NeoPhotonics tech demonstration proves enhanced data center capabilities

Fri, 4th Mar 2022

FYI, this story is more than a year old

NeoPhotonics has announced new technology components set to enhance data center and telecom networks by providing better operational support.

The new Indium Phosphide components are capable of 120Gbaud operation and support 800G LR, ZR, and ZR+ transmission.

The technology demonstration used coherent receivers and coherent modulators, coupled with ultra-narrow linewidth tunable lasers or distributed feedback lasers to demonstrate the 120Gbaud operation in applications ranging from 800G LR transmission to 400G long haul transmission.

The company says the next-generation DSP baud rate will be based on 120+ Gbaud, and potential applications include:

800LR (10km)
800ZR for DCI (100km)
800ZR+ for metro-core (1000km)
400Gb/s ultra-long-haul transmission

The demonstration results specifically found that in different situations that:

Long-haul

Performed 400Gb/s over a 1500km standard single-mode fibre EDFA-only transmission system with a superior required OSNR of 16.7dB at OFEC threshold.

Regional/Metro-core

Performed 800Gb/s (with probabilistic shaping) over 1000km standard single-mode fiber EDFA-only transmission system with a superior required OSNR of 24.3dB at OFEC threshold;

ZR DCI

800ZR over a single-span EDFA-based 100km standard single-mode fiber with a superior required OSNR of 25dB at OFEC threshold and a transmitter output power of -6dBm.

Unamplified LR

800LR over an unamplified 10km link with a 9dB link budget, and 800Gb/s coherent lite over an unamplified 1km link with a budget of 5.2dB, both using a low-latency FEC with a BER threshold at 4 x 10-3. The latter used self-homodyne coherent detection so as to significantly simplify the DSP and remove wavelength locking between transmitter and local oscillator.

NeoPhotonics CEO and chairman Tim Jenks says that the company is proud to present its findings and introduce a new technology solution to the data center and network market. He says the new advancement creates a variety of opportunities for those operators to expand their capability and provide better service to their customers.

“We are pleased to take this opportunity to highlight the progress we have made in pushing our high-performance indium phosphide integration technologies to even higher speeds and over longer distances to enable new potential applications in cloud and data center applications,” he says.

“These 120Gbaud components coupled with our ultra-narrow linewidth external cavity nano tunable laser or our distributed feedback lasers, along with concurrent DSP advances, could enable pluggable modules to operate at 800G for applications within and between datacenters, as well as to extend the speed and reach of embedded telecom systems.

Further information and findings on the new technology will be discussed at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition in California from March 8-10, 2022.