ECOC 2012 summary - Part 1: Oclaro
Gazettabyte completes its summary of key optical announcements at the recent ECOC show held in Amsterdam. Oclaro's announcements detailed here are followed by those of Finisar and NeoPhotonics.
Part 1: Oclaro
"Networks are getting more complex and you need automation so that they are more foolproof and more efficient operationally"
Per Hansen, Oclaro
Oclaro made several announcements at ECOC included an 8-port flexible-grid optical channel monitor, a new small form factor pump laser MSA and its first CFP2 module. The company also gave an update regarding its 100 Gigabit coherent optical transmission module as well as the company's status following Oclaro's merger with Opnext (see below).
The 8-port flexible grid optical channel monitor (OCM) is to address emerging, more demanding requirements of optical networks. "Networks are getting more complex and you need automation so that they are more foolproof and more efficient operationally," says Per Hansen, vice president of product marketing, optical networks solutions at Oclaro.
The 8-port device can monitor up to eight fibres, for example the input and seven output ports of a wavelength-selective switch or an amplifier's outputs.
The programmable OCM can do more than simply go from fibre to fibre, measuring the spectrum. The OCM can dwell on particular ports, or monitor a wavelength on particular ports when the system is adjusting or turning up a wavelength, for example.
"There is processing power included such that you can do a lot of data processing which can then be exported to the line card in the format required," says Hansen. This is important as operators start to adopt flexible-grid network architectures. "[With flexible-grid spectrum] you don't know where channels stop and start such that an OCM that looks at fixed slots in no longer enough," says Hansen.
The OCM can monitor bands finer than 6.25GHz through to the spectrum across the complete C-band.
Oclaro also detailed that its OMT-100 coherent 100 Gigabit optical module is entering volume production. "We have shipped well over 100 [units] to various customers," says Hansen. "There are a lot of system houses looking at this type of module this year." The OMT-100 was developed by Opnext and replaces Oclaro's own MI 8000XM 100 Gigabit module
The company also announced its first 100 Gigabit CFP2 module and its second-generation CFP module 16W power consumption that support the IEEE 100GBASE-LR4 10km standard.
A new small form factor multi-source agreement (MSA) for pump laser diodes was also announced at the show, involving Oclaro and 3S Photonics.
The 10-pin butterfly package is designed to replace the existing 14-pin design. "It is 75% smaller in volume - about two-thirds in each dimension," says Robert Blum, director of product marketing for Oclaro's photonic components. The MSA supports a single cooled or uncooled pump laser, and its smaller volume enables more integrated amplifier designs.
Oclaro says other companies have expressed interest in the MSA and it expects additional players to join.
The New Oclaro
Source: Ovum
Oclaro also gave an update of the company's status following the merger with Opnext earlier this year. The now 3,000-strong company has estimated annual revenues of US $800m. This places the optical component company second only to Finisar.
The merger has broadened the company's product line, adding Opnext's strength in datacom pluggable transceivers to Oclaro's core networking products. The company is also more vertically integrated, using its optical components such as tunable laser and VCSEL technologies, modulators and receivers within its line-side transponders and pluggable optical transceivers.
"You can drive technologies in different directions and not just be out there buying components and throwing them together," says Hansen.
The company also has a range of laser diodes for industrial and consumer applications. "We [Oclaro] were already the largest merchant supplier of high-power laser diodes but now we have a complete portfolio that covers all the wavelengths from 400 up to 1500nm," says Blum.
The company has a broad range of technologies that include indium phosphide, gallium arsenide, lithium niobate, MEMS, liquid crystal and gallium nitride.
An extra business unit has also been created. To the existing optical networks solutions and the photonic components businesses there is now the modules and devices unit covering pluggable and high-speed client side transceivers, and which is based in Japan.
2012: The year of 100 Gigabit transponders
“The world is moving to coherent, there is no question about that”
Per Hansen, Oclaro
The 100Gbps module expands the company's coherent offerings. Oclaro is already shipping a 40Gbps coherent module. “The world is moving to coherent, there is no question about that,” says Per Hansen, vice president of product marketing, optical networks solutions at Oclaro.
Why is this significant?
Having a selection of 100Gbps long-haul optical modules will aid the uptake of high-capacity links in the network core. Opnext announced in September its OTM-100 100Gbps coherent optical module, in production from April 2012. And at least one other module maker has worked with ADVA Optical Networking to make its 100Gbps module, a non-coherent design.
The 100Gbps coherent optical modules will enable system vendors without their own technology to enter the marketplace. It also presents those system vendors with their own 100Gbps technology - the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco and Huawei - with a dilemma: do they continue to evolve their products or embrace optical modules?
“These system vendors have developed [100Gbps] in-house to have a strategic differentiator," says Hansen. "But with lower volumes you have a higher cost.” The advent of 100Gbps modules diminishes the strategic advantage of in-house technology while enabling system vendors to benefit from cheaper, more broadly available modules, he says.
What has been done
Oclaro is still developing the MI 8000XM module and has yet to reveal the reach performance of the module: “We want to do many more tests before we share,” says Hansen. The module will meet the Optical Internetworking Forum's (OIF) 100Gbps module maximum power consumption limit of 80W, he says.
The OIF 100 Gigabit module architecture
The NEL DSP chip is the same device that Opnext is using for its 100Gbps module. “A partnership agreement and sourcing arrangement with NEL allows us to come to market with what we think is a very good product at the right time,” says Hansen.
The DSP uses soft-decision forward error correction. Opnext has said this adds 2-3dB to the optical performance to achieve a reach of 1500-1600km before regeneration.
In 2010 Oclaro announced it had invested US $7.5 million in Clariphy Communications as part of the chip company's development of its 100Gbps coherent receiver chip, the CL10010. As part of the agreement, Oclaro will get a degree of exclusivity as a module supplier (at least one other module maker will also benefit).
ClariPhy has said that while it will not be first to market with a 100Gbps ASIC, the CL10010 will be a 28nm CMOS second-generation chip design. To be able to enter the market with a 100Gbps module next year, Oclaro adopted NEL's design which exists now.
Next
Hansen says that the MI 8000XM, which uses a lithium niobate modulator, is designed to achieve maximum reach and optical performance. But future 100Gbps modules will be developed that may use other modulator technologies and be optimised in terms of power or size.
Hansen is also in no doubt that the next speed hike after 100Gbps will be 400Gbps. Like 100Gbps, there will be some early-adopter operators that embrace the technology one or two years before the consensus.
Such a development is still several years away, however, since an industry standard for 400Gbps must be developed which is only expected in 2014 only.