Lockheed Martin looks to pooling and optical I/O

Electronic systems must peer into ever-greater swathes of the electromagnetic spectrum to ensure a battlefield edge.

Michael HoffSuch electronic systems are used in ground, air, and sea vehicles and even in space.

The designs combine sensors and electronic circuitry for tasks such as radar, electronic warfare, communications and targeting.

Existing systems are custom designs undertaking particular tasks. The challenge facing military equipment makers is that enhancing such systems is becoming prohibitively expensive.

One proposed cost-saving approach is to develop generic radio frequency (RF) and sensor technology that can address multiple tasks.

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BT's IP-over-DWDM move

• BT will roll out next year IP-over-DWDM using pluggable coherent optics in its network
• At ECOC 2022, BT detailed network trials that involved the use of ZR+ and XR optics coherent pluggable modules

Telecom operators have been reassessing IP-over-DWDM with the advent of 400-gigabit coherent optics that plug directly into IP routers.

According to BT, using pluggables for IP-over-DWDM means a separate transponder box and associated 'grey' (short-reach) optics are no longer needed.

Until now, the transponder has linked the IP router to the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical line system.

"Here is an opportunity to eliminate unnecessary equipment by putting coloured optics straight onto the router," says Professor Andrew Lord, BT's head of optical networking.

Removing equipment saves power and floor space too.

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ECOC '22 Reflections - Final Part

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

In the final part, Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi of Coherent, Acacia’s Tom Williams, ADVA’s Jörg-Peter Elbers and Fabio Pittalà of Keysight Technologies share their thoughts.

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Data centre photonics - an ECOC report

• ECOC 2022 included talks on optical switching and co-packaged optics.
• Speakers discussed optical switching trends and Google's revelation that it has been using optical circuit switching in its data centres.
• Nvidia discussed its latest chips, how they are used to build high-performance computing systems, and why optical input-output will play a critical role.

Co-packaged optics and optical switching within the data centre were prominent topics at the recent ECOC 2022 conference and exhibition in Basel, Switzerland.

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ECOC '22 Reflections - Part 3

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. 

In Part 3, BT's Professor Andrew Lord, Scintil Photonics' Sylvie Menezo, Intel's Scott Schube, and Quintessent's Alan Liu share their thoughts.

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ADVA targets access with its latest pluggable module

• The 25 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) SFP28 is self-tuning and has a reach of 40km
• ADVA’s CEO, Christoph Glingener, in his plenary talk at ECOC 2022 addressed the unpredictable nature of technology adoption.

Saeid Aramideh

ADVA has expanded its portfolio of optical modules with an SFP28 for the access market.

The AccessWave25 is a self-tuning dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) pluggable.

The SFP28 is designed to enable communications service providers to straightforwardly upgrade their access networks from 10Gbps to 25Gbps.

ADVA made the announcement just before ECOC 2022.

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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. 

maytikka, Shutterstock.com

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.

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