ECOC 2023: Scaling to 800G and beyond

The optical industry has responded as the data center market migrates to 400G/800G and beyond.

This transition is driven by the growing interest in cloud computing and cloud services, which has created new higher bandwidth demands, faster speed, and lower latency performance, which means that high-speed switches are more widely used, such as 400G and 800G switches. 

Several optical component vendors showed off new platforms, which capitalize on new data center demands from growing AI and Machine Learning applications, support 800G show, including:

·      Broadcom: Broadcom showcased its 5nm 200G/lane optical PAM-4 DSP PHY, the Sian™ BCM85822. The BCM85822 features 200G/lane serial optical interfaces, which enable optical transceiver manufacturers to deliver 800G and 1.6T pluggable modules and meet the growing bandwidth needs and low power consumption requirements of hyperscale data centers.

·       Coherent: Coherent showcased its 140 GBaud integrated coherent transmitter-receiver optical subassembly (IC-TROSA), a platform focused on enabling 800G QSFP-DD and OSFP digital coherent optics (DCO) pluggable transceivers for high-speed datacenter interconnects and metro networks.

·       EFFECT Photonics: EFFECT Photonics, a developer of highly integrated optical solutions, has achieved verification of an integrated tunable laser InP-based Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC), the core enabler powering its digital Pico Integrated Tunable Laser Assembly (pITLA).

·       LESSENGERS: LESSENGERS, a provider of optical components based on its patented “direct optical wiring” (DOW) technology, unveiled that its new 800G transceiver product (800G OSFP SR8) would begin volume production in the fourth quarter and begin shipping to customers. The company targets AI/ML clusters, hyperscale data centers with 800G AOCs and transceivers.

·       Lumentum: Obtaining efficiency was a vital element of these platforms. For example, Lumentum’s 800G ZR+ and zero dBm 400G ZR+ compact transceivers, designed to connect data centers, enable IP over DWDM by directly plugging into switches and routers.

·       Source Photonics: Source Photonics, a provider of solutions for communications and data connectivity for use in hyperscale data centers, jointly with industry partners, showcased a live demonstration of 800G 4x200G LR4 OSFP Transceivers at ECOC 2023, a key proof point in the development of next-generation 200G/lambda based 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers.

Data center operators will welcome these platforms as speeds transition from 400 to 800 Gbps to 1.6 Tbps.

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