the same system at lower speeds for a long-haul route from New York to Chicago, demonstrating the benefits of a multi-haul solution. This proved that they could run 400G pretty much anywhere in the country.  Glenn also shared that on their long-haul networks, 80% is at or below 1,500km and 600G should be sufficient.

Verizon Plans to Continue Using Performance Optimized Embedded Optics for Ultra Long Haul
In the future, Glenn believes that both performance optimized optics and pluggables will continue to go up in performance. Today, the majority of Verizon’s new Ultra Long Haul (ULH) routes in its network are operating above 400G with embedded optics. According to Glenn, even if the next generation of optics gave Verizon 800G anywhere in the country with great performance, they would still want to know if they could get up to a Terabit or even 1.2T.  “If that will work on a lot of Verizon paths in a ULH environment, that is where Verizon is going to gravitate towards and it’s looking like that is going to happen with embedded optics,” added Glenn.

Acacia Sees Trends Influencing How Coherent Interfaces Should Be Developed
Tom Williams, Acacia’s Senior Director of Marketing, highlighted some of the key trends in the industry, starting with coherent moving to shorter reaches. This migration drives higher volumes as well as a need for more standardization because operators want the operational efficiency of interoperability and standards.

400ZR/ZR+ is exceeding expectations and is the fastest coherent product ramp ever displacing both proprietary coherent and direct detect solutions.

Tom recapped how 400ZR/ZR+ has exceeded expectations by being the fastest growing coherent ramp of all time. “We are seeing the core applications that drove the initial OIF 400ZR in the DCI use case and in many of those cases we saw MSA pluggables displacing performance optimized coherent and in others it replaced direct detect,” said Tom. “This has resulted in standardized pluggable optics taking up a higher portion of the coherent market.”

Tom also pointed out that during that same timeframe, the performance of embedded optics has scaled to the point where the industry is approaching the Shannon limit. As a result, component makers are now only seeing incremental improvements in spectral efficiency and operators are not getting significant improvement in capacity on the fiber. That has created a critical need to move to higher baud rates and higher data rates because they provide better economics and better power efficiency from optics. The most efficient way to do this is to develop high performance solutions that align with the investment that is already taking place in the shorter reaches in the pluggable space.

To illustrate the importance of taking the right steps with coherent development, Tom then described the path Acacia has taken. At each class, the company has developed both MSA pluggables and performance optimized solutions. Tom emphasized that, “The benefit that Acacia gets is that we make a big investment in each of these nodes, and we’ve been able to double the baud rate each time. We’ve seen the standards doing this and we’ve aligned our performance optimized solution with those standardized efforts.”  As an example, Acacia took the proven optics from the AC1200 operating at 70Gbaud and brought them into the company’s 400ZR/ZR+ products. Using the same platform allowed Acacia to then focus on advancing its packaging technology to take advantage of the efficiencies and have a scalable approach. And today, that same packaging technology is now feeding into the Coherent Interconnect Module (CIM) 8 module, which is enabling a pluggable performance optimized solution operating at 140Gbaud. It’s expected that the next generation will also have a doubling of the baud rates (as shown below) which would adhere to where the standards are expected to align.

Leveraging common development based on standards for both performance optimized, and pluggable solutions leads to higher data rates.

As Tom explained, the reason advancements in packaging have been so important is because the high-speed electrical interconnects are often the problem in the RF path when you start going to higher baud rates. By eliminating most of those interconnects, Acacia has been able to significantly extend the bandwidth of the RF chain and still get all the benefits of silicon and standards CMOS processes. Based on the Jannu DSP, the CIM 8 started shipping at the end of 2022 and has already been used in field trials with NYSERNet, China Mobile and Windstream Wholesale.

Nokia Looks to Lower Cost Per Bit with New Techniques
Serge Melle, Director Optical Product Marketing at Nokia, focused on what performance optimized solutions provide from a network applications standpoint. This started with a look at the trends that Nokia sees, and which are driving the key requirements for operators, which include bandwidth growth, faster internet speeds from IP routing platforms, and the need to lower network power consumption to achieve sustainability objectives.

As Serge stated, “This is really where this new generation of 5nm, 120Gbaud+ technology can address all of these things at the same time with the same technology evolution.” By being able to go to 1.2T wavelengths, operators can leverage the technology to achieve 2.4T in a single line card. That enables network operators to get much more scale in deployment of the bandwidth and reduce total cost of ownership, while also providing an effective means of transporting high speed services such as 400 Gigabit Ethernet and 800 Gigabit Ethernet. In addition, the performance improvement of this new generation of technology enables operators to triple the reach at 800G speeds – thereby going from several hundreds of kilometers to 2,000km distances at 800G per wavelengths.  Added Serge, “This is a very effective way to transport high-speed services across all network applications and can drive a significant reduction in the number of coherent optics needed in the network, which in turns leads to cost savings.  This technology can also provide significant network power savings because it can lower network power consumption by up to 60 percent.”

Like the prior speakers, Serge also stressed the importance of driving down the power per bit. “Every coherent generation has been able to achieve that and this latest generation of 1.2T technology continues the trend by leveraging 5nm silicon, silicon photonics and closer integration,” he said.

Finally, Serge shared how this latest generation of technology can be leveraged across a broad range of applications including metro DCI, long-haul and subsea networks.

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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.

The world’s leading annual submarine communications gathering – Submarine Networks World –  takes place this week virtually. Despite other communications networks being adopted, subsea networks still transport more than 99 percent of all intercontinental traffic.  The increase in the amount of people working from home in 2020, increases in e-commerce, more online digital platforms, and reliance on big data have all led to an increase in global bandwidth demand and a key factor driving the growth of the submarine cable system. There are currently hundreds of submarine fiber optic cables buried in oceans around the world stretching over approximately 750,000 miles that connect land cables from one continent to another. It’s these same cables that enable Submarine Networks World to be brought to you live into homes and offices this week. This cable map from TeleGeography provides a comprehensive view of each cable’s owner and endpoints.

Source: TeleGeography, Copyright © 2020 PriMetrica, Inc.

Submarine networks are critical pieces to the global flow of network data. While submarine cables were traditionally owned by telecom carriers, it’s been the content providers themselves, such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon that have started investing in the build-out of new undersea cables in recent years to ensure they meet the internet bandwidth required for the cloud and streaming media services they provide. Key to meeting this demand is the use of fiber optics technology and advanced coherent transmission systems in both new and older cables.

Maximizing Transmission Capacity is Critical
Because it’s very expensive to build and lay undersea cables, maximizing transmission capacity is extremely important. However, a key challenge with submarine cables is overcoming chromatic dispersion and non-linear impairments which reduce capacity. In this video, Acacia’s Valeria Arlunno explains how using coherent optical communications technology overcomes this challenge.  As Valeria points out, to help maximize capacity and spectral efficiency, additional Digital Signal Processing (DSP) features are required. Continuous adjustment of the coherent modulation format and baud rate have enabled submarine network operators to improve the performance by finely tuning the balance between capacity and impairment penalty. In a submarine link, these fine-tuning capabilities are a key asset is maximizing the cable capacity using coherent optical transmission in either new or legacy fiber. These key capabilities are embodied in Acacia’s 3D shaping technologies in the Acacia Pico DSP.

Using Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module powered by Acacia’s Pico Digital Signal Processor (DSP), Acacia successfully transmitted the first 400G single carrier DWDM signal over the 6600km transatlantic Marea submarine Cable, achieving a spectral efficiency of 6.41 b/s/Hz.  Completed in 2017, this massive 10-million pound cable is located 17,000 feet under sea in some places, and runs between Virginia Beach, Virginia and Bilbao, Spain.

Cisco Makes Waves in Subsea Market
Acacia’s customer Cisco has announced multiple subsea trials and deployments with its NCS 1004 packet optical transport system that leverages Acacia’s AC1200 powered by Acacia’s Pico DSP chip including Cisco demonstrating 26.4Tbps on the MAREA transatlantic subsea cable.

In this blog, they discuss how they were able to demonstrate the benefits of the NCS 1004 over a subsea cable in production. The cable Cisco tested ran over 10,000km with accumulated chromatic dispersion of 210,000 ps/nm. This cable was designed as an open cable and had a ROADM line system already deployed with over 20 percent of the spectrum consumed by 200G channels from a current generation transponder. As part of the trial with the NCS 1004, Cisco tested 200G and 300G over different baud-rates across different parts of the spectrum.

With this test, Cisco’s solution achieved significant milestones. The NCS 1004 drove a single wavelength of 300G over a 10,000km sub-sea link. The spectral efficiency achieved was 43 percent better than any other option available in the industry today. As part of the testing, Cisco validated multiple combinations of bits per symbol and baud-rate for 200G line rate that provided granular control of spectral efficiency and Q-margin. This was demonstrated with the NCS 1004 operating as an alien wavelength over an existing third party SLTE platform running live traffic.

In addition, Cisco and Superloop announced two deployments of up to 400G for 4600km on the INDIGO West cable from Singapore to Australia, and the INDIGO Central cable from Perth to Sydney, featuring a two-fibre pair ‘open cable’ design with new spectrum sharing technology.

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Even though Submarine Network World will be virtual, we expect it to be an informative and interesting show – and we expect coherent technology to be a key topic to address growing bandwidth demand. To learn more about Acacia’s coherent optical solutions for submarine cable applications, contact us to set up a meeting.

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.

Achieving network optimization with 600G era coherent technology

The latest innovations in digital signal processing (DSP), optical, and mixed-signal component technologies have enabled the achievement of 600G-per-wavelength transmission speeds. High modulation orders (e.g., up to 64QAM) and high baud rates (e.g., up to ~70Gbaud) are now possible. In addition to this high speed achievement, these technologies also introduce advanced capabilities that allow the flexible fine-tuning of the optical transmission resulting in capacity optimization. Today’s coherent technology enables common optical hardware to achieve the high-performance finesse of a long-distance link, the sheer raw capacity for shorter DCI/edge links, and everything in between. This is the reason why some refer to 600G era coherent technology as multi-haul technology since the same set of hardware can address long-haul, metro, and DCI/edge networks.

Recently introduced, the Acacia AC1200 coherent module, powered by Acacia’s Pico DSP, a low-power solution based on 16 nm CMOS technology incorporates algorithms and processing power to address a wide range of applications. The AC1200 also includes a silicon photonics integrated circuit (PIC), and high-speed RF electronics to achieve 1.2Tbps capacity by using two wavelengths operating at 600Gbps each. The AC1200 is a leading product in the 600G era offering key capabilities that feature high-performance and high-flexibility, with the goal of enabling network operators to improve efficiency and maximize capacity utilization while reducing network costs.

Acacia recently published a white paper – Network Optimization in the 600G Era – that looks at long-haul, metro, and DCI/edge application and how the AC1200 provides benefits for each of these applications. Check it out to learn more.