Paving the way for next-generation systems at 400G and beyond, NeoPhotonics has announced a suite of products and technologies designed to support 400G optical transport across multiple network segments, including long haul, metro and data centre interconnect (DCI).
This suite includes high-speed indium phosphide based waveguide photodetectors for coherent receivers, ultra-narrow linewidth lasers for higher-order modulation schemes such as 16-QAM and 64-QAM, dual-output lasers for dual-carrier architectures, and small form factor coherent components for high-density line cards and pluggable coherent optics.
NeoPhotonics 400G products address each of the approaches for increasing transport bandwidth. Conceptually, the most straightforward path to increasing the bandwidth is to increase the symbol rate by increasing the raw speed of the optical system. NeoPhotonics indium-phosphide-based, high-speed waveguide photo-detectors can be incorporated in both monolithic and hybrid integrated coherent receivers (ICR) and are capable of supporting symbol rates of 64Gbaud, twice the standard rate used in current 100G systems.
The ICRs are configured in compact small form factor packages and, when coupled with NeoPhotonics’ Dual micro-ITLA, efficiently support dual carrier 400G implementations. The dual version of NeoPhotonics’ integrated tunable laser assembly (ITLA) provides two independent, ultra-narrow linewidth, separately tunable, lasers in a form factor 25 per cent smaller than separate micro-ITLAs and is well suited to dense line cards with either 400G or multiple 100G ports
A second approach to increasing transport bandwidth is to use higher-order modulation techniques to increase the number of bits per symbol. Higher order modulation is often used for metro and DCI, since the same optical components can support double or quadruple the data rate, although over a shorter reach.
However, such higher order modulation schemes are more sensitive to both amplitude and phase noise since the separation between states is necessarily reduced, and therefore require the most stable, ultra-narrow linewidth laser sources. Inherent to their design, external cavity lasers have the narrowest linewidth in the industry. NeoPhotonics’ micro-ITLA exhibits typical linewidths of 20kHz, resulting in high fidelity in higher-order modulation. These lasers are available in single and dual micro-ITLA configurations and, when coupled with compact NeoPhotonics micro-ICRs, enable high-density line card and pluggable module implementations.
“Just as our hybrid photonic integration technology is a mainstay in 100G coherent transport implementations, we are pleased to see our products and technologies enabling our customers as they move to 400G systems,” said Tim Jenks, chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “Moving from 100G to 400G coherent transport systems requires increased performance coupled with smaller size and lower power, which clearly demonstrates the power of our hybrid photonic integration.”
These products will be on display at the ECOC 2015 in Valencia, Spain, at stand #500.