OIF targets CFP2-DCO, IC-TROSA with new initiatives

Members of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) voted at their recent quarterly meeting to tackle a pair of new projects. They include work on specifications for a CFP2-Digital Coherent Optics (DCO) optical transceiver to complement the existing Analog Coherent Optics (ACO) version as well as an Integrated Coherent Transmitter-Receiver Optical Subassembly (IC-TROSA) that should help the drive to reduce optical module size.

The popular CFP2-ACO for high-density coherent transmission applications is notable for the fact that the requisite DSP is mounted on the line card instead of integrated the in the transceiver module (see "OIF approves CFP2-ACO Implementation Agreement"). The DCO project will seek to forward the development of a CFP2 optical transceiver in which the DSP moves into the module.

The OIF sees the CFP2-DCO as an option for 100G, 200G, and 400G applications for metro, long-haul, and data center interconnect. It therefore will need to support a variety of modulation formats, such as DP-QPSK and DP-xQAM.

The group says it expects to work with other standards bodies on this effort.

Meanwhile, the IC-TROSA project seeks to enable greater integration for transmit and receive optical components. The resulting component will combine polarization multiplexed quadrature (PMQ) transmitter (Tx) and integrated coherent receiver (ICR) elements to create a single integrated optics device. The optical sub-assembly should aid the development of small form factor approaches to support of high-bandwidth and high-order QAM interfaces for data center interconnect, metro, and long-haul applications.

"The IC-TROSA project tackles much more than just a simple size reduction," said Karl Gass of Qorvo and the OIF's Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group – Optical vice chair. "It addresses optical packaging in a way that isn't done in high volumes today. We want to come to industry consensus in this pre-competitive environment."

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