Gazettabyte is asking industry figures for their thoughts after attending the recent 50th-anniversary ECOC show in Frankfurt. Here are contributions from Aloe Semiconductor's Chris Doerr, Hacene Chaouch of Arista Networks, and Lumentum's Marc Stiller.
Autumn morning near the ECOC congress centre in Frankfurt
If there was one overall message from ECOC 2024 this year, it is that incumbent technologies are winning in the communications market.
Copper is not giving up. It consumes less power and is cheaper than optics, and now, more electronics such as retimers are being applied to keep direct-attach copper (DAC) cables going. Also, 200-plus gigabaud (GBd) made a debut in coherent optics, but in intensity-modulation direct-detect (IMDD), 50GBd and 100GBd look like they are here to stay for several more years.
Pluggables are entrenching themselves more deeply. For large-scale co-packaged optics to unseat them seems further away than ever. The reason for the recent success of incumbent technologies is practicality. Large computing clusters and data centres need more bandwidth immediately, and there is not enough time to develop new technologies.
Probably the most significant practical constraint is power consumption. Communications is becoming a significant fraction of total power consumption, further driven by the desire to disaggregate to spread out the power consumption. Liquid cooling demonstrations are becoming commonplace.
Power consumption may limit the market as customers cannot obtain more power. This may mean the lowest power solution will win, making cost, complexity, and size secondary considerations.
Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer, Arista Networks
Unlike the 2023 edition, ECOC 2024 overwhelmingly and unanimously put power consumption on a pedestal.
Sleepwalking the last decade on incremental power-per-bit improvements, the AI boom has caught the optics industry off guard. Every extra Watt wasted on optics and the associated cooling systems matters since that power is not available to the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) that generate revenue.
In this context, seeing 30W 1.6-terabit digital signal processor (DSP) optical modules demonstrated at the show floor was disappointing. This is especially so when compared to 1.6-terabit linear pluggable optics (LPO) with prototypes consuming only 10W.
The industry must and can do better to address the power gap of 1.6-terabit DSP-based optics.
Marc Stiller, Lumentum's Vice President of Product Line Management, Cloud and Networking
ECOC 2024 saw AI emerge as a focal point for many discussions and technology drivers, continuing trends we observed at OFC earlier this year. ECOC showcased numerous new technologies and steady progress on products addressing the insatiable appetite for bandwidth.
LPO was visible, with steady advancements in performance and interoperability and a new multi-source agreement (MSA) pending. There was an overall emphasis on power efficiency and cooling solutions, driven by the increasing scale of machine learning/ AI clusters and the power availability to cool them.
Another focus was 1.6-terabit interfaces with multiple suppliers showcasing their progress. Electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) and silicon photonics solutions continue to evolve, with EMLs showing an early lead.
Other notable demonstrations emphasised breakthroughs in higher data rates and energy-efficient solutions, addressing the critical challenge of increasing memory bandwidth. Nvidia signalled their commitment to driving the pace of optics with a newly developed PAM4 DSP.
From a networking perspective, 800-gigabit is becoming the new standard, particularly with C- and L-bands gaining traction as the industry approaches the Shannon limit. Integration is more critical than ever for achieving power and cost efficiencies, especially as 800-gigabit ZR and ZR+ solutions become more prominent.
Lumentum showcased high-performance transceivers and provided critical insights into the future of networking at ECOC, reinforcing our leadership in driving these innovations forward.