ECOC 2015 Review - Final Part

The second and final part of the survey of developments at the ECOC 2015 show held recently in Valencia.  

Part 2 - Client-side component and module developments   

• The first SWDM Alliance module shown
• More companies detail CWDM4, CLR4 and PSM4 mid-reach modules
• 400 Gig datacom technologies showcased
• The CFP8 MSA for 400 Gigabit Ethernet unveiled

The CFP MSA modules including the newest CFP8. Source: Finisar

• Lumentum and Kaiam use silicon photonics for mid-reach modules
• Finisar demonstrates a 10 km 25 Gig SFP28, and low-latency 25 Gig and 100 Gig SR4 interfaces 

Shortwave wavelength-division multiplexing

Finisar demonstrated the first 100 gigabit shortwave wavelength-division multiplexing (SWDM) module at ECOC. Dubbed the SWDM4, the 100 gigabit interface supports WDM over multi-mode fibre. Finisar showed a 40 version at OFC earlier this year. “This product [the SWDM4] provides the next step in that upgrade path,” says Rafik Ward, vice president of marketing at Finisar. 

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OFC 2014 product round-up - Final part

Part 2: Client-side technologies

The industry is moving at a clip to fill the void in 100 Gig IEEE standards for 100m to 2km links. Until now, the IEEE 10km 100GBASE-LR4 and the 10x10 MSA have been the interfaces used to address such spans.

But responding to data centre operators, optical players are busy developing less costly, mid-reach MSAs, as was evident at the OFC exhibition and conference, held in San Francisco in March. 

Meanwhile, existing IEEE 100 Gigabit standards are skipping to the most compact CFP4 and QSFP28 form factors. The -LR4 standard was first announced in a CFP in 2010, and moved to the CFP2, half the size of the CFP, in 2013. Now, several companies have detailed CFP4 -LR4 products, while Source Photonics has gone one better, announcing the standard in a QSFP28.

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