JDSU's Brandon Collings on silicon photonics, optical transport & the tunable SFP+

JDSU's CTO for communications and commercial optical products, Brandon Collings, discusses reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), 100 Gigabit, silicon photonics, and the status of JDSU's tunable SFP+.

"We have been continually monitoring to find ways to use the technology [silicon photonics] for telecom but we are not really seeing that happen”

Brandon Collings, JDSU

Brandon Collings highlights two developments that summarise the state of the optical transport industry.

The industry is now aligned on the next-generation ROADM architecture of choice, while experiencing a ’heavy component ramp’ in high-speed optical components to meet demand for 100 Gigabit optical transmission.

The industry has converged on the twin wavelength-selective switch (WSS) route-and-select ROADM architecture for optical transport. "This is in large networks and looking forward, even in smaller sized networks," says Collings.

In a route-and-select architecture, a pair of WSSes reside at each degree of the ROADM. The second WSS is used in place of splitters and improves the overall optical performance by better suppressing possible interference paths.

JDSU showcased its TrueFlex portfolio of components and subsystems for next-generation ROADMs at the recent European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) show. The company first discussed the TrueFlex products a year ago. "We are now in the final process of completing those developments," says Collings.

Meanwhile, the 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) component market is progressing well, says Collings. The issues that interest him include next-generation designs such as a pluggable 100Gbps transmission form factor.

Direct detection and coherent

JDSU remains uncertain about the market opportunities for 100Gbps direct-detection solutions for point-to-point and metro applications. "That area remains murky," says Collings. "It is clearly an easy way into 100 Gig - you don't have to have a huge ASIC developed - but its long-term prospects are unclear."

The price point of 100Gbps direct-detection, while attractive, is competing against coherent transmission solutions which Collings describes as volatile. "As coherent becomes comparable [in cost], the situation will change for the 4x25 Gig [direct detection] quite quickly," he says. "Coherent seems to be the long-term, robust cost-effective way to go, capturing most of the market."

At present, coherent solutions are for long-haul that require a large, power-consuming ASIC. Equally the accompanying optical components - the lasers and modulators - are also relatively large. For the coherent metro market, the optics must become cheaper and smaller as must the coherent ASIC.

"If you are looking to put that [coherent ASIC and optics] into a CFP or CFP2, the problem is based on power; cost is important but power is the black-and-white issue," says Collings. Engineers are investigating what features can be removed from the long-haul solution to achieve the target 15-20W power consumption. "That is pretty challenging from an ASIC perspective and leaves little-to-no headroom in a pluggable," says Collings.

The same applies to the optics. "Is there a lesser set of photonics that can sit on a board that is much lower cost and perhaps has some weaker performance versus today's high-performance long-haul?" says Collings. These are the issues designers are grappling with.

Silicon photonics

Another area in flux is the silicon photonics marketplace. "It is a very fluid and active area," says Collings. "We are not highly active in the area but we are very active with outside organisations to keep track of its progress, its capabilities and its overall evolution in terms of what the technology is capable of."

The silicon photonics industry has shifted towards datacom and interconnect technology in the last year, says Collings. The performance levels silicon photonics achieves are better suited to datacom than telecom's more demanding requirements.  "We have been continually monitoring to find ways to use the technology for telecom but we are not really seeing that happen,” says Collings.

Tunable SFP+

JDSU demonstrated its tunable laser in an SFP+ pluggable optical module at the ECOC exhibition.

The company was first to market with the tunable XFP, claiming it secured JDSU an almost two-year lead in the marketplace. "We are aiming to repeat that with the SFP+," says Collings.

The SFP+ doubles a line card's interface density compared to the XFP module. The SFP+ supports both 10Gbps client-side and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) interfaces. "Most of the cards have transitioned from supporting the XFP to the SFP+," says Collings. This [having a tunable SFP+] completes that portfolio of capability."

JDSU has provided samples of the tunable pluggable to customers. "We are working with a handful of leading customers and they typically have a preference on chirp or no-chirp [lasers], APD [avalanche photo-diode] or no APD, that sort of thing," says Collings.

JDSU has not said when it will start production of the tunable SFP+. "It won't be long," says Collings, who points out that JDSU has been demonstrating the pluggable for over six months.  

The company plans a two-stage rollout. JDSU will launch a slightly higher power-dissipating tunable SFP+ "a handful of months" before the standard-complaint device. "The SFP+ standard calls for 1.5W but for some customers that want to hit the market earlier, we can discuss other options," says Collings. 

Further reading

A two-part interview with Brandon Collings: Part 1  Part 2