Acacia announces a 1.2 terabit coherent module

Acacia Communications has given first details of its AC1200 coherent optical module, capable of transmitting up to 1.2 terabits of data. The custom coherent transceiver is being aimed at applications ranging from linking data centres to long-haul and even sub-sea transmissions and was announced at the recent ECOC show held in Gothenburg.

Channel capacity and link margin can be maximised by using the fractional QAM scheme. Source: Acacia.

The company is facing increasing market competition. Ciena has teamed up with Lumentum, NeoPhotonics, and Oclaro, sharing its high-end coherent DSP expertise with the three optical module makers. Meanwhile, Inphi has started sampling its 16nm CMOS M200, a 100- and 200-gigabit coherent DSP suitable for CFP2-ACO, CFP-DCO, and CFP2-DCO module designs.

The AC1200 is Acacia’s response, extending its high-end module offering beyond a terabit to compete with the in-house system vendors and preserve its performance lead against the optical module makers.

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Has coherent optical transmission run its course?

Feature: Coherent's future

Three optical systems vendors share their thoughts about coherent technology and the scope for further improvement as they look two generations ahead to symbol rates approaching 100 gigabaud   

Optical transmission using coherent detection has made huge strides in the last decade. The latest coherent technology with transmitter-based digital signal processing delivers 25x the capacity-reach of 10-gigabit wavelengths using direct-detection, according to Infinera.

Since early 2016, the optical systems vendors Infinera, Ciena and Nokia have all announced new coherent digital signal processor (DSP) designs. Each new generation of coherent DSP improves the capacity that can be transmitted over an optical link. But given the effectiveness of the latest coherent systems, has most of the benefits already been achieved?

Source: Infinera

“It is getting harder and harder,” admits Kim Roberts, vice president, WaveLogic science at Ciena. “Unlike 10 years ago, there are no factors of 10 available for improvement.”

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