In booth #500 at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2016) in Dusseldorf, Germany (19-21 September), fiber-optic communications component and subsystem maker Finisar Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA is demonstrating a new family of 100Gb/s optical modules extending communication reaches in modern enterprise and hyperscale data-center environments.
Based on the QSFP28 form factor, the comprehensive portfolio includes an eSR4 (extended short-reach) transceiver designed for 200m reaches, an eCWDM4 (extended coarse wavelength division multiplexing) transceiver for 10km reaches, and an eLR4 (extended long-reach) transceiver for 20km reaches, each operating using four 25Gb/s channels.
It was estimated in a recent report by the Dell'Oro Group that the cloud market for Ethernet switching is expected to reach $8bn globally by 2020. Hyperscale data centers are widely used by cloud service providers to house cloud-based resources and services. As the strong demand for Internet bandwidth drives the need to build data-center facilities that are both larger in footprint and encompass more buildings within a data-center campus, Finisar is offering what is claimed to be the first suite of extended-reach products tailored to meet this bandwidth requirement.
During the ECOC exhibition, Finisar is demonstrating its new eSR4 QSFP28 transceiver transmitting 100Gb/s over 200m on OM3 multi-mode fiber (MMF), exceeding the 70m reach specified by the IEEE 802.3bm standard. It can also run over 300m on OM4 MMF. This transceiver will interoperate with four Finisar 25GE SFP28 eSR transceivers at its maximum specified reach, or with a standard QSFP28 SR4 transceiver at the IEEE specified 70m reach.
Finisar is also demonstrating its new eCWDM4 QSFP28 transceiver transmitting 100Gb/s over a 10km reach on duplex single-mode fiber (SMF). It consumes less than 3.5W of power and will meet the requirements of the recently announced 4WDM MSA (4-wavelength Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement) 10km interface. This device will also interoperate with modules compliant to the CWDM4 MSA standard, up to 2km.
Thirdly, Finisar is demonstrating its new eLR4 QSFP28 transceiver transmitting 100Gb/s over a 20km reach on duplex SMF. It also consumes less than 3.5W power and will meet the requirements of the 4WDM MSA 20km interface. The device will interoperate with modules compliant to 100GBASE-LR4 specifications, up to 10km.
The new 4WDM MSA (of which Finisar is a founding member) will drive the development of extended-reach low-cost 100G optical specifications. The industry consortium will also promote adoption of industry interoperability of 100G optical transceivers for 10km based on the CWDM4 wavelength grid, and 20-40km based on the LAN-WDM wavelength grid, over duplex SMF, which are important requirements for supporting hyperscale data center needs.
"Finisar has the broadest portfolio of 100Gb/s QSFP28 products on the market," claims Rafik Ward, VP of global marketing. "These products were designed with longer-reach capabilities in a low-power and low-cost package," he adds. "We are also able to provide these products in high volumes by leveraging our solid vertically integrated manufacturing infrastructure."
At ECOC, Finisar is giving additional demonstrations including new features of the WaveShaper and WaveAnalyzer optical instrumentation family and a 100G SWDM4 interoperability demonstration between two industry leaders, leveraging duplex MMF in the data center.
