Talking markets: Oclaro on 100 gigabits and beyond

Oclaro’s chief commercial officer, Adam Carter, discusses the 100-gigabit market, optical module trends, silicon photonics, and why this is a good time to be an optical component maker.

Oclaro has started its first quarter 2017 fiscal results as it ended fiscal year 2016 with another record quarter. The company reported revenues of $136 million in the quarter ending in September, 8 percent sequential growth and the company's fifth consecutive quarter of 7 percent or greater revenue growth.

Adam CarterA large part of Oclaro’s growth was due to strong demand for 100 gigabits across the company’s optical module and component portfolio.

The company has been supplying 100-gigabit client-side optics using the CFP, CFP2 and CFP4 pluggable form factors for a while. “What we saw in June was the first real production ramp of our CFP2-ACO [coherent] module,” says Adam Carter, chief commercial officer at Oclaro. “We have transferred all that manufacturing over to Asia now.”

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OFC 2015 digest: Part 2

The second part of the survey of developments at the OFC 2015 show held recently in Los Angeles.   

 

Part 2: Client-side component and module developments   

• CFP4- and QSFP28-based 100GBASE-LR4 announced
• First mid-reach optics in the QSFP28
• SFP extended to 28 Gigabit
• 400 Gig precursors using DMT and PAM-4 modulations 
• VCSEL roadmap promises higher speeds and greater reach

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OFC 2014 product round-up - Final part

Part 2: Client-side technologies

The industry is moving at a clip to fill the void in 100 Gig IEEE standards for 100m to 2km links. Until now, the IEEE 10km 100GBASE-LR4 and the 10x10 MSA have been the interfaces used to address such spans.

But responding to data centre operators, optical players are busy developing less costly, mid-reach MSAs, as was evident at the OFC exhibition and conference, held in San Francisco in March. 

Meanwhile, existing IEEE 100 Gigabit standards are skipping to the most compact CFP4 and QSFP28 form factors. The -LR4 standard was first announced in a CFP in 2010, and moved to the CFP2, half the size of the CFP, in 2013. Now, several companies have detailed CFP4 -LR4 products, while Source Photonics has gone one better, announcing the standard in a QSFP28.

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OFC 2014 product round-up - Part 1

Part 1: Line-side technologies

 

Technologies for 100 Gigabit were prominent at this year's OFC conference and exhibition held in San Francisco earlier this month.

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MACOM acquires Mindspeed to boost 100 Gig offerings

MACOM has acquired Mindspeed Technologies for $272 million, gaining two of the company's three divisions: high-performance analogue and communications processors. Intel has gained the third wireless infrastructure division of Mindspeed that includes 3G/ LTE infrastructure ICs and small-cell technology that Mindpseed gained with the acquisition of UK firm, Picochip, in 2012. 

Ray MoroneyThe Mindspeed acquisition increases the serviceable addressible market for MACOM, both geographical - the company will strengthen its presence in Asia Pacific - and by gaining new equipment vendor accounts. It also broadens MACOM's 100 Gigabit physical device portfolio.

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Verizon on 100G+ optical transmission developments

Source: Gazettabyte

Feature: 100 Gig and Beyond. Part 1:

Verizon's Glenn Wellbrock discusses 100 Gig deployments and higher speed optical channel developments for long haul and metro. 

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The CDFP 400 Gig module

• The CDFP will be a 400 Gig short reach module
• Module will enable 4 Terabit line cards 
• Specification will be completed in the next year

A CDFP pluggable multi-source agreement (MSA) has been created to develop a 400 Gigabit module for use in the data centre. "It is a pluggable interface, very similar to the QSFP and CXP [modules]," says Scott Sommers, group product manager at Molex, one of the CDFP MSA members.

Scott Sommers, MolexThe CDFP name stands for 400 (CD in Roman numerals) Form factor Pluggable. The MSA will define the module's mechanical properties and its medium dependent interface (MDI) linking the module to the physical medium. The CDFP will support passive and active copper cable, active optical cable and multi-mode fibre.

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