Acacia Communications has begun commercial shipment of a new pluggable coherent CFP2-DCO module supporting 100 Gbps and 200 Gbps transmission in a range of network applications such as including data center interconnect, metro access, metro core, long-haul, as well as emerging applications including remote PHY and client optical interfaces up to 80 km.
The CFP2-DCO supports four times the faceplate density of the CFP-DCO. Acacia’s CFP2-DCO incorporates its Meru DSP ASIC, based on 16nm CMOS technology, and its silicon photonic integrated circuit. Internal layer 1 encryption can be enabled for enhanced security applications. The technology was first sampled in 2016.
Acacia said these CFP2-DCO modules help to simplify network management and reduce operations costs for providers. The believes that these compact pluggable modules will allow its customers to offer some of the lowest power solutions available in the optical transport industry.
Key advantages of the CFP2-DCO form factor compared to alternative coherent architecture:
- Pay-as-you-grow deployment model – Defers the deployment cost, including that of the digital signal processor (DSP), of additional ports until additional bandwidth is needed.
- Digital host interface – Streamlines integration into existing network equipment and supports field plugability without the need for complex calibration. The use of pluggable optics means that a failure in a single module will affect only the module's port, not the entire line card.
- Flexible modulation – 100 Gbps transmission using QPSK modulation for metro-core and long-haul applications and 200 Gbps for metro-access applications using either 16QAM for backward compatibility or 8QAM for greater reach and fewer regeneration stages.
“Our team has done a great job to develop this low power solution, while maintaining high performance. With the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) developing a CFP2-DCO Implementation Agreement, the form factor is positioned for wide adoption in the optical networking industry and with support for up to 400 Gbps, the CFP2-DCO form factor can offer network operators a long-term return on investment,” said Benny Mikkelsen, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Acacia Communications.
