28 September 2015

NeoPhotonics launches products to support 400G coherent transport for long-haul, metro and data-center interconnect networks

In booth 500 at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2015) in Valencia, Spain (28-30 September), NeoPhotonics Corp of San Jose, CA, USA (a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of hybrid photonic integrated optoelectronic modules and subsystems for high-speed communications networks) has announced a suite of products and technologies designed to support 400G-and-beyond optical transport across multiple network segments, including long-haul, metro and data-center interconnects (DCI).

The suite includes high-speed indium phosphide (InP)-based waveguide photodetectors for coherent receivers with higher-baud-rate transmission, ultra-narrow linewidth lasers for higher-order constellations such as 16QAM and 64QAM, dual-output lasers for dual-carrier architectures, and small-form-factor coherent components for high-density line-cards and pluggable coherent optics.

NeoPhotonics' 400G product and technology suite addresses each of the approaches for increasing transport bandwidth. Conceptually, the most straight forward path to increasing the bandwidth is to increase the symbol rate by increasing the raw speed of the optical system, says the firm. NeoPhotonics' InP-based high-speed waveguide photo-detectors can be incorporated in both monolithic and hybrid integrated coherent receivers (ICRs) and are capable of supporting symbol rates of 64 Gbaud, which is twice the standard 32 Gbaud in existing 100G systems.

Higher-baud-rate transmission is best suited to long-haul applications where higher data rates can be achieved without compromising system reach. The ICRs are configured in compact small-form-factor packages and, when coupled with NeoPhotonics' Dual micro-integrable tunable laser assembly (micro-ITLA), efficiently support dual-carrier 400G implementations. The Dual micro-ITLA provides two independent, ultra-narrow-linewidth, separately tunable lasers in a form factor that is 25% smaller than separate micro-ITLAs and is well suited to dense line-cards with either 400G or multiple 100G ports, reckons the firm.

A second approach to increasing transport bandwidth is to use higher-order modulation techniques to increase the number of bits per symbol. Thus, using 16QAM doubles the number of bits transported compared to standard QPSK implementations (even though the underlying baud rate is unchanged) and 64QAM quadruples the data rate. 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, and 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, says the firm.

"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," comments chairman & CEO Tim Jenks. "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," he adds.

Separately, for 400G data-center and client applications, NeoPhotonics is presenting its very high-bandwidth electro-absorptive modulated laser (EML), generating what iis claimed to be superior performance in use with high-order modulation (HOM) systems. A joint demonstration with Inphi Corp of Santa Clara, CA, USA (a provider of high-speed mixed-signal ICs for communications, data-center and computing markets) in Inphi's booth (#400) is demonstrating a full dual-lambda 100G PAM4 solution based on Inphi's PAM4 PHY IC and NeoPhotonics' EML-based Q-TOSA.

Also at ECOC, NeoPhotonics is exhibiting its suite of standard and small-form-factor PIC-based components and its modular Multi-Cast Switches, both for 100G and 400G coherent line-side applications, along with its 100G client-side CFP2 and CFP4 transceivers and its next-generation transceivers for access networks.

See related items:

NeoPhotonics launches micro-ICR for 100G and 400G coherent transport

NeoPhotonics adds integrated coherent transmitter for 100G coherent transport; samples small-form-factor narrow-linewidth tunable laser and Type 2 intradyne coherent receiver

NeoPhotonics launches narrow-linewidth micro-ITLA for coherent transport

NeoPhotonics and Inphi announce production shipments of high-dynamic-range ICR for 100G colorless coherent transmission

Inphi and NeoPhotonics collaborate on 100G optical modules

Tags: NeoPhotonics PICs Coherent receiver Inphi iTLA

Visit: www.neophotonics.com