FEATURE : NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS
ONE PERCEPTION THAT PEOPLE HAVE IN 400ZR+ PLUGGABLES IS THAT THEY CAN ONLY BE DEPLOYED IN SWITCHES AND ROUTERS
The companies involved with hyperscale networks want small 400ZR components that are available from multiple vendors
g our silicon photonics-based 64GBd Coherent Optical Sub-Assembly (COSA) operating at
16 QAM for 400G per wavelength over ZR distances,’ said Ferris Lipscomb, NeoPhotonics’ vice president of marketing. Te company announced limited availability of the ‘Nano’ version of its ultra-narrow linewidth integrated tuneable laser assembly (ITLA) at the event. Tis Nano-ITLA is shipping in limited quantities to customers now, and the company’s COSA will begin sampling later in the year. ‘Both of these devices are suitable for use
in small form factor pluggable modules, like OSFP and QSFP-DD,’ added Lipscomb. ‘Tese parts provide all of the optical components and analogue chips required for 400ZR. Our aim is to have the optical components ready to mate up with the 7nm DSPs as they become available for an expeditious introduction of the final product to market. Given a reasonable DSP power consumption, we are focused on making sure the optics that support both form factors will be available.’ NeoPhotonics seeks to bring the highest
speed and performance optics to this new format, Lipscomb added. ‘Our external cavity tuneable laser has the narrowest linewidth and lowest noise in the industry, and is used by most of the industry leaders for their most demanding applications,’ he said. ‘Our Nano-ITLA maintains this performance
advantage in a form factor suitable for 400ZR. Similarly, NeoPhotonics has brought a 64GBd modulator and receiver together in its COSA. In terms of modules, the company is shipping coherent CFP-DCO, and demonstrated CFP2- DCO at OFC.’
16 FiBRE SYSTEMS n Issue 24 n Summer 2019
Beyond interoperability? Tis differentiated product performance enables the small size and low power required by OSFP and QSFP-DD form factors, Lipscomb said. It will also determine the limits of what can be achieved with 400ZR+, which builds on 400ZR. 400ZR+ brings the potential to extend the use of pluggable modules into metro markets, serving the networks that connect up metropolitan areas. As such, this ‘would significantly increase the volumes needed’, said Lipscomb. ‘Furthermore, this enhancement will require higher performance optics, which leverages our strength.’ Te OIF’s Gass stressed that extending
the 400ZR specification in this way is likely to introduce products that may not be interoperable. ‘400ZR+ is a marketing term, developed outside of the OIF to try to differentiate vendor-specific features,’ he said. ‘We have no current plans to standardise 400ZR+ in the OIF, as we did for 400ZR. We are defining soſtware management interface specifications that will facilitate 400ZR+ modules. 400ZR+ simply means anything other than 400ZR that can be accommodated in the same form factor, or potentially even in a common module part number. 400ZR+ might include longer reaches, muxponder applications, and support for lower data rates, including 100, 200 and 300G.’ Xenos feels that there is a lot of industry
interest in 400ZR+, because the specific ranges and applications that 400ZR offers relate to a market with large overall volumes. However, she thinks the market is still limited, yet there are many ideas for how to extend it to 400ZR+.
‘One interpretation is that we take aspects of 400ZR, the 400G line rate and the pluggability, and change the technical spec so that there’s a longer reach, to be able to address a larger metro market,’ Xenos explained. ‘ITU is defining a 450km specification, which some people in the industry are calling 400ZR+.’
On the plus side Xenos explained the requirements involved if 400ZR+ simply expands its basic 400G capabilities to a larger metro market, and why interoperability may be less important in those cases. ‘We have again the performance- optimised integrated optical solution,’ she said. ‘Network performance means higher capacity per wavelength. It means that you can go a certain capacity for a longer distance. You don’t need to add regenerators. All these capabilities translate to lower cost per bit. In the majority of cases, our customers are looking for highest performance solutions. When maximum spectral efficiency is not a requirement, a 400ZR+ solution is very atractive for the metro market. Vendor-specific high-performance modes, rather than interoperability, will be more popular for this application.’ 400ZR+ will also likely defy expectations,
Xenos added. ‘One perception that people have in 400ZR+ pluggables is that they can only be deployed in switches and routers,’ she said. ‘In fact, pluggables are going to be deployed across a range of products, switches and routers, as well as optical transport equipment. Te right product is going to depend on factors such as what customer operational requirements are, what the network architecture is, and traffic growth rates.’ Consequently, companies that are set to use
400ZR are assessing their network architectures ‘and seeing what makes sense for them’, Xenos said. ‘Tere are so many options right now. Tere’s a lot of analysis going on. Te actual 400ZR products become available next year. We expect to see some ramp starting at the end of 2020, and moving forward aſter that.’ n
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