OFC 2015 digest: Part 1

A survey of some of the key developments at the OFC 2015 show held recently in Los Angeles.  

 

Part 1: Line-side component and module developments 

• Several vendors announced CFP2 analogue coherent optics   
• 5x7-inch coherent MSAs: from 40 Gig submarine and ultra-long haul to 400 Gig metro  
• Dual micro-ITLAs, dual modulators and dual ICRs as vendors prepare for 400 Gig
• WDM-PON demonstration from ADVA Optical Networking and Oclaro 
• More compact and modular ROADM building blocks  

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60-second interview with Infonetics' Andrew Schmitt

Market research firm Infonetics Research, now part of IHS Inc., has issued its 2014 summary of the global wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) equipment market. Andrew Schmitt, research director for carrier transport networking, in a Q&A with Gazettabyte.

Andrew Schmitt

Q: Infonetics claims the global WDM market grew 6% in 2014, to total US $10 billion. What accounted for such impressive growth in 2014?

AS: Primarily North American strength from data centre-related spending and growth in China.

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Is the tunable laser market set for an upturn?

Part 2: Tunable laser market

"The tunable laser market requires a lot of patience to research." So claims Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of LightCounting Market Research. Kozlov should know; he has spent the last 15 years tracking and forecasting lasers and optical modules for the telecom and datacom markets.

Source: LightCounting, Gazettabyte

The tunable laser market is certainly sizeable; over half a million units will be shipped in 2014, says LightCounting. But the market requires care when forecasting. One subtlety is that certain optical component companies - Finisar, JDSU and Oclaro - are vertically integrated and use their own tunable lasers within the optical modules they sell. LightCounting counts these as module sales rather than tunable laser ones.

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North American operators in an optical spending rethink

Optical transport spending by the North American operators dropped 13 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2014, according to market research firm Dell'Oro Group.

Operators are rethinking the optical vendors they buy equipment from as they consider their future networks. "Software-defined networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) - all the futuristic next network developments, operators are considering what that entails," says Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport research at Dell’Oro. "Those decisions have pushed out spending."

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OFC 2014 industry reflections - Part 1

Gazettabyte is asking industry figures for their thoughts following the recent OFC 2014 exhibition and conference: the noteworthy developments and trends, what they learnt at the show, and the topics to track in the coming year.  

T.J. Xia, distinguished member of technical staff at Verizon

The CFP2 form factor pluggable - analogue coherent optics (CFP2-ACO) at 100 and 200 Gig will become the main choice for metro core networks in the near future. 

I learnt that the discrete multitone (DMT) modulation format seems the right choice for a low-cost, single-wavelength direct-detection 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)  interface for data ports, and a 4xDMT for 400GbE ports. 

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Xtera demonstrates 40 Terabit using Raman amplification

Feature: 100 Gig and Beyond. Part 2

• Xtera's Raman amplification boosts capacity and reach
• 40 Terabit optical transmission over 1,500km in Verizon trial
• 64 Terabit over 1,500km in 2015 using a Raman module operating over 100nm of spectrum  

Herve Fevrier

Optical transport equipment makers continue to research techniques to increase the data carried long distances over a fibre without sacrificing reach. The techniques include signal processing of the transmit signal to cram data-carrying channels closer in the C-band, advanced soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) and receiver signal processing to counter transmission impairments.

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Verizon on 100G+ optical transmission developments

Source: Gazettabyte

Feature: 100 Gig and Beyond. Part 1:

Verizon's Glenn Wellbrock discusses 100 Gig deployments and higher speed optical channel developments for long haul and metro. 

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