Inphi Corp. (NYSE: IPHI), a provider of high-speed analog semiconductors, says it has demonstrated interoperability of IN112510, its second generation tri-rate PHY/SerDes gearbox integrated circuit (IC), with two chips from PMC (NASDAQ: PMCS): DIGI 120G and META 120G, a high-density 10G, 40G and 100G Optical Transport Network (OTN) processor and a converged Carrier Ethernet and OTN framer chip, respectively.
The vendors have demonstrated DIGI 120G and META 120G interfacing to a 100G CFP2 optical transceiver module using Inphi's IN112510 PHY/SerDes gearbox IC. Hardware and software integration was done using Inphi's software development kit (SDK) with extensive testing and qualification being done via the test functions implemented in the SDK, including link testing with Inphi's iSCAN link management software suite.
"With our DIGI 120G and META 120G, PMC has taken the lead in enabling 100G OTN and Carrier Ethernet switching and connectivity for both OTN optical transport equipment and router platforms," said Babak Samimi, vice president of marketing and applications for PMC's communications business unit. "Our successful interoperability with Inphi's tri-rate gearbox extends the growing ecosystem around our OTN devices, with a proven reference solution that enables our customers to leverage 100G CFP2 pluggable optical modules to deliver the highest port density and lowest power 100G OTN and Carrier Ethernet line cards."
The explosion of packet traffic in metro networks is driving network builds away from legacy SONET/SDH to OTN networks. According to Infonetics Research, the OTN equipment market will top $13 billion in 2017. The vendors says that interoperability testing shows that the industry is ready to support the next wave of dense 100G port line cards for OTN switching, routing, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) and packet optical transport platforms (P-OTPs) for IP-based DWDM networks.
Inphi says its IN112510 gearbox, based on the iPHY architecture, is designed for sensitive 10G, 40G and 100G optical line cards for service provider and carrier OTN networks. Unlike other gearbox and FPGA offerings that attempt to cover too many data rates in unrelated applications, Inphi's says its gearbox IC is purpose-built for power and performance, power, performance, integration, latency and cost. With power consumption as low as 2.3 W, latency under 15 ns and Rj < 180 fs rms, Inphi's new IN112510-LD is the lowest power, highest performing CMOS PHY/SerDes gearbox IC in the industry, the company says.
PMC says its DIGI 120G (PM5440) is the industry's only single-chip OTN processor supporting 10G, 40G and 100G speeds for OTN transport, aggregation and switching applications. DIGI 120G can enable efficient sharing and dynamic assignment of network resources, helping OTN networks to virtualize optical network bandwidth. OTN muxponders and OTN switching cards using DIGI 120G will enable efficient aggregation and grooming of lower speed services into 100G optical channels. DIGI 120G's single-chip architecture allows OEMs to leverage a common hardware and software investment to rapidly develop a portfolio of line cards, resulting in the lowest bill of material, lowest power, and fastest time to market, the vendor claims.
PMC's META 120G (PM5442) is the industry's highest port density 10G, 40G and 100G converged Carrier Ethernet and OTN framer chip for Carrier Ethernet and OTN line on service provider switches and routers, and PTN equipment. META 120G delivers Carrier Ethernet MAC/PHY, comprehensive OTN framing/mapping in conjunction with multiple FEC protocols, including PMC's innovative high-gain Swizzle enhanced FEC and fully integrated packet timing engine, including clock recovery that exceeds the IEEE 1588v2 telecom profile for every port. Meta 120G delivers overall feature integration, port density and device capacity that is unmatched in the market today.
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