ECOC '22 Reflections - Part 2

Gazettabyte is asking industry and academic figures for their thoughts after attending ECOC 2022, held in Basel, Switzerland. In particular, what developments and trends they noted, what they learned, and what, if anything, surprised them. 

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In Part 2, Broadcom‘s Rajiv Pancholy, optical communications advisor, Chris Cole, LightCouting’s Vladimir Kozlov, Ciena’s Helen Xenos, and Synopsys’ Twan Korthorst share their thoughts.

Rajiv Pancholy, Director of Hyperscale Strategy and Products Optical Systems Division, Broadcom*

The buzz at the show reminded me of 2017 when we were in Gothenburg pre-pandemic, and that felt nice.

Back then, COBO (Consortium for On-Board Optics) was in full swing, the CWDM8 multi-source agreement (MSA) was just announced, and 400-gigabit optical module developments were the priority.

This year, I was pleased to see the show focused on lower power and see co-packaged optics filter into all things ECOC.

Broadcom has been working on integrating a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) into our CMOS digital signal processor (DSP), and the 400-gigabit module demonstration on the show floor confirmed the power savings integration can offer.

Integration impacts power and cost but it does not stop there. It’s also about what comes after 2nm [CMOS], what happens when you run out of beach-front area, and what happens when the maximum power in your rack is not enough to get all of its bandwidth out.

It is the idea of fewer things and more efficient things that draws everyone to co-packaged optics.

The OIF booth showcased some of the excitement behind this technology that is no longer a proof-of-concept.

Moving away from networking and quoting some of the ideas presented this year at the AI Hardware Summit by Alexis Bjorlin, our industry needs to understand how we will use AI, how we will develop AI, and how we will enable AI.

These were in the deeper levels of discussions at ECOC, where we as an industry need to continue to innovate, disagree, and collaborate.

Chris Cole, Optical Communications Advisor

I don't have many substantive comments because my ECOC was filled with presentations and meetings, and I missed most of the technical talks and market focus presentations.

It was great to see a full ECOC conference. This is a good sign for OFC.

Here is an observation of what I didn't see. There were no great new silicon photonics products, despite continued talk about how great it is and the many impressive research and development results.

Silicon photonics remains a technology of the future. Meanwhile, other material systems continue to dominate in their use in products.

Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of LightCounting

I am surprised by the progress made by thin-film lithium niobate technology. There are five suppliers of these devices now: AFR, Fujitsu, Hyperlight, Liobate, and Ori-chip.

Many vendors also showed transceivers with thin-film lithium niobate modulators inside.

Helen Xenos, senior director of portfolio marketing at Ciena

One key area to watch right now is what technology will win for the next Ethernet rates inside the data centre: intensity-modulation direct detection (IMDD) or coherent.

There is a lot of debate and discussion happening, and several sessions were devoted to this topic during the ECOC Market Focus.

Twan Korthorst, Group Director Photonic Solutions at Synopsys.

My main observations are from the exhibition floor; I didn't attend the technical conference.

ECOC was well attended, better than previous shows in Dublin and Valencia and, of course, much better than Bordeaux (the first in-person ECOC in the Covid era).

I spent three days talking with partners, customers and potential customers, and I am pleased about that.

I didn't see the same vibe around co-packaged optics as at OFC; not a lot of new things there.

There is a feeling of what will happen with the semiconductor/ datacom industry. Will we get a downturn? How will it look? In other words, I noticed some concerns.

On the other hand, foundries are excited about the prospects for photonic ICs and continue to invest and set ambitious goals.