ECOC 2019 industry reflections II

Gazettabyte requested the thoughts of industry figures after attending the ECOC show, held in Dublin. In particular, what developments and trends they noted, what they learned and what, if anything, surprised them. Input from II-VI, Ciena, Fujitsu Optical Components and Acacia Communications. The second and final part. 

Sanjai Parthasarathi, chief marketing officer at II-VI 

One new theme at ECOC is the demand for lower-cost 100-gigabit coherent transceivers for deployment in optical access for wireless access and fibre-deep cable TV. Such demand would significantly expand the market.

It was noteworthy at the show how 5G has become a significant factor influencing the wireless access market, with the potential for wide deployment of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology with wavelength switching and tuning functions, not only in traditional network architectures but interesting new ones too. 

This could drive significant demand for low-cost wavelength-selective switch (WSS) modules, tunable transceivers and 100-gigabit coherent transceivers, which is exciting.

As for surprises at the show, ECOC validated the view that developments in digital signal processor (DSP) technology for transceivers have accelerated to the point of having caught up with the state-of-the-art in photolithography, previously the province of DSPs for consumer electronics, high-performance computing and processors.

DSPs, for next-generation transceivers, are increasingly leveraging 7nm CMOS.

Patricia Bower, senior manager of product marketing at Ciena

A key talking point at ECOC was the state of play for 400 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). Form factors ‘right-sized’ for faceplate densities - QSFP-DD, for example - and developments in short-range optical signalling supporting 100 gigabit-per-lambda are enablers for this next-generation client rate.  

Market projections for 400GbE indicate a faster ramp for 400GbE than for 100GbE in previous years and that 400GbE client-side modules will ship in 2020 with broad, market-wide volumes ramping in 2021.  

In parallel, 400-gigabit DWDM is projected to grow very strongly. Starting in early 2020, deployments of 800 gigabit-capacity DWDM systems will enable the industry to efficiently transport 400GbE anywhere in the network, including transoceanic propagation.  

Following this, 400ZR will enable 400 gigabits-per-second over short point-to-point, single-span data centre interconnect links using coherent technology in the same compact QSFP-DD mechanical forms which will go hand-in-hand with the volume uptake of 400GbE.

Co-packaged optics

Discussions continued around approaches to package optics and electronics in switch-fabric ICs. 

The consensus was that the approach will be mainstream in future 51.2 terabits-per-second (Tbps) switch chips, a couple of iterations from where we are today.  

I learned more about the progress supporting wafer-scale manufacturability of co-packaged switch cores and optical input/ outputs, including on-chip laser integration. 

Consideration of the relative trade-offs among power dissipation, cost, thermal management, and reliability compared to off-chip lasers are key. Electrical signalling also remains key in this approach. Even moving data off a chip package optically, electrical intra-chip signaling to the switching core is still needed for what effectively is a multi-chip module or modular system-on-chip. 

Companies with key design skills in electrical and optical components will be best placed to address such designs.

I wasn’t surprised but pleased to see the progress by the industry for 400ZR demonstrated at the OIF booth. Various companies showed IC-TROSA electro-optic samples which is a contributing element for a 400ZR solution. 

Mechanical mock-ups of the intended module packages (QSFP-DD and OSFP) were also shown as well as a mock-up of a switch-router platform to highlight 400ZR integration. 

This level of progress is in line with the expected ramp-up of 400ZR in 2021.

Yukiharu Fuse, chief marketing officer, vice president/ general manager, business strategy division, Fujitsu Optical Components Limited

Several items were of interest at ECOC, but two I'd highlight are 400-gigabit coherent pluggable optics and XR Optics.

Vendors demonstrated the progress being made in the development of 400-gigabit coherent pluggable transceivers.

The key is their success is the development of a  low-power coherent digital signal processor (DSP) that fits within a QSFP-DD or OSFP module, and this now seems feasible. 

With this innovation, data centre operators will be able to install these modules in the slots used for client Ethernet, allowing the operators to support data centre interconnect without the need for transport gear.

The OIF-standardised 400ZR implementation will support linking data centres up to 120km apart using interoperable pluggable modules. The data centre operators also want longer reaches that ZR offers even if the power consumption of the transceiver inevitably goes up.

To address this, NEL and Acacia together with Lumentum and Fujitsu Optical Components introduced OpenZR+ to support longer distance links for data centre interconnect and other applications.

This will act as a potential de-facto standard with multi-source transceivers to support distances beyond ZR.

Such a development will be a big step for the data center operators, enabling wider coverage without the need for transport equipment.   

XR Optics

Infinera introduced at ECOC a new concept of point-to-multi-point communications for access and aggregation network, dubbed XR Optics. Using Nyquist subcarriers, XR Optics can distribute up to 16 points according to the bandwidth requirements.

This concept may create a new market for coherent optics that until now has focussed on high-capacity, point-to-point applications.

Infinera introduced at ECOC a technology not a product. It will be interesting to see how the technology evolves into products and the support it gets with the goal of creating a multi-source supply chain.

I'm curious about the concept, though, with the key being how to achieve low-cost coherent optics needed for access and aggregation networks. I will watch this development with interest. 

Tom Williams, vice president of marketing, Acacia Communications

We are seeing a trend toward increasing use of silicon photonics in client and transport optics. There are multiple approaches in the industry to address the challenges of power, size and cost, but silicon photonics has become established as an important technology for a variety of applications. 

We were also happy to see the positive feedback for the OpenZR+ solution that we, in collaboration with several other companies, defined at the show.

I’ve participated in the 400ZR effort and the CableLabs project to define a coherent interface in access networks, so I was interested to learn more about the Infinera XR optics proposal. I’m still trying to understand the details, but it’s always interesting to see a different approach to solving a technical challenge.

As for unexpected developments at the show, I was surprised how difficult it can be to get a taxi in Dublin when Ariana Grande is in town!