Does Cisco Systems' CPAK module threaten the CFP2?

Cisco Systems has been detailing over recent months its upcoming proprietary optical module dubbed CPAK. The development promises to reduce the market opportunity for the CFP2 multi-source agreement (MSA) and has caused some disquiet in the industry.

Source: Cisco Systems, Gazettabyte, see comments

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JDSU's Brandon Collings on silicon photonics, optical transport & the tunable SFP+

JDSU's CTO for communications and commercial optical products, Brandon Collings, discusses reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), 100 Gigabit, silicon photonics, and the status of JDSU's tunable SFP+.

"We have been continually monitoring to find ways to use the technology [silicon photonics] for telecom but we are not really seeing that happen”

Brandon Collings, JDSU

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The next high-speed Ethernet standard starts to take shape

Source: Gazettabyte

The IEEE has begun work to develop the next-speed Ethernet standard beyond 100 Gigabit to address significant predicted growth in bandwidth demand. 

The standards body has set up the IEEE 802.3 Industry Connections Higher Speed Ethernet Consensus group, chaired by John D’Ambrosia, who previously chaired the 40 and 100 Gigabit IEEE P802.3ba Ethernet standards ratified in June 2010. "I guess I’m a glutton for punishment,” quips D'Ambrosia. 

The Higher Speed Ethernet standard could be completed by early 2017. 

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Briefing: Flexible elastic-bandwidth networks

Vendors and service providers are implementing the first examples of flexible, elastic-bandwidth networks. Infinera and Microsoft detailed one such network at the Layer123 Terabit Optical and Data Networking conference held earlier this year.

Optical networking expert Ioannis Tomkos of the Athens Information Technology Center explains what is flexible, elastic bandwidth.

Part 1: Flexible elastic bandwidth

"We cannot design anymore optical networks assuming that the available fibre capacity is abundant" 

Prof. Tomkos

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Industry underestimating 25 Gigabit parallel optics challenge

Ten Gigabit-based parallel optics is set to dominate the marketplace for several years to come. So claims datacom module specialist, Avago Technologies. 

"One customer told us it has to keep the interface speed below 20Gbps due to the cost of the SerDes"

Sharon Hall, Avago 

"People are underestimating what is going to be involved in doing 25 Gigabit [channels]," says Sharon Hall, product line manager for embedded optics at Avago Technologies. "Ten Gigabit is going to last quite a bit longer because of the price point it can provide."

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OneChip Photonics targets the data centre with its PICs

OneChip Photonics is developing integrated optical components for the IEEE 40GBASE-LR4 and 100GBASE-LR4 interface standards.

The company believes its photonic integrated circuits (PICs) will more than halve the cost of the 40 and 100 Gigabit 10km-reach interfaces, enough for LR4 to cost-competitively address shorter reach applications in the data centre.

"I think we can cut the price [of LR4 modules] by half or better”

Andy Weirich, OneChip Photonics

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2020 vision

In a panel discussion at the recent Level123 Terabit Optical and Data Networking conference, Kim Roberts, senior director coherent systems at Ciena, shared his thoughts about the future of optical transmission. 

Final part : Optical transmission in 2020

"Four hundred Gigabit and one Terabit are not going to start in long-haul"

Kim Roberts, Ciena 

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