The InfiniBand roadmap gets redrawn

The InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) has announced a new roadmap for the low latency bi-directional link. What was Eight Data Rate InfiniBand will now be known as Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) and be upgraded from 20Gbps to 26Gbps per channel. EDR will deliver a 104Gbps data rate in a four-channel InfiniBand (4x) implementation and 312Gbps when used as a 12-channel (12x) interface.

“We can already demonstrate in silicon a 30Gbps transmitter."

Marek Tlalka, Luxtera

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Infinera PICs 100Gbps coherent

What is being announced?

Infinera is expediting its product plans, basing its optical transmission roadmap on coherent detection.

The company plans to launch a 100Gbps coherent transmission system in 2012. The design will be based on a pair of 5x100Gbps ultra-long-haul photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chips to enable its systems to deliver 8 terabits-per-second (Tbps) over a fibre.

“This change in roadmap is because of the successful development of our 100G coherent ASIC programme, and we have integrated five 100Gbps coherent channels onto one card.”

Drew Perkins, Infinera

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40Gbps, 100Gbps and beyond mind map

A mind map of the 40Gbps, 100Gbps and beyond high-speed optical transmission market to accompany the three-part April 2010 feature.

Click here to download the mind map

Is a datacom and telecom mini-boom taking place?

A reader commented that both semiconductor and optical transceiver lead-times are being extended and that the “good times are here”.  But what is the cause, he asked, and are good times really here?

Daryl Inniss believes it is largely a reflection of cutbacks that have run their course. “The industry cut back swiftly and deeply when the market started to tank, cutting suppliers and capacity,” says Inniss, practice leader, components at market research firm Ovum.

“I think it's recovery dynamics - people ordering a tiny bit more and there are no parts available such that lead-times are stretching out simulating a boom.”

Brad Smith, LightCounting

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DSL: Will phantom channels become real deployments?

Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs has announced it has achieved a data rate of 300 megabits-per-second (Mbps) over 400m using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. 

Alcatel-Lucent is promoting its DSL Phantom Mode technology as a complement to fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) technology. Operators can use the technology to continue to extend services offerings to existing DSL subscribers as they roll out FTTx over the next decade or more.

But one analyst believes the technology could take years to commercialise and questions whether the announcement is not sending a wrong message to the industry by providing an alternative to fibre.

“The investment required to upgrade DSL is quite small”

Stefaan Vanhastel, Alcatel-Lucent

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OFC/NFOEC 2010: Industry reflections

Gazettabyte asked the views of several attendees at OFC/NFOEC 2010 to reflect on the show. In particular what developments or trends struck them as noteworthy, what they learnt and what gives them reason for optimism?

Here is a selection of their views.

“We heard again and again, that the internet service providers such as Google are still looking for solutions for their future bandwidth demand”

Andreas Umbach, u2t Photonics

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Mobile broadband: congestion is inevitable

Shown is a table listing the typical bandwidth requirements for various applications.

The table is taken from a recent report by Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research, entitled Mobile Broadband Capacity Constraints And the Need for Optimization.

The report looks at the huge growth in mobile broadband services and the resulting congestion. The report includes a nice model showing how only a few intensive users can consume much of a cell's capacity. The report also discusses how operators must continue to add wireless capacity while being a lot smarter in the bandwidth consumed by applications.

To see a copy of the report, click here

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