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.

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Lumentum ships a 400G CFP2-DCO coherent module

Lumentum has started supplying customers with its CFP2-DCO coherent optical module. Operators use the pluggable to add an optical transport capability to equipment.

The company describes the CFP2-DCO as a workhorse; a multi-purpose pluggable for interface requirements ranging from connecting equipment in separate data centres to long-haul optical transmission.

Brandon CollingsThe module works at 100-, 200-, 300- and 400-gigabit line rates.

The pluggable also complies with the OpenROADM multi-source agreement. It thus supports the open Forward Error Correction (oFEC) standard, enabling interoperability with oFEC-compliant coherent modules from other vendors.

“Optical communications is getting more diverse and dynamic with the inclusion of the internet content providers (ICPs) alongside traditional telecom operators,” says Brandon Collings, CTO at Lumentum.

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WaveLogic 5: Packing a suitcase of ideas into 7nm CMOS

• Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 coherent digital signal processor family comprises the Extreme and Nano chips
• The WaveLogic 5 Extreme maximises optical capacity and transmission reach while the Nano is targeted at compact, power-conservative applications

Advancing coherent optical transmission performance to benefit its platforms; targeting the emerging coherent pluggable market opportunity; selling modules directly, and being more vertically integrated. All these aspects were outlined by Cisco to explain its intention to buy the coherent optical transmission specialist, Acacia Communications; a deal set to be completed in the spring of 2020.      

But this also fits the strategy being pursued by Ciena with its next-generation WaveLogic 5 family of coherent DSPs.

Kim Roberts

The WaveLogic 5 continues Ciena’s tradition of issuing a coherent digital signal processor (DSP) family approximately every three years: Ciena announced the WaveLogic 3 in 2012 and the WaveLogic Ai in 2016. 

Ciena has managed to maintain its three-yearly cadence despite the increasing sophistication of each generation of coherent DSP. For example, the WaveLogic 5 Extreme will support 800 gigabits-per-wavelength, double Ciena’s WaveLogic Ai that has been shipping for nearly two years. 

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Acacia bets on silicon as coherent enters its next phase

Gazettabyte interviewed Acacia Communications’ president and CEO, Murugesan ‘Raj’ Shanmugaraj, as the coherent technology company celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Acacia Communications has come a long way since Raj Shanmugaraj (pictured) first joined the company as CEO in early 2010. “It was just a few conference rooms and we didn't have enough chairs,” he says.

The company has since become a major optical coherent player with revenues of $340 million in 2018; revenues that would have been higher but for the four-month trade ban imposed by the US on Chinese equipment maker ZTE, an Acacia customer.

And as the market for coherent technology continues to grow, Acacia and other players are preparing for new opportunities. 

“We are still in the early stages of the disruption," says Shanmugaraj. “You will see higher performance [coherent systems] in some parts of the network but there is going to be growth as coherent moves closer to the network edge.” 

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Acacia eyes pluggables as it demos its AC1200 module

The emerging market opportunity for pluggable coherent modules is causing companies to change their strategies. 

Ciena is developing and plans to sell its own coherent modules. And now Acacia Communications, the coherent technology specialist, says it is considering changing its near-term coherent digital signal processor (DSP) roadmap to focus on coherent pluggables for data centre interconnect and metro applications. 

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Oclaro showcases its pluggable CFP2-DCO at ECOC

Multi-sourcing CFP2-DCO modules, coherent digital signal processor (DSP) partnerships, new laser opportunities and the latest on Lumentum’s acquisition of Oclaro. A conversation with Oclaro’s chief strategy officer, Yves LeMaitre.

Oclaro demonstrated its CFP2 Digital Coherent Optics (CFP2-DCO) pluggable module working with Acacia Communications’ own CFP2-DCO at the recent European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), held in Rome.

Yves LeMaitreOclaro announced earlier this year that it would use Acacia’s Meru coherent DSP for a CFP2-DCO product.

The company also announced at ECOC the availability of a portfolio of single-mode lasers that operate over an extended temperature range.

“We see two new laser opportunities for us,” says LeMaitre. “The upgrade of the access networks and, concurrently, the deployment of 5G.”

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Optical module trends: A conversation with Finisar

Finisar demonstrated recently a raft of new products that address emerging optical module developments. These include: 

• A compact coherent integrated tunable transmitter and receiver assembly 
• 400GBASE-FR8 and -LR8 QSFP-DD pluggable modules and a QSFP-DD active optical cable 
• A QSFP28 100-gigabit serial FR interface 
• 50-gigabit SFP56 SR and LR modules

Rafik Ward, Finisar’s general manager of optical interconnects, explains the technologies and their uses.

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