ECOC 2024 industry reflections - Part III
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 11:54AM Gazettabyte is asking industry figures for their thoughts after attending the recent 50th-anniversary ECOC show in Frankfurt. Here are contributions from Aloe Semiconductor's Chris Doerr, Hacene Chaouch of Arista Networks, and Lumentum's Marc Stiller.
Autumn morning near the ECOC congress centre in Frankfurt
If there was one overall message from ECOC 2024 this year, it is that incumbent technologies are winning in the communications market.
Copper is not giving up. It consumes less power and is cheaper than optics, and now, more electronics such as retimers are being applied to keep direct-attach copper (DAC) cables going. Also, 200-plus gigabaud (GBd) made a debut in coherent optics, but in intensity-modulation direct-detect (IMDD), 50GBd and 100GBd look like they are here to stay for several more years.
