Ciena's multi-format 400G coherent QSFP-DD pluggable

Ciena showcased a working 400-gigabit Universal coherent pluggable module at the ECOC 2022 conference and exhibition in Basel, Switzerland.

Ciena is using its WaveLogic 5 Nano coherent digital signal processor (DSP) for the Universal QSFP-DD coherent pluggable module.

"We call it universal because it supports many transmission modes - interoperable and high performance; the most in the industry," says Helen Xenos, senior director of portfolio marketing at Ciena. 

A look inside Ciena's 400-gigabit Universal coherent pluggable module. TOF is the tunable optical filter. Source: Ciena

The pluggable has custom extended-performance modes and supports three industry formats: the 400ZR interoperable standard, the 400ZR+ multi-source agreement (MSA), and the OpenROADM MSA. (See tables below).

Click to read more ...

Huawei sets transmission record with new modulator

Coherent discourse: Part 1

A paper from Huawei and Sun Yat-Sen University in the January issue of the Optica journal describes a thin-film lithium niobate modulator. The modulator enabled a world-record coherent optical transmission, sending nearly 2 terabits of data over a single wavelength.

Maxim Kuschnerov

Much of the industry’s focus in recent years has been to fit coherent optical technology within a pluggable module.

Such pluggables allow 400-gigabit coherent interfaces to be added to IP routers and switches, serving the needs of the data centre operators and telecom operators.

But research labs of the leading optical transport vendors continue to advance high-end coherent systems beyond 800-gigabit-per-wavelength transmissions.

Optical transport systems from Ciena, Infinera and Huawei can send 800-gigabit wavelengths using a symbol rate of 96-100 gigabaud (GBd).

Acacia Communications, part of Cisco, detailed late last year the first 1.2-terabit single-wavelength coherent pluggable transceiver that will operate at 140GBd, twice the symbol rate of 400-gigabit modules such as 400ZR. 

Now Huawei has demonstrated in the lab a thin-film lithium niobate modulator that supports a symbol rate of 220GBd and beyond.

Click to read more ...

Nokia adds 400G coherent modules across its platforms

Nokia is now shipping its 400-gigabit coherent multi-haul CFP2-DCO. The module exceeds the optical performance of 400ZR and ZR+ coherent pluggables.

Nokia’s CFP2-DCO product follows its acquisition of silicon photonics specialist, Elenion Technologies, in 2020.

Serge Melle

Nokia has combined Elenion’s coherent optical modulator and receiver with its low-power 64-gigabaud (GBd) PSE-Vc coherent digital signal processor (DSP).

Nokia is also adding coherent pluggables across its platform portfolio.

“Not just optical transport and transponder platforms but also our IP routing portfolio as well,” says Serge Melle, director of product marketing, IP-optical networking at Nokia.

Click to read more ...

400-gigabit coherent modules finally hit their stride

NeoPhotonics discusses 400-gigabit coherent modules, the move to 130-gigabaud symbol-rate optical components and a company tunable laser milestone.

NeoPhotonics’ 400ZR pluggable optical modules are now available and will ship in volume from the autumn.

“The QSFP-DD and OSFP 400ZR [optical modules] have passed qualification tests and we are engaged in numerous customer qualifications around the world,” says Ferris Lipscomb, vice president of marketing at NeoPhotonics.

Ferris Lipscomb

400ZR modules implement the OIF’s 400-gigabit standard to connect directly equipment in data centres up to 120km apart without needing separate dedicated dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport equipment. The first 400ZR modules will be used by data centre operators.

But coherent pluggables support longer-reach modes. These may be interoperable if implementing the OpenZR+ multi-source agreement (MSA) or when delivering custom optical performance that are referred to as ZR+ modules.

NeoPhotonics has reported that its 400-gigabit coherent QSFP-DD when operated as a ZR+ module can achieve an 800km reach.

Click to read more ...

Lumentum talks switching & signalling developments

In detailing some of its recent product announcements and the associated optical networking trends, Lumentum provides useful pointers to watch out for at the upcoming OFC virtual conference and exhibition event in June.

Brandon Collings

Lumentum detailed recently its high-bandwidth coherent driver modulator (HB-CDM) that operates at a symbol rate up to 96 gigabaud (GBd).

"Lumentum is working with a decent number of network equipment makers (NEMs) on their high-performance coherent offerings using the HB-CDM component," says Brandon Collings, CTO of Lumentum.

The 96GBd device supports modulation formats from dual polarisation quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) to 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (DP-64QAM) and when used with an appropriate coherent digital signal processor (DSP), the device supports up to 800-gigabit wavelengths.

Click to read more ...

OIF addresses 800-gigabit coherent interfaces

The OIF has started work on 800-gigabit coherent interfaces, a follow-on to its 400-gigabit 400ZR specification work.

Two requirements are being addressed: an 800-gigabit dense wavelength division (DWDM) interface with a 80-120km span for data centre interconnect, and an unamplified single-channel fixed-wavelength 2-10km coherent link for campuses.

The need for 800 gigabit

Tad Hofmeister

“When we hit that 90 per cent mark on 400ZR, we had people stand up and say: ‘We are ready to start 800ZR’,” says Karl Gass, OIF, physical link layer working group – optical vice-chair.

But completing the work has taken time. “The first 90 per cent of a project takes about half the time and the last 10 per cent takes the other half,” says Gass.

So only in mid-2020 did the OIF’s attention turn to the new standard, starting with determining the use cases.

Click to read more ...

DT chooses Nokia for a major optical network upgrade

Deutsche Telekom is redesigning its domestic optical network and has chosen Nokia as its equipment supplier.

“They are re-architecting and rolling out, in a short time, a huge portion of their optical network,” says Kyle Hollasch, (pictured) director of optical portfolio marketing, Nokia. “We are displacing in many parts of the network four different vendors.”

Network architecture

Deutsche Telekom’s legacy mesh-based wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) network uses equipment from several vendors. In the last decade, Deutsche Telekom also added to the core an IP-optical solution from Cisco Systems.

Now, the CSP is replacing the mesh-WDM network and the Cisco IP-optical core with an OTN-WDM core from Nokia.

“They are unifying their traffic from all of their business services, government services, 5G anyhaul and the core IP network onto one core WDM network,” says Hollasch. 

Click to read more ...