The era of 400G coherent pluggables finally emerges

Part 1: 7nm coherent DSPs, ZR and ZR+

The era of 400-gigabit coherent pluggable modules has moved a step closer with Inphi’s announcement of its Canopus coherent digital signal processor (DSP) and its QSFP-DD ColorZ II optical module. 

NeoPhotonics has also entered the fray, delivering first samples of its 400-gigabit ClearLight CFP2-DCO module that uses the Canopus DSP.

Pranay AiyaThe ColorZ II and ClearLight modules support the 400ZR OIF standard used to link data centres up to 120km apart. They also support extended modes, known as ZR+, that is not standardised.

ZR+’s modes include 400 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) over distances greater than 400ZR's 120km and lower data rates over metro-regional and long-haul distances.    

The announcements of the Canopus DSP and 400-gigabit pluggable coherent modules highlight the approaches being taken for ZR+. Optical module vendors are aligning around particular merchant DSPs such that interoperability exists but only within each camp.  

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Books in 2019

Gazettabyte asks industry figures each year to cite the memorable books they have read. These include fiction, non-fiction and work-related titles. 

Here are the choices of Cisco’s Bill Gartner, Sylvie Menezo of silicon photonics start-up, Scintil Photonics, and Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst at Cignal AI.  

Bill Gartner, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Optical Systems and Optics.

At the top of my list is The Gene: An Intimate History, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Mukherjee does an amazing job of telling the story of the gene, providing historical context dating back to pre-Darwin times through to modern advances in gene therapy. The material is complex but he is great at describing the evolution of thinking about genes and progress in the genome project in layman's terms. 

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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. 

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Deutsche Telekom’s edge for cloud gaming

Deutsche Telekom believes its network gives it an edge in the emerging game-streaming market. 

The operator is trialling a cloud-based service similar to the likes of Google and Microsoft.

The operator already offers IP TV and music as part of its entertainment offerings and will decide if gaming will be the third component. The operator will launch its MagentaGaming cloud-based service in 2020.  

“Since 2017, the biggest market in entertainment is gaming,” says Dominik Lauf, project lead, MagentaGaming at Deutsche Telekom.

Market research firms vary in their estimates but the global video gaming market was of the order of $138 billion in 2018 while the theatrics and home entertainment market totalled just under $100 billion for the same period.  

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ECOC 2019 industry reflections

Gazettabyte is asking industry figures for their thoughts after attending the recent ECOC show, held in Dublin. In particular, what developments and trends they noted, what they learned and what, if anything, surprised them. Here are the first responses from Huawei, OFS Fitel and ADVA.  

James Wangyin, senior product expert, access and transmission product line at Huawei  

At ECOC, one technology that is becoming a hot topic is machine learning. There is much work going on to model devices and perform optimisation at the system level.

And while there was much discussion about 400-gigabit and 800-gigabit coherent optical transmissions, 200-gigabit will continue to be the mainstream speed for the coming three-to-five years.  

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Lumentum on ROADM growth, ZR+, and 800G

CTO interview: Brandon Collings

• The ROADM market is experiencing a period of sustained growth  
• The Open ROADM MSA continues to advance and expand its scope
• ZR+ coherent modules will support some interoperability to avoid becoming siloed but optical performance differentiation remains key 

Source: Lumentum

Brandon Collings gave a Market Focus talk at the recent ECOC show in Dublin, where he explained why it is a good time to be in the reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) business. 

“Quantities are growing substantially and it is not one reason but a multitude of reasons,” says Collings. The CTO of Lumentum reckons the growth started some 18-24 months ago.  

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Gazettabyte’s 10th anniversary

Gazettabyte’s 10th anniversary passed quietly sometime in August. 

The work to create the website started earlier, as did the writing of the first stories to ensure there was content when the site went live in August 2009.

Gazettabyte has since published hundreds of stories and articles covering emerging technologies in the telecom and datacom industries. 

The stories highlight the many changes that have taken place over the last decade.

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