OFC/NFOEC 2013 product round-up - Part 1
Part 1: Client-side transceivers
- First CFP2 single-mode and multi-mode transceiver announcements
- Cisco Systems unveils its CPAK module
- 100 Gigabit QSFPs from Kotura and Luxtera
- CFP2 and 40km CFP 10x10 MSA modules
- Infiniband FDR and 'LR4 superset' QSFPs
The recent OFC/NFOEC exhibition and conference held in Anaheim, California, saw a slew of optical transceiver announcements. The first CFP2 client-side products for single-mode and multi-mode fibre were unveiled by several companies, as was Cisco Systems' in-house CPAK transceiver.
The CFP2 is the pluggable form factor that follows the first generation CFP. The CFP MSA announced the completion of the CFP2 specification at the show, while several vendors including Avago Technologies, Finisar, Fujitsu Optical Components, NeoPhotonics, Oclaro and Oplink Communications detailed their first CFP2 products.
The 40 and 100 Gigabit CFP2 is half the size of the CFP, enabling at least a doubling of the CFP2 transceivers on a faceplate compared to four CFPs (see table below). The CFP2 is also future-proofed to support 200 and 400Gbps (See first comment at bottom of CFP2 story).
Another difference between the CFP and the CFP2 is that the CFP2 uses a 4x25Gbps electrical interface. Accordingly, the CFP2 does not need the 'gearbox' IC that translates between ten, 10 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) lanes to four, 25Gbps electrical lanes that interface to the 4x25/28Gbps optics. Removing the gearbox IC saves space and reduces the power consumption by several watts.
The industry has long settled on the SFP+ at 10Gbps while the QSFP has become the 40Gbps form factor of choice. With 100Gbps still in its infancy, transceiver vendors are pursuing several client-side interfaces. Much work will be needed to reduce the size, power consumption and cost of 100Gbps interfaces before the industry settles on a single pluggable form factor for the single-mode and multi-mode standards.
CFP2 announcements
Finisar demonstrated two CFP2 modules, one implementing the IEEE 100GBASE-LR4 10km standard and the other, the IEEE 100GBASE-SR10 100m multi-mode standard. The company is using directly-modulated, distributed feedback (DFB) lasers for its CFP2 LR4. In contrast, the CFP module uses more expensive, electro-absorption modulator lasers (EMLs). Finisar demonstrated interoperability between the two LR4 modules, an EML-based CFP and a DFB-based CFP2, at the show.
* An ER4 CFP2 is under development
** Oclaro disclosed indium phosphide components for a future CFP2 line side pluggable
Using directly modulated lasers also reduces the power consumption, says Finisar. Overall, the CFP2 LR4 consumes 7W compared to a 24W first-generation CFP-based LR4.
"We can migrate these [directly modulated laser] designs to a single quad 28 Gig photonic integrated circuit TOSA," says Rafik Ward, Finisar's vice president of marketing. "Likewise on the receive [path], there will be a quad 28 Gig ROSA." The TOSA refers to a transmitter optical sub-assembly while the ROSA is the receiver equivalent. Ward says the CFP2s will be in production this year.
Several module and chip makers took part in the Optical Internetworking Forum's (OIF) multi-vendor demonstration of its 4x25 Gigabit chip-to-module electrical interface, the CEI-28G-VSR. The demonstration included CFP2 LR4s from Finisar and from Oclaro as well as Luxtera's 100Gbps shorter reach module in a QSFP28. Oclaro's CFP2 is expected to be in production in the third quarter of 2013.
Another standard implemented in the CFP2 is the 100GBASE-SR10 multi-mode standard. Avago Technologies and Finisar both detailed CFP2 SR10 modules. The SR10 uses 10 VCSELs, each operating at 10Gbps. The SR10 can be used as a 100Gbps interface or as 10 independent 10Gbps channels.
The CFP2 SR10 can be interfaced to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) SFP+ modules or combinations of 10GbE SFP+ and 40GbE QSFPs. "What people are looking for using the CFP2 multi-mode module is not only for the 100 Gig Ethernet application but interoperability with 40 Gig Ethernet as well as 10 Gig Ethernet modules," says I Hsing Tan, Ethernet segment marketing manager in the fibre optics product division at Avago.
The SR10 electrical interface specification supports retiming and non-retiming options. The Avago CFP2 module includes clock data recovery ICs that can be used for retiming if needed or bypassed. The result is that Avago's CFP2 SR10 consumes 4-6W, depending on whether the clock data recovery chips are bypassed or used.
Meanwhile, NeoPhotonics became the first company to announce the 10x10 MSA in a CFP2.
NeoPhotonics has not detailed the power consumption but says the 10x10Gbps CFP2 is lower than the CFP since all of the chips - photonic and electrical - are a newer generation and much work has gone into reducing the power consumption.
"Demand is quite strong for the 10x10 solution," says Ferris Lipscomb, vice president of marketing at NeoPhotonics. "The CFP2 version is being developed, and we expect strong demand there as well."
The key advantage of the 10x10-based solution over a 4x25Gbps design is cost, according to NeoPhotonics. "10x10 enjoys the volume and maturity of 10 Gig, and thus the cost advantage," says Lipscomb. "We believe the 10x10 CFP2 will follow the trend of the 10x10 MSA CFP and will offer a significant cost advantage over CFP2 LR4-based solutions."
Cisco's CPAK
Cisco finally showed its in-house silicon photonics-based CPAK transceiver at OFC/NFOEC. The CPAK is the first product to be announced following Cisco's acquisition of silicon photonics player, LightWire.
Cisco says the CPAK is more compact than the CFP2 transceiver with the company claiming that 12 or more transceivers will fit on a faceplate. "While the industry is leapfrogging the CFP with the CFP2, our CPAK leapfrogs the CFP2 because it is much more efficient from a size and power consumption perspective," says Sultan Dawood, a marketing manager at Cisco.
Vendors backing the CFP2 stress that the CPAK is only slighter smaller than the MSA module. "The CFP2 and the CPAK are both interim form factors pending when the CFP4 becomes available." says Avago's Tan. "Any product [like the CFP2] governed by an MSA is going to see strong market adoption."
Cisco's CPAK transceiver Source: Cisco
The CFP4 specification is still being worked on but 16 CFP4s will fit on a faceplate and the transceiver is scheduled for the second half of 2014.
At OFC, Cisco demonstrated the CPAK implementing the 100GBASE-LR4 and -SR10 standards. The CPAK transceiver will be generally available in the summer of 2013, says Cisco.
CFP
Oplink Communication and hybrid integration specialist, Kaiam, showed a 100Gbps 10x10 MSA CFP implementing a 40km extended reach.
The 10x10 40km CFP is for connecting data centres and for broadband backhaul applications. The CFP electro-absorption modulator lasers coupled to a wavelength multiplexer make up the TOSA while the ROSA comprises avalanche photodiode receivers and a demultiplexer. Samples will be available in the second quarter of 2013, with production starting in the third quarter.
Source Photonics announced a second-generation 100GBASE-LR4 CFP with a power consumption of 12-14W.
Meanwhile, Effdon Networks detailed its first 100Gbps product, a CFP with a reach of 80km. Until now 100Gbps CFPs have been limited largely to 10km LR4 while the first 100Gbps CFPs with a reach of 80km or greater being 4x25Gbps direct-detection designs that can include specialist ICs.
100 Gig QSFP
Luxtera and Kotura, both detailed 100 Gigabit QSFPs that use their respective silicon photonics technology. The Kotura design uses two chips, has a reach of 2km and is a four-channel wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) design while the Luxtera design is a four-channel integrated transceiver that uses a single laser and is tailored for 500m although Luxtera says it can achieve a 2km reach.
40 Gigabit Ethernet and Infiniband FDR
Avago Technologies announced that its eSR4 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) QSFP+ has a reach of up to 550m, beyond the reach specified by the IEEE 40GBASE-SR4 standard. The eSR4 supports 40GbE or four independent 10GbE channels. When used as a multi-channel 10GbE interface, the QSFP+ interfaces to various 10GbE form factors such as X2, XFP and SFP+, It can also interface to a 100GbE CFP2, as mentioned.
Avago first announced the eSR4 QSFP+ with a reach of 300m over OM3 multi-mode fibre and 400m over OM4 fibre. The eSR4 now extends the reach to a guaranteed 550m when used with specific OM4 fibre from fibre makers Corning, Commscope and Panduit.
The extended reach is needed to address larger data centres now being build, as well as support flatter switch architectures that use two rather than three tiers of switches, and that have greater traffic flowing between switches on the same tier.
Avago says data centre managers are moving to deploy OM4 fibre. "The end user is going to move from OM3 to OM4 fibre for future-proofing purposes," says Tan. "The next-generation 32 Gig Fibre Channel and 100 Gigabit Ethernet are focussing on OM4 fibre."
Meanwhile, ColorChip showed its 56Gbps QSFP+ implementing the FDR (Fourteen Data Rate) 4x Infiniband standard as part of a Mellanox MetroX long-haul system demonstration at the show.
Finisar also demonstrated a 40Gbps QSFP using four 1310nm VCSELs. The result is a QSFP with a 10km reach that supports a 40Gbps link or four, 10Gbps links when used in a 'breakout' mode. The existing 40GBASE-LR4 standard supports a 40Gbps link only. Finisar's non-standard implementation adds a point-to-multipoint configuration.
"A single form factor port can be used not only for 40 Gig but also can enable higher density 10 Gig applications than what you can do with SFP+," says Ward.
Kaiam detailed a 40Gbps QSFP+ ER4 transceiver having a 40km reach. The QSFP+ transceiver has the equivalent functionality of four DML-based SFP+s fixed on a coarse WDM grid, and includes a wavelength multiplexer and de-multiplexer.
For OFC/NFOEC 2013 - Part 2, click here
Further reading
LightCounting: OFC/NFOEC review: news from the show floor, click here
Ovum: Cisco hits both show hot buttons with silicon photonics for 100G, click here
OneChip Photonics targets the data centre with its PICs
OneChip Photonics is developing integrated optical components for the IEEE 40GBASE-LR4 and 100GBASE-LR4 interface standards.
The company believes its photonic integrated circuits (PICs) will more than halve the cost of the 40 and 100 Gigabit 10km-reach interfaces, enough for LR4 to cost-competitively address shorter reach applications in the data centre.
"I think we can cut the price [of LR4 modules] by half or better”
Andy Weirich, OneChip Photonics
The products mark an expansion of the Canadian startup's offerings. Until now OneChip has concentrated on bringing PIC-based passive optical network (PON) transceivers to market.
LR4 PICs
The startup is developing separate LR4 transmitter and receiver PICs. The 40 and 100GBASE-LR4 receivers are due in the third quarter of 2012, while the transmitters are expected by the year end.
The 40GBASE-LR4 receiver comprises a wavelength demultiplexer - a 4-channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) - and four photo-detectors operating around 1300nm. A spot-size converter - an integrated lens - couples the receiver's waveguide's mode field to the connecting fibre.
"[Data centre operators] are saying that they are having to significantly bend out of shape their data centre architecture to accommodate even 300m reaches”
The 40GBASE-LR4 transmitter PIC comprises four directly-modulated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers while the 100GBASE-LR4 use four electro-absorption modulator DFB lasers. Different lasers for the two PICs are required since the four wavelengths at 100 Gig, also around 1300nm, are more tightly spaced: 5nm versus 20nm. "They are much closer together than the 40 Gig version,” says Andy Weirich, OneChip Photonics' vice president of product line management.
Another consequence of the wider wavelength spacings is that the 40 Gig transmitter uses four discrete lasers. “Because the 40 Gig wavelengths are much further apart, putting all the lasers on the one die is problematic," says Weirich. The 40GBASE-LR4 design thus uses five indium phosphide components: four lasers and the AWG, while the 40GBASE-LR4 receiver and the two 100GBASE-LR4 devices are all monolithic PICs.
Both LR4 transmitter designs also include monitor photo-diodes for laser control
Lower size and cost
OneChip says the resulting PICs are tiny, measuring less than 3mm in length. “We think the PICs will enable the packaging of LR4 in a QSFP,” says Weirich. 40GBASE-LR4 products already exists in the QSFP form factor but the 100GBASE-LR4 uses a CFP module.
The startup expects module makers to use its receiver chips once they become available rather than wait for the receiver-transmitter PIC pair. "Reducing the size of one half the solution is possibly good enough to fit the whole hybrid design - the PIC for the receive and discretes for the transmit - into a QSFP,” says Weirich.
The PICs are expected to reduce significantly the cost of LR4 modules. "I think we can cut the price by half or better,” says Weirich. “Right now the LR4 is far too expensive to be used for data centre interconnect.” OneChip expects its LR4 PICs to be cost-competitive with the 2km reach 10x10 MSA interface.
Meanwhile, short-reach 40 and 100 Gig interfaces use VCSEL technology and multi-mode fibre to address 100m reach requirements. In larger data centres this reach is limiting. Extended reach - 300-400m - multimode interfaces have emerged but so far these are at 40 Gig only.
"[Data centre operators] are saying that they are having to significantly bend out of shape their data centre architecture to accommodate even 300m reaches,” says Weirich. “They really want more than that.”
OneChip believes interfaces distances of 200m-2km is underserved and it is this market opportunity that it is seeking to address with its LR4 designs.
Roadmap
Will OneChip integrate the design further to product a single PIC LR4 transceiver?
"It can be put into one chip but it is not clear that there is an economic advantage,” says Weirich. Indeed one PIC might even be more costly than the two-PIC chipset.
Another factor is that at 100 Gig, the 25Gbps electronics present a considerable signal integrity design challenge. “It is very important to keep the electronics very close to the photo-detectors and the modulators,” he says. “That becomes more difficult if you put it all on the one chip.” The fabrication yield of a larger single PIC would also be reduced, impacting cost.
OneChip, meanwhile, has started limited production of its PON optical network unit (ONU) transceivers based on its EPON and GPON PICs. The company's EPON transceivers are becoming generally available while the GPON transceivers are due in two months’ time.
The company has yet to decide whether it will make its own LR4 optical modules. For now OneChip is solely an LR4 component supplier.
Further reading:
See OFC/ NFOEC 2012 highlights, the Kotura story in the Optical Engines section
40 Gigabit Ethernet QSFPs boost port density and reach
"For the larger data centres being built today, reach is becoming more and more important"
I Hsing Tan, Avago
Avago’s eSR4 QSFP+ transceiver extends the reach of 40GbE over multimode fibre beyond the IEEE 40GBASE-SR4 specification, to 300m over OM3 and 400m over OM4 multimode fibre.
Reflex Photonics’ 40GbE QSFP also achieves 300m over OM3 fibre and while it has not tested the transceiver over OM4 fibre, the company is using the same optics that it uses for its CFP which meets 450m over OM4.
“This [QSFP] is aimed at large data centres operated by the likes of a Google or a Facebook,” says Robert Coenen, vice president, sales and marketing at Reflex Photonics. Such data centres can have link requirements of 1000m. “The more reach you can give over multimode fibre, the more money they [data centre operators] can save.”
The eSR4, like Avago's already announced iSR4 (interoperable SR4) 40GbE QSFP+ transceiver, supports either 40GbE or four independent 10GbE channels. When used as a multichannel 10GbE interface, the QSFP+ can interface to various 10GbE form factors such as X2, XFP and SFP+, says Avago.
The iSR4 also increases the faceplate port density of equipment from 48, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) SFP+ ports to up to 44 QSFP+ 40GbE ports. Avago says that one equipment vendor has already announced a card with 36 QSFP+ ports. The iSR4 QSFP+ also reduces the overall Gigabit/Watt power consumption to 37.5mW/Gbps compared to 100mW /Gbps for the SFP+. The eSR4 has half the power consumption, which puts it around 50mW/Gbps.
But the iSR4 matches the reach of the IEEE 40GBASE-SR4 40GbE standard: 100m for OM3 and 150m for OM4-based fibre. "This [reduced reach at 40GbE] creates an issue for data centre operations," says I Hsing Tan, Ethernet segment marketing manager in the fiber optics product division at Avago. "They require additional investment to redo all the wiring in current 10GbE infrastructure to support a shorter reach."
With the extended reach 40GbE QSFPs the reach associated with 10GbE interfaces on OM3 and OM4 multimode fibre is now restored.
The iSR4 module is available now, says Avago, while the eSR4 will be available from mid-2012. Reflex’s Coenen says it will have samples of its 40GbE QSFP, which also supports 40GbE and 4x10GbE, by May 2012.
What has been done
For Avago's iSR4 QSFP+ to operate as four, 10GbE channels, it has to comply with the 10GBASE-SR optical standard. That is because 10GBASE-SR supports a maximum receive power of -1dBm whereas the 40GBASE-SR4 has a maximum output power of 2.4dBm. The transmitter power of the iSR4 has thus been reduced. "We force the output of the transmitter down to -1dBm," says Tan.
To achieve the greater reach, the eSR4 uses a VCSEL design with a tighter spectral width. Other parameters include the optical modulation amplitude power and the wavelength. These affect the resulting fibre dispersion. “Once you control the spectral width, you can design the other two to meet the specs," says Tan.
The Avago 40GbE QSFP+ modules use an integrated 4- channel VCSEL array and a 4-channel photo-detector array.
Significance
The 40GbE short reach interfaces play an important role in the data centre. As servers move from using 1GbE to 10GbE interfaces, the uplink from aggregation 'top-of-rack' switches must also scale from 10GbE to higher speeds of 40GbE or 100GbE.
However existing 100GbE interfaces make use of the CFP module which is relatively large and expensive. And although the 100GbE standard has a clear roadmap leading to CFP2 and CFP4 modules, half and a quarter of the size of the CFP, respectively, these are not yet available.
40GbE QSFP+ transceivers do exist and offer the equipment faceplate density improvement vendors want.
The QSFP+ also benefits existing 10GbE designs by supporting nearly 4x the number of 10GbE on a card. Thus a new blade supporting up to 44, 40GbE QSFP+ transceivers can interface to up to 176 10GbE transceivers, a near fourfold capacity increase.
According to Avago, between 10% and 20% of interface requirements in the data centre are beyond 150m. Without the advent of extended reach 40GbE modules, data centre operators would need to deploy single mode fibre and a 40GBASE-LR4 module, it says. And while that can be fitted inside a QSFP, its power consumption is up to 3.5W, compared to the 1.5W of the QSFP+ eSR4. "The cost of the LR4 is also increased by at least a factor of three," says Tan.
Avago says that some 95% of all fibre in the data centre is multimode fibre. As for OM3 and OM4 deployments the ratio is 80% to 20%, respectively.
ECOC 2011: Products and market trends
There were several noteworthy announcements at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) held in Geneva in September. Gazettabyte spoke to Finisar, Oclaro and Opnext about their ECOC announcements and the associated market trends.
100 Gig module
Opnext announced the first 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) transponder at ECOC, a much anticipated industry development.
"Quite a few system vendors .... are looking at 'make-versus-buy' for the next-generation [of 100 Gig]."
Ross Saunders, Opnext
The OTM-100 is a dual-polarisation, quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) coherent design that fits into a 5x7-inch module and meets the Optical Internetworking Forum's (OIF) multi-source agreement (MSA). The module's coherent receiver uses a digital signal processor (DSP) developed by NTT Electronics.
"At the moment we are going through the bring-up in the lab," says Ross Saunders, general manager, next-gen transport for Opnext Subsystems.
According to Opnext, system vendors that have their own 100Gbps coherent designs are also interested in the 100Gbps module.
"There are a few developing in-house [100Gbps designs] that are not interested in going for the module solution," says Saunders. "But there is another camp - quite a few system vendors - who have their first-generation solution that are looking at 'make-versus-buy' for the next-generation."
System vendors' first-generation 100Gbps designs use hard-decision forward error correction (FEC). But customers want a 100Gbps design with a reach that gets close to matching that of 10Gbps, 40Gbps DPSK and 40Gbps coherent designs, says Opnext.
"There is demand to go to the next-generation with its higher overhead and soft-decision FEC," says Saunders. "That [soft-decision FEC] buys another 2-3dB of performance so you don't need as many regeneration stages." Translated into distances, the reach using soft-decision FEC is 1500-1600km rather than 800-900km, says Saunders.
Opnext expects to deliver samples to lead customers before the year end.
Meanwhile, Oclaro is also developing a 100Gbps coherent module. "It is on track and we expect to ship in early 2012," says Per Hansen, vice president of product marketing, optical networks solutions at Oclaro.
100 Gig receiver
Oclaro announced an integrated 100Gbps coherent receiver at ECOC.
The company claims the device takes less than half the board area as defined by the OIF. "Board space is at a premium on line cards," says Robert Blum, director of product marketing for Oclaro's photonic components. "If you can increase functionality, that translates to lower cost."
100 Gig indium phosphide integrated receiver Source: OclaroThe device has two inputs and four outputs. The inputs are the received 100Gbps optical signal and the local oscillator and the outputs are from the four balanced detectors.
"The entire 90-degree hybrid mixing and the photo detection are all done in an indium phosphide single chip," says Blum.
40 Gig modules
Oclaro also announced it is shipping in volume its 40Gbps coherent transponder.
"There is a lot of interest from equipment vendors and service providers to use coherent in their networks," says Hansen "Coherent has advantages in the way it can overcome impairments."
Hansen says coherent will be used in the majority of new network deployments in future: "If you are deploying a network that is geared to 40Gbps and above, people will most likely deploy an all-coherent solution."
One reason why coherent is favoured is that the same technology can be scaled to 100Gbps, 400Gbps and even a Terabit.
Coherent technology, whose DSP is used for dispersion compensation, is also suited for mesh networks where switching wavelengths occurs. The coherent technology can compensate when it encounters new dispersion conditions following the switching.
In contrast 40Gbps direct-detection modules interest vendors for use in existing networks alongside 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps wavelengths, says Oclaro.
For networks geared to 40Gbps and above, people will most likely deploy an all-coherent solution
Per Hansen, Oclaro
"They can have very high power which can make it difficult for a new [high-speed] channel to live next to them but direct-detection modules are robust for those types of applications," says Hansen. "Where you will see people upgrading their existing networks, they will use DPSK or DQPSK transponders."
But Oclaro says that the split is not that clear-cut: 40Gbps coherent for new builds and direct-detection schemes when used alongside existing 10Gbps wavelengths. "There is a lot of variability in both of these approaches such that you can tailor them to different applications," says Hansen. "In the end, what it will come down to is what the customer is happy with and the price points, more than fundamental technology capabilities."
40G client-side interfaces
Finisar demonstrated at ECOC a serial 40Gbps CFP module that meets the 2km 40GBASE-FR standard.
"This will be the first 40 Gig serial module that is in a pluggable form factor," says Rafik Ward, vice president of marketing at Finisar. Indeed Finisar's CFP is a tri-rate design that also supports the ITU-T OC-768 SONET/SDH very short reach (VSR) and OTU3 standards.
The FR interface is the IEEE's 40 Gigabit Ethernet equivalent of the existing OC-768 VSR interface. The original 300pin VSR interface has a 16-channel electrical interface, each operating at 2.5Gbps, while the CFP module uses 10Gbps electrical channels.
IP routers can now be connected to DWDM platforms using the pluggable module, says Finisar. The pluggable will also enable system vendors to design denser line cards with two or even four CFP interfaces, as well as the option of changing the CFP to support other standards as required.
The tri-rate FR pluggable module's power consumption will be below 8W, says Finisar, which is shipping samples to customers.
Meanwhile, Opnext has announced it is sampling its 40GBASE-LR4, the 10km 40 Gigabit Ethernet interface, in a QSFP module. "It will be readily available by the end of the year," says Jon Anderson, director of technology programme at Opnext.
"The 40GBASE-LR4 [QSFP] will be readily available by the end of the year"
Jon Anderson, Opnext
Tunable laser XFP
Opnext and Oclaro have both announced 10Gbps tunable XFPs at ECOC. Having two new suppliers of tunable XFPs joining JDS Uniphase will increase market competition and reduce the price of the tunable pluggable.
"It really is a replacement for 300-pin transponders," says Blum. "You can now migrate 10Gbps links to a pluggable form factor."
Oclaro's tunable XFP is released for production. Opnext says its tunable XFP will be in volume production by early 2012.
ROADMs get 1x20 WSS
Finisar announced a 1x20 high-port count wavelength selective switch (WSS). The WSS supports a flexible spectrum grid that allows the channel width to be varied in increments of 12.5GHz, enabling future line rates above 100Gbps to be supported.
"This [1x20 WSS] has the possibility to enable some pretty interesting applications for next generation - colourless, directionless, contentionless networks," says Ward.
"This [40GBASE-FR] will be the first 40 Gig serial module that is in a pluggable form factor"
Rafik Ward, Finisar.
One common application of the 1x20 WSS is implementing a multi-degree node. The degree refers to the number of points that node branches out to in a mesh network, says Finisar. "The fundamental question is how many ports do you have in that node?" explains Ward.
For example, an 8-degree node communicates with eight other points in the mesh. With a 1x20 WSS, the architecture uses eight of the 20 as express ports - those 8 ports interfacing with other WSSs in the node - while the remaining 12 ports on that 1x20 WSS are used as add and drop ports.
"The advantage of a 1x20 WSS in this case is enabling a large number of express ports and a large number of add ports," says Ward.
A second application is for colourless or tunable multiplexing.
"One of the problems today enabling colourless ROADM operation is that typically the muxes and demuxes used are AWGs," says Ward. Having a tunable laser is all well and good but it becomes hardwired to a specific port because of the arrayed waveguide grating (AWG). "That specific port is configured for that particular wavelength," he says.
To make an 80-channel colourless design, that does not require manual intervention, four 1x20 WSSs are placed side-by-side with a 1x4 WSS connecting the four. This is a more elegant and compact than using existing 1x9 WSSs, which requires more than twice as many WSS units.
Pump lasers
Oclaro announced two 980nm pump laser products that enable more compact, lower-power amplifier designs.
"Board space is at a premium on line cards"
Robert Blum, Oclaro
One is an uncooled 980nm 500mW pump laser and the second is two 600mW pump lasers in a single package. The dual-pump laser product halves the footprint and requires a single thermo-electric cooler only.
"The power consumption is significantly lower than what it would be for two discrete pump lasers," says Blum. "The 300mW uncooled pump laser doesn't go away but for dual-stage or mid-stage optical amplifiers instead of using multiple [300mW] lasers, you can use a single package," says Blum.
GPON-on a-stick
Finisar announced a 'GPON-on-a-stick' SFP module. The result of its acquisition of Broadway Networks in 2010, the SFP-based GPON optical network unit (ONU) enables an Ethernet switch to be connected to a PON. The product is aimed at enterprises as well as large residential premises. The GPON stick complements the company's existing EPON stick.
Further information:
ECOC 2011 Market focus presentations, click here
Rapid progress in optical transport seen at ECOC 2011, Ovum's Karen Liu, click here
Finisar and Capella enter 1×20 WSS market; signals shift, Ovum's Daryl Inniss, click here
Q&A with Rafik Ward - Part 1
"This is probably the strongest growth we have seen since the last bubble of 1999-2000." Rafik Ward, Finisar
Q: How would you summarise the current state of the industry?
A: It’s a pretty fun time to be in the optical component business, and it’s some time since we last said that.
We are at an interesting inflexion point. In the past few years there has been a lot of emphasis on the migration from 1 to 2.5 Gig to 10 Gig. The [pluggable module] form factors for these speeds have been known, and involved executing on SFP, SFP+ and XFPs.
But in the last year there has been a significant breakthrough; now a lot of the discussion with customers are around 40 and 100 Gig, around form factors like QSFP and CFP - new form factors we haven’t discussed before, around new ways to handle data traffic at these data rates, and new schemes like coherent modulation.
It’s a very exciting time. Every new jump is challenging but this jump is particularly challenging in terms of what it takes to develop some of these modules.
From a business perspective, certainly at Finisar, this is probably the strongest growth we have seen since the last bubble of 1999-2000. It’s not equal to what it was then and I don’t think any of us believes it will be. But certainly the last five quarters has been the strongest growth we’ve seen in a decade.
What is this growth due to?
There are several factors.
There was a significant reduction in spending at the end of 2008 and part of 2009 where end users did not keep up with their networking demands. Due to the global financial crisis, they [service providers] significantly cut capex so some catch-up has been occurring. Keep in mind that during the global financial crisis, based on every metric we’ve seen, the rate of bandwidth growth has been unfazed.
From a Finisar perspective, we are well positioned in several markets. The WSS [wavelength-selective switch] ROADM market has been growing at a steady clip while other markets are growing quite significantly – at 10 Gig, 40 Gig and even now 100 Gig. The last point is that, based on all the metrics we’ve seen, we are picking up market share.
Your job title is very clear but can you explain what you do?
I love my job because no two days are the same. I come in and have certain things I expect to happen and get done yet it rarely shapes out how I envisaged it.
There are really three elements to my job. Product management is the significant majority of where I focus my efforts. It’s a broad role – we are very focussed on the products and on the core business to win market share. There is a pretty heavy execution focus in product management but there is also a strategic element as well.
The second element of my job is what we call strategic marketing. We spend time understanding new, potential markets where we as Finisar can use our core competencies, and a lot of the things we’ve built, to go after. This is not in line with existing markets but adjacent ones: Are there opportunities for optical transceivers in things like military and consumer applications?
One of the things I’m convinced of is that, as the price of optical components continues to come down, new markets will emerge. Some of those markets we may not even know today, and that is what we are finding. That’s a pretty interesting part of my job but candidly I spend quite a bit less time on it [strategic marketing] than product management.
The third area is corporate communications: talking to media and analysts, press releases, the website and blog, and trade shows.
"40Gbps DPSK and DQPSK compete with each other, while for 40 Gig coherent its biggest competitor isn’t DPSK and DQPSK but 100 Gig."
Some questions on markets and technology developments.
Is it becoming clearer how the various 40Gbps line side optics – DPSK, DQPSK and coherent – are going to play out?
The situation is becoming clearer but that doesn’t mean it is easier to explain.
The market is composed of customers and end users that will use all of the above modulation formats. When we talk to customers, every one has picked one, two or sometimes all three modulation formats. It is very hard to point to any trend in terms of picks, it is more on a case-by-case basis. Customers are, like us at the component level, very passionate about the modulation format that they have chosen and will have a variety of very good reasons why a particular modulation format makes sense.
Unlike certain markets where you see a level of convergence, I don’t think that there will be true convergence at 40 Gbps. Coherent – DP-QPSK - is a very powerful technology but the biggest challenge 40 Gig has with DP-QPSK is that you have the same modulation format at 100 Gig.
The more I look at the market, 40Gbps DPSK and DQPSK compete with each other, while for 40 Gig coherent its biggest competitor isn’t DPSK and DQPSK but 100 Gig.
Finisar has been quiet about its 100 Gig line side plans, what is its position?
We view these markets - 40 and 100 Gig line side – as potentially very large markets at the optical component level. Despite that fact that there are some customers that are doing vertical integrated solutions, we still see these markets as large ones. It would be foolish for us not to look at these markets very carefully. That is probably all I would say on the topic right now.
"Photonic integration is important and it becomes even more important as data rates increase."
Finisar has come out with an ‘optical engine’, a [240Gbps] parallel optics product. Why now?
This is a very exciting part of our business. We’ve been looking for some time at the future challenges we expect to see in networking equipment. If you look at fibre optics today, they are used on the front panel of equipment. Typically it is pluggable optics, sometimes it is fixed, but the intent is that the optics is the interface that brings data into and out of a chassis.
People have been using parallel optics within chassis – for backplane and other applications – but it has been niche. The reason it’s niche is that the need hasn’t been compelling for intra-chassis applications. We believe that need will change in the next decade. Parallel optics intra-chassis will be needed just to be able to drive the amount of bandwidth required from one printed circuit board to another or even from one chip to another.
The applications driving this right now are the very largest supercomputers and the very largest core routers. So it is a market focussed on the extreme high-end but what is the extreme high-end today will be mainstream a few years from now. You will see these things in mainstream servers, routers and switches etc.
Photonic integration – what’s happening here?
Photonic integration is something that the industry has been working on for several years in different forms; it continues to chug on in the background but that is not to understate its importance.
For vendors like Finisar, photonic integration is important and it becomes even more important as data rates increase. What we are seeing is that a lot of emerging standards are based around multiple lasers within a module. Examples are the 40GBASE-LR4 and the 100GBASE-LR4 (10km reach) standards, where you need four lasers and four photo-detectors and the corresponding mux-demux optics to make that work.
The higher the number of lasers required inside a given module, and the more complexity you see, the more room you have to cost-reduce with photonic integration.