Coherent unveils 140Gbaud optical subassembly
Coherent, a technology company developing optical communications solutions, has announced the introduction of its 140 GBaud integrated coherent transmitter-receiver optical subassembly (IC-TROSA). The company says this product is the industry’s first to enable 800G QSFP-DD and OSFP digital coherent optics (DCO) pluggable transceivers for high-speed datacentre interconnects and metro networks.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) applications are accelerating the exponential growth of datacentre traffic in cloud networks, driving the demand for efficient bandwidth upgrades in datacentre interconnects and optical transport networks. According to Coherent, its 140 GBaud IC-TROSA is the industry’s first to enable 800 Gbps ZR/OpenZR+ transmission in datacentre interconnects and metro communications networks in the ultra-dense QSFP-DD and OSFP pluggable form factors. The company describes the IC-TROSA is a highly integrated coherent optics subassembly with embedded optical amplification that can deliver high transmitter output power with low power dissipation, enabling DCO modules that can plug directly into routers. This solution seeks to lower the total cost of network ownership for hyperscalers and service providers by eliminating a layer of transponder equipment.
“This 140 GBaud IC-TROSA follows the 64 GBaud IC-TROSA introduced in March 2020, which was also an industry first,” said Matthias Berger, Vice President of Coherent Technology at Coherent Corp. “We continue to advance the state of the art of optical transmission in core networks by leveraging the inherent capabilities of our indium phosphide technology platform. Indium phosphide photonic integrated circuits are differentiated by their high output power, which enables disruptive use cases such as IP-over-DWDM in metro networks.”
Coherent’s IC-TROSA was combined with the Orion digital signal processor (DSP) from Marvell to demonstrate the performance capabilities of a complete transceiver solution for 800 Gbps transmission.
“Marvell’s close collaboration with Coherent has enabled us to showcase the power of the combination of technologies from two leading companies,” said Samuel Liu, Sr. Director, Product Line Management, Coherent DSP at Marvell. “Together, the 140 GBaud IC-TROSA and the Orion coherent DSP enable pluggable transceivers for 800 Gbps with more than 500 km reach, allowing datacentre interconnects to scale network capacity quickly and economically so as to accommodate the surging traffic from AI/ML and other distributed, data-intensive workloads.”
The 140 GBaud IC-TROSA is a complete coherent optical engine that includes a wavelength- tunable laser, optical amplifiers, modulators, drivers, a coherent mixer, a photodiode array, and transimpedance amplifiers. It features an embedded microcontroller, DAC/ADCs, and a simple digital communication interface for all control and monitoring. The module supports symbol rates of up to 140 GBaud and multiple modulation formats, including QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 32QAM, and 64QAM. It is designed to meet the requirements of the OIF IC-TROSA Implementation Agreement (Type-2 version). Alpha samples of the 140 GBaud IC-TROSA are available now and the product will be generally available in mid-2024.
This announcement follows the news that Coherent will be extending their partnership with Kinetic by Windstream, a provider of fibre-based connectivity, collaboration, and security services for businesses and homes. Their existing collaboration to enable 400G services has been extended to support 100G services at the edge of the network, leveraging what Coherent says is the industry’s first 100G QSFP28 0 dBm digital coherent optics (DCO) transceiver.
According to Coherent, its new high-power 100G transceivers will enable Kinetic to optically connect routers directly to access, metro, and regional transport networks without additional intermediary interfaces, eliminating an entire layer of optical equipment.
“The 100G QSFP28 DCO transceiver with 0 dBm output power is the industry’s first, and it enables Kinetic to deploy 100 Gbps coherent transceiver technology in the access aggregation networks efficiently and sustainably,” said Matthias Berger. “These benefits are achieved thanks to the transceiver’s unique features, including Coherent’s Steelerton DSP optimised for 100G, cost-efficient silicon photonics technology, high-power indium phosphide semiconductor tuneable lasers, and Flextune technology.”
Jeff Austin, Chief Technology Officer at Kinetic, said: “We are pleased to expand our partnership with Coherent, which has been vital in accelerating the scale of our network in a sustainable way as we continue to deliver on our commitment to bring fibre connectivity to businesses and homes across rural America. Coherent’s high transmit power 0 dBm 100G QSFP28 DCO transceivers will add to the existing 0 dBm 400G QSFP-DD DCO transceivers to enable Kinetic to deploy greatly simplified network architectures. This will further accelerate the revolution in IP-over-DWDM networks to achieve efficiency and scale across our 18-state network, affording Kinetic a highly competitive operational model.”
