OFC/NFOEC 2013 industry reflections - Part 4
Gazettabyte asked industry figures for their views after attending the recent OFC/NFOEC show.
"Spatial domain multiplexing has been a hot topic in R&D labs. However, at this year's OFC we found that incumbent and emerging carriers do not have a near-term need for this technology. Those working on spatial domain multiplexing development should adjust their efforts to align with end-users' needs"
T.J. Xia, Verizon
T.J. Xia, distinguished member of technical staff, Verizon
Software-defined networking (SDN) is an important topic. Looking forward, I expect SDN will involve the transport network so that all layers in the network are controlled by a unified controller to enhance network efficiency and enable application-driven networking.
Spatial domain multiplexing has been a hot topic in R&D labs. However, at this year's OFC we found that incumbent and emerging carriers do not have a near-term need for this technology. Those working on spatial domain multiplexing development should adjust their efforts to align with end-users' needs.
Several things are worthy to watch. Silicon photonics has the potential to drop the cost of optical interfaces dramatically. Low-cost pluggables such as CFP2, CFP4 and QSFP28 will change the cost model of client connections. Also, I expect adaptive, DSP-enabled transmission to enable high spectral efficiencies for all link conditions.
Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst, optical at Infonetics Research
The Cisco CPAK announcement was noteworthy because the amount of attention it generated was wildly out of proportion to the product they presented. They essentially built the CFP2 with slightly better specs.
"It was very disappointing to see how breathless people were about this [CPAK] announcement. When I asked another analyst on a panel if he thought Cisco could out-innovate the entire component industry he said yes, which I think is just ridiculous."
Cisco has successfully exploited the slave labour and capital of the module vendors for over a decade and I don't see why they would suddenly want to be in that business.
The LightWire technology is much better used in other applications than modules, and ultimately the CPAK is most meaningful as a production proof-of-concept. I explored this issue in depth in a research note for clients.
It was very disappointing to see how breathless people were about this announcement. When I asked another analyst on a panel if he thought Cisco could out-innovate the entire component industry he said yes, which I think is just ridiculous.
There were also some indications surrounding CFP2 customers that cast doubt on the near-term adoption of the technology, with suppliers such as Sumitomo Electric deciding to forgo development entirely in favour of CFP4 and/ or QSFP.
I think CFP2 ultimately will be successful outside of enterprise and data centre applications but there is not a near-term catalyst for adoption of this format, particularly now that Cisco has bowed out, at least for now.
SDN is a really big deal for data centres and enterprise networking but its applications in most carrier networks will be constrained to only a few areas relative to multi-layer management.
Within carrier networks, I think SDN is ultimately a catalyst for optical vendors to potentially add value to their systems, and a threat to router vendors as it makes bypass architectures easier to implement.
"Pluggable coherent is going to be just huge at OFC/NFOEC 2014"
Optical companies like ADVA Optical Networking, Ciena and Infinera are pushing the envelope here and the degree to which optical equipment companies are successful is dependent on who their customers are and how hungry these customers are for solutions.
Meanwhile, pluggable coherent is going to be just huge at OFC/NFOEC 2014, followed by QSFP/ CFP4 prototyping and more important production planning and reliability. Everyone is going to use different technologies to get there and it will be interesting to see what works best.
I also think the second half of 2013 will see an increase in deployment of common equipment such as amplifiers and ROADMs.
Magnus Olson, director hardware engineering, Transmode
Two clear trends from the conference, affecting quite different layers of the optical networks, are silicon photonics and SDN.
"If you happen to have an indium phosphide fab, the need for silicon photonics is probably not that urgent. If you don't, now seems very worthwhile to look into silicon photonics"
Silicon photonics, deep down in the physical layer, is now emerging rapidly from basic research to first product realisation. Whereas some module and component companies barely have taken the step from lithium niobate modulators to indium phospide, others have already advanced indium phosphide photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in place.
If you happen to have an indium phosphide fab, the need for silicon photonics is probably not that urgent. If you don't, now seems very worthwhile to look into silicon photonics.
Silicon photonics is a technology that should help take out the cost of optics for 100 Gigabit and beyond, primarily for short distance, data centre applications.
SDN, on the other hand, continues to mature. There is considerable momentum and lively discussion in the research community as well as within the standardisation bodies that could perhaps help SDN to succeed where Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) failed.
Ongoing industry consolidation has reduced the number of companies to meet and discuss issues with to a reasonable number. The larger optical module vendors all have full portfolios and hence the consolidation would likely slow down for awhile. The spirit at the show was quite optimistic, in a very positive, sustainable way.
As for emerging developments, the migration of form factors for 100 Gigabit, from CFP via CFP2 to CFP4 and beyond, is important to monitor and influence from a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) vendor point of view.
We should learn from the evolution of the SFP+, originally invented with purely grey data centre applications. Once the form factor is well established and mature, coloured versions start to appear.
If not properly taken into account from the start in the multi-source agreement (MSA) work with respect to, for example, power classes, it is not easy to accommodate tunable dense WDM versions in these form factors. Pluggable optics are crucial for cost as well as flexibility, on both the client side and line side.
Shai Rephaeli, vice president of interconnect products, Mellanox
At OFC, many companies demonstrated 25 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) prototypes and solutions, both multi mode and single mode.
Thus, a healthy ecosystem for the 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) InfiniBand looks to be well aligned with our introduction of new NIC (network interface controller)/ HCA (Infiniband host channel adaptor) and switch systems.
However, a significant increase in power consumption compared to current 10Gbps and 14Gbps product is observed. This requires the industry to focus heavily on power optimisation and thermal solutions.
"One development to watch is 1310nm and 1550nm VCSELs"
Standardisation for 25Gbps single mode fibre solutions is a big challenge. All the industry leaders have products at some level of development, but each company is driving its own technology. There may be a real interoperability barrier, considering the different technologies: WDM/ 1310nm, parallel and pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) which, itself, may have several flavours: 4-levels, 8-levels and 16-levels.
One development to watch is 1310nm and 1550nm VCSELs, which can bring the data centre/ multi-mode fibre volume and prices into the mid-reach market. This technology can be important for the new large-scale data centres, requiring connections significantly longer than 100m.
Part 1: Software-defined networking: A network game-changer, click here
Part 2: OFC/NFOEC 2013 industry reflections, click here
Part 3: OFC/NFOEC 2013 industry reflections, click here
Part 5: OFC/NFEC 2013 industry reflections, click here
OFC/NFOEC 2013 industry reflections - Part 2
Bill Gartner, vice president and general manager of high-end routing and optical business unit at Cisco Systems.
There were several key themes during this year’s OFC conference, but what I found most compelling were the disruptive trends and technologies that stand to significantly impact the optical communications market in the coming years.
"SDN could be the single biggest disruptor in the transport industry and has the potential to transform network programmability and orchestration"
One of the hottest themes at this year’s OFC conference is the role of silicon photonics and the benefits it presents to service providers and carriers. Silicon photonics is truly one of the most interesting advancements taking place in the industry as it has the potential to drastically lower the density, power and overall cost of ASICs.
Several carriers at the show, including CenturyLink and AT&T, presented their view that optics is becoming a larger portion of their spend and now exceeds the cost of packet switching technologies.
A second key trend coming out of the show is software-defined networking (SDN) and its impact on networking. There is tremendous industry interest around this topic and it extended to the Anaheim Convention Center.
With SDN, our customers can increase flexibility in terms of selecting the features and protocols that make sense for their network application – whether it is a data centre application, a service provider application or a large-scale enterprise application.
The last theme that resonated during OFC was around the convergence of packet and optical solutions. As service providers look for ways to decrease both CapEx and OpEx related to the network, incremental technology improvements will decrease costs. However, for many customers, their network capacity is growing far faster than their revenues, so incremental improvements will not yield required reductions.
"As an industry we have to evolve organisationally and technically. Those who fail to recognise that face extinction."
This shows us that we need to explore more fundamental shifts in architectures that have the potential to yield significant savings in OpEx and CapEx. Enter the convergence of IP and optical – this may take the form of converged platforms, but will also involve multi-layer control planes that allow the exchange of information between the packet and optical layers. This convergence helps answer questions like: How well is the network utilised? Can it be optimised? Are there multi-layer protection/ restoration schemes that make better use of the available resources?
During the conference, I had the opportunity to present at the OSA Executive Forum, which brought together more than 150 senior-level executives to discuss key themes, opportunities and challenges facing the next generation in optical communications.
What struck me is that this industry is constantly evolving, which presents challenges and opportunities. We are looking at an industry that is highly fragmented at the moment and requires further streamlining.
You have new players at every level of the value chain that bring exciting, unique perspectives and advanced technologies that increase efficiency and decrease costs. But none of this innovation comes without change; as an industry we have to evolve organisationally and technically. Those who fail to recognise that face extinction.
"This is like solving a simultaneous equation where the variables are power, cost and density – you need to solve for all three"
The key themes discussed at OFC are an indication of what is to come in optical transport and mirror our top priorities at Cisco.
In the coming year, we expect to see CMOS photonics technology enable lower power pluggables. This is the case with CPAK, but more broadly, we will see this technology find its way into low cost board-to-board interconnect and chassis-to-chassis interconnect.
As an industry, we have made great progress in reducing the cost of transmitting bits over a long distance but much more remains to be done. As bit rates increase to beyond 100 Gigabit, we must look for ways to drive this cost down faster, while decreasing both power and size. This is like solving a simultaneous equation where the variables are power, cost and density – you need to solve for all three.
During the next five years, I think that SDN could be the single biggest disruptor in the transport industry and has the potential to transform network programmability and orchestration.
We will see an entire software industry emerge around SDN, but it is important to note that this is really all about multilayer control – Layer 0 to Layer 3. SDN is not simply an optical transport problem to be solved. The advantage will go to those who are looking at this holistically.
Brandon Collings, CTO of the communications and commercial optical products group at JDSU
I found it interesting that the major network equipment manufactures had a significantly increased presence on the exhibition floor.
"This year’s focus and buzz was all on silicon photonics with researchers leveraging it against nearly every function in telecom and datacom"
I learned a lot about SDN at levels above the photonic network. This is a very complex topic likely to take some time to fully mature within telecom networks; however, the potential values appear compelling.
This year’s focus and buzz was all on silicon photonics with researchers leveraging it against nearly every function in telecom and datacom. I expect it will be interesting for industry watchers how this promising technology evolves within the industry, where it achieves its promise and where it runs into practical roadblocks.
Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of LightCounting
This was the best OFC since 2000. The optical community is once again energised. Some attribute the improved mood to high-value acquisitions of companies LightWire and Nicira that were made last year, but this is just part of the story.
Yes, the potential of silicon photonics and software-defined networking (which LightWire and Nicira were focussed on, respectively) do broaden the horizon for optical technologies in communication networks and data centres. But the excitement is not limited to just these two ideas. All the new - and old or forgotten - ideas, technologies and products once again have a shot at making a difference. Demand for optics is strong and the customers are hungry for innovation.
"Demand for optics is strong and the customers are hungry for innovation"
In contrast to 2000, few people are getting carried away with the excitement. The mood is much more constructive this time and it makes me hope that most of this new energy will not be wasted.
I would not single out a specific technology or application to watch out for in the next few years. All of them have opportunities and challenges ahead. We will keep track of as many developments as we can and make sure that hype does lead the industry off the tracks this time.
Effie Favreau, marketing, Sumitomo Electric
One hundred Gigabit technology is here. Last year there was a lot of hype about 100 Gigabit and now it is reality; vendors have products that are shipping.
Sumitomo and ClariPhy partnered on pluggable coherent modules. Together, we hosted an impressive demonstration with all the components to make pluggable coherent modules available next year.
"For the enterprise/ data centre, vendors requiring low cost, high density equipment really need the CFP4"
One thing I learned from the show is that vendors need to re-purpose their existing equipment. There was much discussion regarding software-enabled applications and passives to enhance the performance of networks and make them more intelligent.
There was the introduction of the CFP2 from several vendors as well as Cisco's CPAK. For the enterprise/ data centre, vendors requiring low cost, high density equipment really need the CFP4. At Sumitomo, we are concentrating our R&D efforts on the CFP4.
See also:
Part 1: Software-defined networking: A network game-changer? click here
Part 3: OFC/NFOEC 2013 industry reflections, click here
Part 4: OFC/NFOEC industry reflections, click here
Part 5: OFC/NFEC 2013 industry reflections, click here
Does Cisco Systems' CPAK module threaten the CFP2?
Cisco Systems has been detailing over recent months its upcoming proprietary optical module dubbed CPAK. The development promises to reduce the market opportunity for the CFP2 multi-source agreement (MSA) and has caused some disquiet in the industry.
Source: Cisco Systems, Gazettabyte, see comments
"The CFP2 has been a bit slow - the MSA has taken longer than people expected - so Cisco announcing CPAK has frightened a few people," says Paul Brooks, director for JDSU's high speed transport test portfolio.
Brooks speculates that the advent of CPAK may even cause some module makers to skip the CFP2 and go straight to the smaller CFP4 given the time lag between the two MSAs is relatively short.
The CPAK module, smaller than the CFP2 MSA and three quarters its volume, has not been officially released and Cisco will not comment on the design but in certain company presentations the CPAK is compared with the CFP. The details are shown in the table above, with the CFP2’s details added.
The CPAK is the first example of Cisco's module design capability following its acquisition of silicon photonics player, Lightwire.
The development of the module highlights how the acquisition of core technology can give an equipment maker the ability to develop proprietary interfaces that promise costs savings and differentiation. But it also raises a question mark regarding the CFP2 and the merit of MSAs when a potential leading customer of the CFP2 chooses to use its own design.
"The CFP2 has been a bit slow - the MSA has taken longer than people expected - so Cisco announcing CPAK has frightened a few people"
Paul Brooks, JDSU
Industry analysts do not believe it undermines the CFP2 MSA. “I believe there is business for the CFP2,” says Daryl Inniss, practice leader, Ovum Components. “Cisco is shooting for a solution that has some staying power. The CFP2 is too large and the power consumption too high while the CFP4 is too small and will take too long to get to market; CPAK is a great compromise.”
That said, Inniss, in a recent opinion piece entitled: Optical integration challenges component/OEM ecosystem, writes:
“Cisco’s Lightwire acquisition provides another potential attack on the traditional ecosystem. Lightwire provides unique silicon photonics based technology that can support low power consumption and high-density modules. Cisco may adopt a proprietary transceiver strategy to lower cost, decrease time to market, and build competitive barriers. It need not go through the standards process, which would enable its competitors and provide them with its technology. Cisco only needs to convince its customers that it has a robust supply chain and that it can support its product.”
Vladimir Kozlov, CEO of market research firm, LightCounting, is not surprised by the development. “Cisco could use more proprietary parts and technologies to compete with Huawei over the next decade,” he says. “From a transceiver vendor perspective, custom-made products are often more profitable than standard ones; unless Cisco will make everything in house, which is unlikely, it is not bad news.”
JDSU has just announced that its ONT-100G test set supports the CFP2 and CFP4. The equipment will also support CPAK. "We have designed a range of adaptors that allows us to interface to other optics including one very large equipment vendor's - Cisco's - own CFP2-like form factor," says Brooks.
However, Brooks still expects the industry to align on a small number of MSAs despite the advent of CPAK. "The majority view is that the CFP2 and CFP4 will address most people's needs," says Brooks. "Although there is some debate whether a QSFP2 may be more cost effective than the CFP4." The QSFP2 is the next-generation compact follow-on to the QSFP that supports the 4x25Gbps electrical interface.
The CFP2 pluggable module gains industry momentum
Finisar and Oclaro unveiled their first CFP2 optical transceiver products at the recent ECOC exhibition in Amsterdam. JDSU also announced that its ONT-100G test equipment now supports the latest 100Gbps module form factor.
Source: Oclaro
The CFP2 is the follow-on module to the CFP, supporting the IEEE 100 Gigabit Ethernet and ITU OTU4 standards. It is half the size of the CFP (see image) and typically consumes half the power. Equipment makers can increase the front-panel port density from four to eight by migrating to the CFP2.
Oclaro also announced a second-generation CFP supporting the 100GBASE-LR4 10km and OTU4 standards that reduces the power consumption from 24W to 16W. The power saving is achieved by replacing a two-chip silicon-germanium 'gearbox' IC with a single CMOS chip. The gearbox translates between the 10x10Gbps electrical interface and the 4x25Gbps signals interfacing to the optics.
The CFP2, in contrast, doesn’t include the gearbox IC.
"One of the advantages of the CFP2 module is we have a 4x25Gbps electrical interface," says Rafik Ward, vice president of marketing at Finisar. "That means that within the CFP2 module we can operate without the gearbox chip." The result is a compact, lower-power design, which is further improved by the use of optical integration.
"That 2.5x faster [interface of the CFP2] equates to about a 6x greater difficulty in signal integrity issues, microwave techniques etc"
Paul Brooks, JDSU
The transmission part of the CFP module typically comprises four externally modulated lasers (EMLs), each individually cooled. The four transmitter optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs) then interface to a four-channel optical multiplexer.
Finisar's CFP2 design uses a single TOSA holding four distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, a shared thermo-electric cooler and the multiplexer. The result of using DFBs and an integrated TOSA is that Finisar's CFP2 consumes just 8W.
Oclaro uses photonic integration on the receiver side, integrating four receiver optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) as well as the optical demultiplexer into a single design, resulting in a 12W CFP2.
At ECOC, Oclaro demonstrated interoperability between its latest CFP and the CFP2. “It shows that the new modules will talk to existing ones,” says Robert Blum, director of product marketing for Oclaro's photonic components.
Meanwhile JDSU demonstrated its ONT-100G test set that supports the CFP2 and CFP4 MSAs.
"Initially the [test set] applications are focused on those doing the fundamental building blocks [for the 100G CFP2] – chip vendors, optical module vendors, printed circuit board developers," says Paul Brooks, director for JDSU's high speed transport test portfolio. "We will roll out more applications within the year that cover early deployment and production."
The standards-based client-side interfaces is an attractive market for test and measurement companies. For line-side optical transmission, much of the development work is proprietary such that developing a test set to serve vendors' proprietary solutions is not feasible.
The biggest engineering challenge for the CFP2 is its adoption of high-speed 25Gbps electrical interfaces. "The CFP was based on third generation, mature 10 Gig I/O [input/output]," says Brooks. "To get to cost-effective CFP2 [modules] is a very big jump: that 2.5x faster [interface] equates to about a 6x greater difficulty in signal integrity issues, microwave techniques etc."
The company says that what has been holding up the emergence of the CFP2 module has been the 104-pin connector: "The pluggable connector is the big headache," says Brooks. "The expectation is that very soon we should get some early connectors."
The test equipment also supports developers of the higher-density CFP4 module, and other form factors such as the QSFP2.
JDSU will start shipping its CFP2 test equipment in the first quarter of 2013.
Oclaro's second-generation CFP and the CFP2 transceivers are sampling, with volume production starting in early 2013.
Finisar's CFP2 LR4 product will sample in 2012 and enter volume production in 2013.
Challenges, progress & uncertainties facing the optical component industry
In recent years the industry has moved from direct detection to coherent transmission and has alighted on a flexible ROADM architecture. The result is a new level in optical networking sophistication. OFC/NFOEC 2012 will showcase the progress in these and other areas of industry consensus as well as shining a spotlight on issues less clear.
Optical component players may be forgiven for the odd envious glance towards the semiconductor industry and its well-defined industry dynamics.
The semiconductor industry has Moore’s Law that drives technological progress and the economics of chip-making. It also experiences semiconductor cycles - regular industry corrections caused by overcapacity and excess inventory. The semiconductor industry certainly has its challenges but it is well drilled in what to expect.
Optical challenges
The optical industry experienced its own version of a semiconductor cycle in 2010-11 - strong growth in 2010 followed by a correction in 2011. But such market dynamics are irregular and optical has no Moore's Law.
Optical players must therefore work harder to develop components to meet the rapid traffic growth while achieving cost efficiencies, denser designs and power savings.
Such efficiencies are even more important as the marketplace becomes more complex due to changes in the industry layers above components. The added applications layer above networks was highlighted in the OFC/NFOEC 2012 news analysis by Ovum’s Karen Liu. The analyst also pointed out that operators’ revenues and capex growth rates are set to halve in the years till 2017 compared to 2006-2010.
Such is the challenging backdrop facing optical component players.
Consensus
Coherent has become the defacto standard for long-haul high-speed transmission. Optical system vendors have largely launched their 100Gbps systems and have set their design engineers on the next challenge: addressing designs for line rates beyond 100Gbps.
Infinera detailed its 500Gbps super-channel photonic integrated circuit last year. At OFC/NFOEC it will be interesting to learn how other equipment makers are tackling such designs and what activity and requests optical component vendors are seeing regarding the next line rates after 100Gbps.
Meanwhile new chip designs for transport and switching at 100Gbps are expected at the show. AppliedMicro is sampling its gearbox chip that supports 100 Gigabit Ethernet and OTU4 optical interfaces. More announcements should be expected regarding merchant 100Gbps digital signal processing ASIC designs.
An architectural consensus for wavelength-selective switches (WSSes) - the key building block of ROADMs - are taking shape with the industry consolidating on a route-and-select architecture, according to analysts.
Gridless - the ROADM attribute that supports differing spectral widths expected for line rates above 100Gbps - is a key characteristic that WSSes must support, resulting in more vendors announcing liquid crystal on silicon designs.
Client-side 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interfaces have a clearer module roadmap than line-side transmission. After the CFP comes the CFP2 and CFP4 which promise denser interfaces and Terabit capacity blades. Module form factors such as the QSFP+ at 40GbE and in time 100GbE CFP4s require integrated photonic designs. This is a development to watch for at the show.
Others areas to note include tunable-laser XFPs and even tunable SFP+, work on which has already been announced by JDS Uniphase.
Lastly, short-link interfaces and in particular optical engines is another important segment that ultimately promises new system designs and the market opportunity that will unleash silicon photonics.
Optical engines can simplify high-speed backplane designs and printed circuit board electronics. Electrical interfaces moving to 25Gbps is seen as the threshold trigger when switch makers decide whether to move their next designs to an optical backplane.
The Optical Internetworking Forum will have a Physical and Link Layer (PLL) demonstration to showcase interoperability of the Forum’s Common Electrical Interface (CEI) 28Gbps Very Short Reach (VSR) chip-to-module electrical interfaces, as well as a demonstration of the CEI-25G-LR backplane interface.
Companies participating in the interop include Altera, Amphenol, Fujitsu Optical Components, Gennum, IBM, Inphi, Luxtera, Molex, TE Connectivity and Xilinx.
Altera has already unveiled a FGPA prototype that co-packages 12x10Gbps transmitter and receiver optical engines alongside its FPGA.
Uncertainties
OFC/NFOEC 2012 also provides an opportunity to assess progress in sectors and technology where there is less clarity. Two sectors of note are next-generation PON and the 100Gbps direct-detect market.
For next-generation PON, several ideas are being pursued, faster extensions of existing PON schemes such as a 40Gbps version of the existing time devision multiplexing PON schemes, 40G PON based on hybrid WDM and TDM schemes, WDM-PON and even ultra dense WDM-PON and OFDM-based PON schemes.
The upcoming show will not answer what the likely schemes will be but will provide an opportunity to test what the latest thinking is.
The same applies for 100 Gigabit direct detection.
There are significant cost advantages to this approach and there is an opportunity for the technology in the metro and for data centre connectivity. But so far announcements have been limited and operators are still to fully assess the technology. Further announcements at OFC/NFOEC will highlight the progress being made here.
The article has been written as a news analysis published by the organisers before this year's OFC/NFOEC event.
The CFP4 optical module to enable Terabit blades
Source: Gazettabyte, Xilinx
The CFP2 is about half the size of the CFP while the CFP4 is half the size of the CFP2. The CFP4 is slightly wider and longer than the QSFP.
The two CFP modules will use a 4x25Gbps electrical interface, doing away with the need for a 10x10Gbps to 4x25Gbps gearbox IC used for current CFP 100GBASE-LR4 and -ER4 interfaces. The CFP2 and CFP4 are also defined for 40 Gigabit Ethernet use.
The CFP's maximum power rating is 32W, the CFP2 12W and the CFP4 5W. But vendors that put eight CFP2 or 16 CFP4s on a blade still want to meet the 60W total power budget.
Getting close: Four CFP modules deliver slightly less bandwidth than 48 SFP+ modules: 4x100Gbps versus 480Gbps. The four also consume more power - 60w versus 48W. Moving to the CFP2 module will double the blade's bandwidth without consuming more power while the CFP4 will do the same again. a blade with 16 CFP4 modules promises 1.6Tbps while requiring 60W. Source: Xilinx
The first CFP2 modules are expected this year - there could be vendor announcements as early as the upcoming OFC/NFOEC 2012 show to be held in LA in the first week in March. The first CFP4 products are expected in 2013.
Further reading
The CFP MSA presentation: CFP MSA 100G roadmap and applications
Reflections and predictions: 2011 & 2012 - Part 1
"For 2012, the macroeconomy is likely to dominate any other developments"
Martin Geddes, telecom consultant @martingeddes
Sometimes the important stuff is slow-burning: we're seeing a continued decline in the traditional network equipment providers, and the rise in Genband, Acme, Sonus and Metaswitch in their place. Smaller, leaner, and more used to serving Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators and enterprise players and their lower cost structures.
The recognition of the decline of SMS and telephony became mainstream in 2011 -- maybe I can close down my Telepocalypse blog as what I foresaw is reality.
We've seen absolute declines in revenue and usage of telco voice and messaging in leading markets like Norway and Netherlands. The creation of Telefonica Digital is a landmark reorganisation around new markets. No longer are those initiatives endlessly parked in business development whilst marketing dream up a new price plan for minutes, messages and megabytes.
If I had to pick one thing to characterise 2011, it was the year of the App.
For 2012, the macroeconomy is likely to dominate any other developments. The scenarios are "distress", "meltdown" and "collapse".
Telecoms is well-placed to weather the storm. Even £600 smartphones may remain in vogue as people defer purchases like cars and holidays, and hide their fiscal distress with status symbols hewn out of pure blocks of profit.
Voice will be much more prominent, after decades of languishing, as LTE sets up a complex dynamic of service innovation driven by over-the-top applications - which will increasingly come from telcos as well as telecoms outsiders. Microsoft's purchase of Skype is the one to watch - if they get it right, it joins Windows and Office in the hall of fame; get it wrong, and Microsoft is probably out of the smartphone game due to a lack of competitive differentiation and advantage.
So 2012 is the year when (mobile) voice gets vocal again - because we're going to have a lot to talk about, and want to do it much cheaper and better.
Brandon Collings, CTO for communications and commercial optical products at JDS Uniphase
For the course of 2011, the tunable XFP shipped in volume and it rather quickly supplanted the 300-pin transceiver. On the service/ market trend, over-the-top consumer video (Netflix) grew rapidly to be the dominant traffic on the internet.
"Solutions for the next generation ROADM networks - self aware networks - are now firm"
I expect the maturation of 100 Gigabit to continue through 2012 with the introduction of a number of new 100 Gigabit solutions, both network equipment makers and at the transceiver level.
Also, as the adoption percentage of consumers using over-the-top video usage still seems to be relatively small, yet is growing strongly and is already the dominant traffic on the internet, it will be interesting to see how this trend continues as it strongly drives bandwidth yet with potentially unfavorable revenue models for the network operators who need to deliver it.
Lastly, I expect that as the solutions for the next generation ROADM networks - self aware networks - are now firm, the practical assessment of the value and advantages of these networks can quantitatively take place.
Eve Griliches, managing partner, ACG Research @EveGr
The Juniper PTX announcement really caught the market by surprise. I'm not so much sure why but clearly it rocked some folks back on their heels. Momentum for the product has been good as well. I think you can count this as a success story.
Another one is the Infinera 500Gbps release with super-channels. A pretty impressive technology and service providers are waiting for final product to test.
The death of Steve Jobs rattled us all. I think it struck a note for everyone in how different he was and how he touched us all.
"Content providers ask for simple, scalable and low-featured products. Those who deliver will be rewarded for listening."
I continue to be amazed at how much optical equipment content providers [the Googles, Facebooks, MSNs of this world] are deploying and how few folks at the vendor level are doing anything about getting into their networks. Maybe that is a 2012 thing, I don't know.
As for 2012, we'll definitely see some mergers and acquisitions - expect low acquisition prices too - and some companies exiting this market. I love optics and it really pains me to say that, but there are just more companies out there who can't support the declining margins. I think margin erosion will be key to who survives.
Cisco and Infinera should be bringing some cool products to market in the next six months. We hope the products are good because it will generate debate for the final vendor choices for operators such as AT&T and Verizon.
Again, content providers ask for simple, scalable and low-featured products. Those who deliver will be rewarded for listening. Some don't listen, and will wonder what happened.
Peter Jarich, service director, service provider infrastructure, mobile ecosystem, Current Analysis @pnjarich
2012 is going to be the year for LTE-Advanced (LTE-A). Why? One, vendors always like to talk up what’s next, and LTE-A is what follows LTE (Long Term Evolution).
At the same time, operators who haven’t yet deployed LTE will want to look to start with the latest and greatest. Of course, LTE-A brings real advances for operators: carrier aggregation for dealing with fragmented spectrum assets; heterogeneous networks for dealing with the interaction of small cell and macrocell networks; relaying for improved cell edge performance.
Avi Shabtai, CEO of MultiPhy
The most significant development of 2011 was the availability of CMOS technology that allows next-generation optical transport solutions for 100 Gigabit. And specifically, metro-focused solutions that hit the cost and power numbers required by this industry.
On top of that, optical communication has entered the era of digital signal processing receivers. We have also seen the potential segmentation in 100 Gigabit of metro versus long-haul, each with its specific set of solutions.
"We will see a huge growth in video consumption. This has already started but it is just the tip of the iceberg."
The transition of the telecom and datacom market to 100 Gigabit has also begun - from the transport optical network all the way to copper backplanes - it's all a 4x25Gbps architecture. This year has also seen consolidation in the ecosystem, especially among module companies.
This consolidation will continue at all industry levels in 2012: semiconductors, subsystems, systems and the carriers. The consolidation will coincide with an across-the-board price reduction in emerging technologies like 100 Gigabit transport.
The increase in capacity demand will also force an increase in requirements for various solutions supporting 100 Gigabit. I expect to see more CMOS-based devices introduced.
From a services point or view, we will see a huge growth in video consumption. This has already started but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Video will have a tremendous influence on network evolution.
Gilles Garcia, director, wired communication at Xilinx @gllsgarcia
The CFP2 and CFP4 optical modules are arriving a lot faster than it took for the CFP to follow the XFP optical module.
The CFP standard took 3-4 years to complete while the standard for the CFP2 just closed after two years. Now the CFP4 standard has been launched and is expected to take 18 months only. The new form factors are being driving by the cost-per-port of 100 Gigabit and how to reduce it. The CFP2 doubles the density when compared to the CFP while the CFP4 doubles it again.
"Programmability is becoming the key trend among telecom system vendors as operators look to react faster to standards, new feature requests and deployment of new services."
Telecom application-specific standard product (ASSP) players have been relatively quiet in 2011. Word from customers is that such vendors are pushing out their roadmap/ product availability because of too much flux in the various IEEE and ITU-T telecom standards and difficulties to justify the return-on-investment. This is proving a perfect opportunity for FPGAs.
Large system vendors are growing their network services as operators continue to outsource their network management and maintenance. As reported in their financial reports, this is an important source of business for the likes of Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent.
It is leading the vendors to push more of their own hardware, as they look to add value-add services and integrate the services using their own platforms. Some equipment vendors realise they do not have a full portfolio and have established partnerships for the missing platforms. They are also starting to develop platforms to generate more revenue.
In 2012, I’m not expecting a telecom revolution but I do expect accelerated evolution. And I foresee big disruptions in the ASSP market as it continues to consolidate: I expect several mergers and acquisitions among the top 20 ASSP suppliers.
Programmability is becoming the key trend among telecom system vendors as operators look to react faster to standards, new feature requests and deployment of new services. Programmability also improves time-to-market to deliver these services and reduce time-to-revenue.
Mobile backhaul will be a market driver in 2012. The growth in mobile data terminals will lead to a new generation of mobile backhaul networks. This will drive the move from 1 to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, higher-feature packet processing, and traffic management integration into mobile infrastructure to better control and bill bandwidth usage i.e. pay for what you use.
The 'God box' - packet optical transport systems and the like - are back, but really it is network needs that is driving this.
And one topic to watch that will become clearer in 2012 is how cloud computing impacts the networking market with regard such issues as security, cacheing and higher speed links.
Google is becoming an important internal - for its own usage -networking equipment player. And Google will be joined by others - Facebook, Amazon etc. What impact will this have on the traditional system networking vendors? Such new players are defining and building networks platforms tailored for their needs. This is competition to the traditional system vendors who are not getting this piece of the business. Semiconductors, including FPGAs, could serve those companies directly.
Other issues to note: What will Intel do in the networking space? Intel acquired Fulcrum in 2011 and has invested in several networking companies.
There are also technology issues.
What will happen to ternary content addressable memory (TCAM)? Broadcom's acquisition of NetLogic Microsystems has created a hole in the TCAM market. Will Broadcom continue with TCAM? Will customers want to give their TCAM business to Broadcom?
Xilinx FPGAs have added network search engines IP in the solution portfolio as multi-core ‘search engine’ face increasing difficulty in sustaining the performance required.
And of course there is the continual issue of power optimisation.
For Part 2, click here
For Part 3, click here
100 Gigabit for the metro
The firm claims this is an industry first: a direct-detection-based 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) design using four, 28Gbps channels rather than current 10x10Gbps schemes.
"Data centre operators want to make best use of the fibre insfrastructure and get lower overall cost, footprint and power consumption"
Jörg-Peter Elbers, ADVA Optical Networking
The card, designed for the FSP 3000 platform, delivers a 2.5x greater spectral efficiency compared to 10Gbps dense WDM (DWDM) systems. In turn, the 100Gbps metro card has half the cost of a 100 Gigabit coherent design while requiring half the power and space.
ADVA Optical Networking is using a CFP optical module to implement the 100Gbps metro design. This allows the card to use other CFP-based interfaces such at the IEEE 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standards. The design also benefits from the economies of scale of the CFP as the module of choice for 100GbE, and from future smaller modules such as the CFP2 and CFP4 being developed as the 100GbE market evolves.
The 100Gbps metro CFP's four, 28Gbps signals are modulated using optical duo-binary. By choosing duo-binary, cheaper 10Gbps optics can be used akin to a 4x10Gbps design. Duo-binary is also more resilient to dispersion than standard on-off keying.
The CFP-based card requires 200GHz of spectrum for each 100Gbps light path. This is 2.5x more spectrally efficient than 10x10Gbps based on 50GHz channel spacings. However, while the design is cheaper, denser and less power hungry than 100Gbps coherent, it has only a quarter of the spectral efficiency of coherent (see chart).
Jörg-Peter Elbers, vice president, advanced technology at ADVA Optical Networking, says duo-binary delivers closer channel spacing such that a doubling in spectral density will be possible in a future design (100Gbps in a 100GHz channel). The 100Gbps metro card supports 500km links using dispersion-compensated fibre.
Non-coherent designs for the metro are starting to appear despite 100Gbps optical transport being in its infancy. Besides ADVA Optical Networking's design, a component vendor is promoting a 100Gbps direct detection DWDM design for the metro. The 10x10 MSA has also announced a DWDM extension that will support four and eight 100Gbps channels.
The 100G metro card showing the CFP. Source: ADVA Optical Networking
Metro direct-detection also faces competition from system vendors developing coherent designs tailored for the metro.
System vendors, module makers, optical and IC component companies all believe there is a market for lower cost 100Gbps metro transport. This is backed by keen interest from service providers and large content providers that want cheaper 100Gbps interfaces to connect data centres.
Elbers highlights two such applications that will first likely use the 100 Gigabit metro card.
One is connecting the data centres of enterprises that use rented fibre. "They have a multitude of interfaces and services - 10GbE, 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel - and they often rent fibre," says Elbers. "They need to get as much capacity as possible to make the fibre rent worthwhile while being constrained on rack space and power."
The second application is to connect 100GbE-enabled IP routers across the metro. Here service providers may not have heavily loaded DWDM networks and can afford to use a 100Gbps metro link rather than the more spectrally efficient, if more expensive, 100Gbps coherent interface. Equally, such links may be less than 500km while coherent is designed for long-haul links, 1000km or greater.
Elbers says samples of the metro card are available now with volume production beginning at the end of 2011.
Introducing 100G Metro (ADVA Optical video)
OFC announcements and market trends
More compact transceiver designs at 10, 40 and 100 Gigabit, advancements in reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology and parallel optical engine developments were all in evidence at this year’s OFC/NFOEC show held in Los Angeles in March.
“MSAs are designed by committee, and when you have a committee you throw away innovation and you throw away time-to-market”
Victor Krutul, Avago Technologies
Finisar said that the show was one of the busiest in recent years. “There was an increasing system-vendor presence at OFC, and there was a lot more interest from investor analysts,” says Rafik Ward, vice president of marketing at Finisar.
Ethernet interfaces
Opnext demonstrated an IEEE 100GBASE-ER4 module design at the show, the 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) standard with a 40km reach. Based on the company’s CFP-based 100GBASE-LR4 10km module, the design uses a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) on the receive path to achieve the extended reach. The IEEE standard calls for an SOA in front of the photo-detectors for the 100GBASE-ER4 interface.
“We don’t have that [SOA] integrated yet, we are just showing the [design] feasibility,” says Jon Anderson, director of technology programme at Opnext. The extended reach interface will be used to connect IP core routers to transport system when the two platforms reside in separate facilities. Such a 40km requirement for a 100GbE interface is not common but is an important one to meet, says Anderson.
Opnext’s first-generation LR4, currently shipping, is a discrete design comprising four discrete transmitter optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs) and four receiver optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) and an optical multiplexer and demultiplexer. The company’s next-generation design will integrate the four lasers and the optical multiplexer into a package and will be used in future more compact CFP2 and CFP4 modules.
The CFP2 module is half the size of the CFP module and the CFP4 is a quarter. In terms of maximum power, the CFP module is rated at 32W, the CFP2 12W and the CFP4 5W. “The CFP4 is a little bit wider and longer than the QSFP,” says Anderson. The first CFP2 modules are expected to become available in 2012 and the CFP4 in 2013.
System vendors are interested in the CFP4 as they want to support over one terabit of capacity on a 15-inch faceplate. Up to 16 ports can be supported –1.6Tbps – on a faceplate using the CFP4, and using a “belly-to-belly” configuration two rows of 16 ports will be possible, says Anderson.
Finisar demonstrated a distributed feedback laser (DFB) laser-based CFP module at OFC that implements the 10km 100GBASE-LR4 standard. The adoption of DFB lasers promises significant advantages compared to existing first-generation -LR4 modules that use electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs). “If you look at current designs, ours included, not only do they use EMLs which are significantly more expensive, but each is in its own package and has its own thermo-electric cooler,” says Ward.
Finisar’s use of DFBs means an integrated array of the lasers can be packaged and cooled using a single thermo-electric cooler, significantly reducing cost and nearly halving the power to 12W. “Now that the power [of the DFB-based] LR4 is 12W, we can place it within a CFP2 with its 25-28 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) electrical I/O,” says Ward.
Moving to the faster input/output (I/O) compared to the CFP’s 10Gbps I/O means that that serialiser/ deserialiser (serdes) chipset can be replaced with simpler clock data recovery (CDR) circuitry. “By the time we move to the CFP4, we remove the CDRs completely,” says Ward. “It’s an un-retimed interface.” Finisar’s existing -LR4 design already uses an integrated four-photodetector array.
An early application of the 100GbE -LR4, as with the -ER4, is linking core routers with optical transport systems in operators’ central offices. Many Ethernet switch vendors have chosen to focus their early high-data efforts at 40GbE but Finisar says the move to 100GbE has started.
Finisar argues that the adoption of DFBs will ultimately prove the cost-benefits of a 4-channel 100GbE design which faces competition from the emerging 10x10 multi-source agreement (MSA). “Everything we have heard about the 10x10 [MSA] has been around cost,” says Ward. “The simple view inside Finisar is that by the time the Gen2 100GbE module that we showed at OFC gets to market, this argument [4x25Gig vs. 10x10Gig] will be a moot point.”
“40Gig is definitely still strong and healthy”
Jon Anderson, Opnext
By then the second-generation -LR4 module design will be cost competitive if not even lower cost than the 10x10 MSA. “If you look at optoelectronic components, at the end of the day what really drives cost is yield,” says Ward. “If we can get our yields of 25Gig DFBs down to a level that is similar to 10Gig DFB yields- it doesn’t have to match, just in the ballpark - then we have a solution where the 4x25Gig looks like a 4x10Gig solution and then I believe everyone will agree that 4x25Gig is a less expensive architecture.” Finisar expects the Gen2 CFP -LR4 in production by the first half of 2012.
Opnext demonstrated a 40GBASE- LR4 (40Gbps, up to 10km) standard in a QSFP+ module at OFC. Anderson says it is seeing demand for such a design from data centre operators and from switch and transport vendors.
Avago Technologies announced a 40Gbps QSFP+ module at OFC that implements the 100m IEEE 40GBASE-SR4. “It will interoperate with Avago’s SFP+ modules,” says Victor Krutul, director of marketing for the fibre optics division at Avago Technologies. The QSFP+ can interface to another QSFP+ module or to four 10Gbps SFP+ modules.
Avago also announced a proprietary mini-SFP+ design, 30% smaller than the standard SFP+ but which is electrically compatible. According to Krutul, the design came about following a request from one of its customers: “What it allows is the ability to have 64 ports on the front [panel] rather than 48.”
Did Avago consider making the mini-SFP+ design an MSA? “What we found with MSAs is that they are designed by committee, and when you have a committee you throw away innovation and you throw away time-to-market,” says Krutul.
Krutul was previously a marketing manager for Intel’s LightPeak before joining Avago over half a year ago.
“There was an increasing system-vendor presence at OFC, and there was a lot more interest from investor analysts”
Rafik Ward, Finisar.
Line-side interfaces
Opnext will be providing select customers with its 100Gbps DP-QPSK coherent module for trialling this quarter. The module has a 5-inch by 7-inch footprint and uses a 168-pin connector. “We are working to try and meet the OIF spec [with regard power consumption] which is 80W.” says Anderson. “It is challenging and it may not be met in the first generation [design].”
The company is also moving its 40Gbps 2km very short reach (VSR) transponder to support the IEEE 40GBASE-FR standard within a CFP module, dubbed the “tri-rate” design. “The 40BASE-FR has been approved, with the specification building on the ITU’s 40Gig VSR,” says Anderson. “It continues to support the [OC-768] SONET/SDH rate, it will support the new OTN ODU3 40Gbps and the intermediate 40 Gigabit Ethernet.”
Opnext and Finisar are both watching with interest the emerging 100Gbps direct detection market, an alternative to 100 Gigabit coherent aimed shorter reach metro applications.
“We certainly are watching this segment and do have an interest, but we don’t have any product plans to share at this point,” says Anderson.
“The [100Gbps] direct-detection market is very interesting,” says Ward. Coherent is not going to be the only way people will deploy 100Gbps light paths. “There will be a market for shorter reach, lower performance 100 Gigabit DWDM that will be used primarily in datacentre-to-datacentre,” he says. Tier 2 and tier 3 carriers will also be interested in the technology for use in shorter metro reaches. “There is definitely a market for that,” says Ward.
Opnext also announced its small form-factor – 3.5-inch by 4.5-inch - 40Gbps DPSK module. “With a smaller form factor, the next generation could move to a CFP type pluggable,” says Anderson. “But that is if our customers are interested in migrating to a pluggable design for DPSK and DQPSK.”
Are there signs that the advent of 100 Gigabit is affecting 40Gbps uptake? “We definitely not seeing that,” says Anderson. “We are continuing to see good solid demand for both 40G line side – DPSK and DQPSK – and a lot of pull to being this tri-rate VSR.”
Such demand is not just from China but also North Ametican carriers. “40 Gig is definitely still strong and healthy,” says Anderson “But there are some operators that are waiting to see how 100G does and approved in for major build-outs.”
At 10Gbps, Opnext also had on show a tunable TOSA for use in an XFP module, while Finisar announced an 80km, 10Gbps SFP+ module. “SFP+ has become a very successful form factor at 10Gbps,” says Ward. “All the market data I see show SFP+ leads in overall volumes deployed by a significant margin.” Its success has been achieved despite being a form factor was not designed to achieve all the 10Gbps reaches required initially. This is some achievement, says Ward, since the XFP+ form factor used for 80km has a power rating of 3.5W while the 80km SFP+ has to work within a less than 2W upper limit.
Parallel Optics
Avago detailed its main parallel optic designs: the CXP module and its two optical engine designs.
The company claims it seeing much interested from high-performance computing vendors such as IBM and Fujitsu for its CXP 120 Gigabit (12x10Gbps) parallel transceiver module. Avago is sampling the module and it will start shipping in the summer.
The company also announced the status of its embedded parallel optics devices (PODs). Such parallel optic designs offer several advantages, says Krutul. Embedding the optics on the motherboard offers greater flexibility in cooling since the traditional optics is normally at the edge of the card, furthest away from the fans. Such optics also simplify high-speed signal routing on the printed circuit board since fibre is used.
Avago offers two designs – the 8x8mm MicroPod and the 22x18mm MiniPod. The 12x10Gbps MicroPods are being used in IBM’s Blue Gene computer and Avago says it is already shipping tens of thousands of the devices a month. “The [MicroPod’s] signal pins have a very tight pitch and some of our customers find that difficult to do,” says Krutul. The MiniPod design tackles this by using the MicroPod optical engine but a more relaxed pitch. At OFC, Avago said that the MiniPod is now sampling.
Gridless ROADMs
Finisar demonstrated what it claims is the first gridless wavelength-selective switch (WSS) module at the show. A gridless ROADM supports variable channel widths beyond the fixed International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) defined spacings. Such a capability enables ROADMs to support variable channel spacings that may be required for transmission rates beyond 100Gbps: 400Gbps, 1Tbps and beyond.
“We have an increasing amount of customer interest in this [FlexGrid], and from what we can tell, there is also an increasing amount of carrier interest as well,” says Ward, adding that the company is already shipping FlexGrid WSSs to customers.
Finisar is a contributing to the ongoing ITU work to define what the grid spacings and the central channels should be for future ROADM deployments. Finisar demonstrated its FlexGrid design implementing integer increments of 12.5GHz spacing. “We could probably go down to 1GHz or even lower than that,” says Ward. “But the network management system required to manage such [fine] granularity would become incredibly complicated.” What is required for gridless is a balance between making good use of the fibre’s spectrum while ensuring the system in manageable, says Ward.