The development of the data center 100G connection drives the 400G solution to grow demand

The widespread deployment of 100G connectivity in the network is driving the growth of demand for 400G solutions and providing funding for 400G device development. Companies that have successfully developed competitive 100G optical modules and components are also developing low-cost 100G solutions while introducing 100G production capacity and introducing 25G, 50G, 200G, 400G and 600G products.

The first 100G Ethernet solution was available in 2010. Since then, 100G shipments have been slow to grow due to costly optical modules and demand constraints. By 2016, the introduction of the QSFP28 module significantly reduced the cost of 100G ports, and the migration of ultra-large data center operators to cloud services brought huge demand.

Therefore, in 2017 proved to be 100G Ethernet "hockey *" year, optical module manufacturers are trying to meet the market demand. At this stage, the focus of optical modules and device suppliers is to increase 100G production capacity and reduce costs, from this wave of demand in the "cash." The cost reduction approach includes innovative modular packaging, silicon photonics, smaller size modules such as SFP-DD, and reduced channel count / wavelength count.

The first 400G optical module for data centers and enterprises is the CFP8 encapsulation mode and is being commercially available. The next generation will use QSFP-DD or OSFP. 100G with DP-QPSK coherent receiver has been widely used in data center interconnection, metro and long distance network. Enhanced DSP can now be implemented through 16QAM modulation 200G, and the next generation can support 400G and 600G through 64QAM modulation. These developments are critical to meeting the bandwidth requirements between data centers.

Heavy Reading's new report "From 25 / 100G to 400 / 600G: Competitive Analysis of Optical Modules and Devices" provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of 25G / 100G / 200G / 400G / 600G port optical modules and device manufacturers, and introduced 49 Suppliers of more than 450 different products and product portfolio, analysis of its main features and advantages.

At present, for the 100G data center and enterprise applications to provide QSFP28 modules and active cable manufacturers nearly 30. Many vendors also introduced SFP28 modules that support 25G Ethernet to the server. Some vendors can provide 100G CFP, CFP2, CFP4 and CXP modules. QSFP28 is the largest shipments of PSM4 and CWDM4 ports for ultra-large data centers and other applications. The first 200G optical module introduced by the manufacturer is packaged in QSFP56 and PAM4, or QSFP-DD and two 100G ports.

Data center interconnection, metro and long distance systems use DSPs integrated into line card modules or pluggable CFP-DCO modules. Most leading telecom system manufacturers have their own DSP designs. Several companies use DSP on integrated online cards and pluggable CFP2-ACO modules that contain only analog and optical components. This is an important area of ​​innovation for the next generation of 400 / 600G DSP designs, 200G CFP2-DCO modules and 400G modules. OIF is developing the 80-120 km 400ZR interface standard, Ciena is authorized by three optical module companies (Lumentum, NeoPhotonics and Oclaro) to use its 400G coherent DSP chip.

Coherent transceivers DSP and Gearbox components, PAM4 PHY and CDR components, optical drive / receiver arrays and packet optical transmission platform components are key to building these optical modules and line cards. At present, the latest generation of devices is 16nm CMOS technology, the next generation of DSP is expected to use 7nm technology. PAM4 PHY and 50G CDRs enable dual-wavelength 100G and four-wavelength 200G solutions. The next generation component will support a single wavelength of 100G.

Data centers and other applications market demand for 100G is very strong, with the module cost reduction and production capacity gradually increased to meet the demand, 2018 100G optical module market will be highly competitive. Currently, the first solution for the 200G and 400G is available. The industry is currently working to reduce the cost of 100G, the development of higher density 400G, and 800G and 1.6Tbit / s solution. All methods are used in advanced coding and modulation methods, especially for data centers and enterprise PAM4, as well as 16 / 64QAM for data center interconnection, metro and long distance. These R & D require a substantial investment in the supplier, which may lead to further integration of the industry.

Heavy Reading The optical module providers covered in this report include Acacia, Amphenol, AOI, Champion ONE, Cisco, ColorChip, Effdon Networks, Eopolink, Finisar, FIT, FOC, Gigalight, Hisense Broadband (Now known as IPG wholly-owned subsidiary), Molex, NEC, NeoPhotonics, Oclaro, OE Solutions, Oplink, Optocore, ProLabs, Reflex, Smartoptics, Source Photonics, Sumitomo Electric, TE Connectivity and Sinovo Telecom.

At the same time, the report covers Silicon suppliers including: Achronix Semiconductor, Broadcom, Credo Semiconductor, eTopus Technology, Flex Logix Technologies, Inphi, Integrated Device Technology, Intel, Macom, MaxLinear, Mellanox, Microsemi, MoSys, MultiPhy, NEL, Semtech and Xilinx.

* On the hockey effect (Hockey-stick Effect): also known as hockey phenomenon or hockey stick effect, refers to a fixed cycle (month, quarter or year), early sales are very low, the end of the month there will be a sudden sales Growth, and in a continuous cycle, this phenomenon will be repeated, its demand curve shape similar to the hockey stick, so in the supply chain management is called the hockey stick (Hockey-stick) phenomenon.