Marvell, Lumentum, and Coherent successfully demonstrate interoperable 800G ZR/ZR+ pluggable modules over transmission links of up to 500 kilometers

On September 5, Marvell Technology, Inc., Lumentum Holdings Inc., and Coherent Corp. announced a successful interoperability demonstration of 800G ZR/ZR+ optical modules over transmission links up to 500 kilometers—an industry first for 800G.

Marvell reports that the optical modules used in the demonstration are based on its Orion 800G coherent optical DSP, and the demonstration showcased interoperable metro-distance transmission using 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) over a 520-kilometer G.652 fiber link with a more than 2dB margin.

Pranay Aiya, Coherent’s vice president of product line management for transmission solutions, said the results support a cost-efficient supplier ecosystem for cloud and traditional network operators.

“Pluggability everywhere is a critical inflection point in the transmission space,”  said Aiya in a press release. “Each generation of pluggable coherent modules further expands network coverage, enabling 800G services beyond data center interconnects to metro and regional applications.”

Scott Wilkinson, lead analyst at Cignal AI, said the deployment growth of pluggable coherent modules exceeds that of any other coherent technology.

“Their performance increasingly rivals traditional embedded optics, and the interoperable test results with 800 Gbps ZR/ZR+ modules for long-distance DCI delivered by Marvell, Lumentum, and Coherent demonstrate that the application space for pluggables is expanding well beyond short-reach data center interconnect,” said Wilkinson in the same press release.

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