Crehan: 400GbE to drive majority of data center Ethernet switch bandwidth

400 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches will see initial shipments this year and will grow exponentially, driving the majority of data center Ethernet switch bandwidth by 2022, according to a newly published Data Center Switch Long-Range Forecast Report by Crehan Research Inc.

In addition to a strong ramp of 400GbE, Crehan’s report predicts that:

• 400GbE data center switches will offer a bandwidth discount over lower speed switches during the initial year of shipments  400GbE adoption will be further bolstered by the arrival of 100G-PAM4 SerDes, likely in the 2020 timeframe, thus reducing the number of lanes required to achieve 400GbE by half – from 8*50 to 4*100 – and further lessening the cost and power of these data center switches 
• 100GbE shipments will surpass 40GbE shipments during 2018, just three years after the initial shipments of high-density 100GbE data center switch systems 
• The overall market average selling price per port for data center switching will remain relatively stable, driven by the adoption of higher-speed switches 

“Beginning with high-density 100GbE systems, we entered a new era of much faster data center switch upgrades, and that trend is predicted to continue with 400GbE,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research.  "With its expected market-leading price per gigabit and no foreseeable shortage of demand for higher-speed networking capacity in cloud data centers, 400GbE should surpass a million ports shipped in less time than it took 100GbE to reach that threshold.”

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Lumentum Showcases 100G Single Lambda PAM4 EML, 400G

At this week's OFC 2018 in San Diego, Lumentum is conducting 100G single lambda and 400G FR4 demonstrations, as well as showcasing its catalog of optical modules and transceivers.

Live 100G Single Lambda Demonstration: Lumentum's 100G single lambda Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) compliant QSFP28 transceiver features PAM4 higher order modulation technology to transmit 100G over a single wavelength, as well as an IEEE compliant CAUI-4 electrical interface. The latter ensures that the module is electrically compatible with existing 100G QSFP28 ports. Lumentum continues to leverage its externally modulated laser (EML) to enable high data rates and provide performance margin. The 100G Single Lambda is essential as a building block for 400G modules using four lanes of 100G transmission to provide a cost-effective solution to 400G client-side transmission.

Live 400G Demonstrations: Lumentum is showing interoperability between 400G QSFP-DD FR4 and OSFP FR4 optical modules.

Lumentum's portfolio of 100G optical transceivers includes:

• QSFP28 SR4: compact 100G transceiver supporting links of up to 100 m on OM4 multimode fiber.
• QSFP28 CWDM4: compact 100G transceiver supporting links of up to 2 km on duplex single-mode fiber.
• QSFP28 LR4: compact 100G transceiver supporting links of up to 10 km on duplex single-mode fiber. They support both Ethernet and OTN rates with a maximum power dissipation of 3.5 W.
• 4WDM-10, 20: compact 100G transceiver supporting links of up to 10 km and 20 km on duplex single-mode fiber extending the reach of CWDM4 and LR4 platforms through the use of FEC on the host card. Supporting both Ethernet and OTN rates with a maximum power dissipation of 3.5 W.
• CFP2/CFP4 LR4: transceivers support links of up to 10 km on duplex, single-mode fiber.
• SDN Optical Whitebox/Graybox Platform:

Lumentum's SDN optical whitebox/graybox platform:  network-ready hardware with open interfaces for system integrators seeking to rapidly integrate with their networking software layer. Variants such as Terminal Amplifier, Line Amplifier, ROADM, Transport Mux/Demux, and Optical Fiber Monitoring are available on this platform for system integrators to construct solutions for data center interconnect (DCI), multi-degree colorless/directionless ROADM, and network monitoring applications.

High-speed Optical Modulators:  Lumentum offers a portfolio of high-performance, Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF)-compliant, Mach Zehnder lithium-niobate modulators. In addition to current models supporting 100G, 200G, and 400G applications, a 64 Gbaud, OIF-compliant modulator is now available for sampling, with general availability expected in Q4 of 2018. Lumentum is also engaged with both the OIF and customers to define next-generation modulators utilizing both Indium Phosphide (InP) and Silicon Photonics (SiP) technologies needed to enable dense, high performance modules for use in metro and data center interconnect applications.

TrueFlex Single-slot Super Transport Blades: featuring the Micro 1x9, the Micro Twin 1x9, and the Nano 1x9, Optical Channel Monitor, Switchable-Gain Preamp EDFA, and Variable-Gain Booster EDFA.
TrueFlex Multicast Switch portfolio: featuring the Twin 4x4 multicast switch and the upgradeable Twin 8x16 switch. These products continue to push the envelope for contentionless add/drop capacity and density.
TrueFlex Optical Channel Monitoring Portfolio: featuring the Quad OCM, and the Tunable Filter OCM. These solutions offer fixed and gridless scanning for power monitoring blades and single-slot ROADM blades.

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Dell'Oro: WDM metro revenue surpassed $7 billion in 2017

WDM Metro equipment revenue surpassed $7 billion in 2017, according to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group. Huawei, ZTE, and Ciena led the market for 2017.

Additional highlights from the 4Q17 Optical Transport Quarterly Report:

• Optical Transport revenue increased 19 percent year-over-year in 4Q17, driven largely from increased WDM Metro sales. In the quarter, WDM Metro revenue grew 30 percent year-over-year.
• The majority of WDM Metro revenue growth in 2017 occurred in two regions—Asia Pacific and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).
• Three vendors—Cisco, ECI Telecom, and ZTE—each increased their WDM Metro revenue by over 40 percent.
• Demand for coherent line cards continued to grow at a high rate, and approximately 185 thousand coherent line cards shipped for metro applications in 2017.

“The WDM Metro systems market jumped in 2017,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “We all knew that demand for WDM systems in metro applications would increase, but it was a huge surprise to see an 18 percent revenue increase in 2017,” added Yu.

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MACOM intros single- and quad-channel EML drivers

At OFC2018, MACOM Technology Solutions introduced single- and quad-channel linear externally modulated laser (EML) drivers for 53 Gbaud PAM-4 applications. This family of surface mount drivers enables 100 Gbps per lambda with low power and high bandwidth for 100G/400G Data Center applications.

MACOM’s MAOM-005311 and MAOM-005411 feature differential inputs to provide common-mode rejection while the single-ended output voltage can be adjusted up to 1.8Vpp. These devices provide 6 dB of gain control range with integrated peak detector on each channel for closed loop control. Available as a surface mount package, this solution integrates the high frequency chokes and coupling capacitors for bias of the driver and EML.

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Keysight builds mmWave testbed with Ball Aerospace and Anokiwave

Keysight Technologies is working with Ball Aerospace and Anokiwave to validate the first commercial 5G NR active array antenna product designs in the 26 GHz band.

The Keysight 5G NR-ready measurement testbed offers the precision that base station and component designers require to extensively explore the performance edges of a new class of active antenna systems in the “European Pioneer Band.”

“As our network equipment manufacturing customers are racing to be first to market, they expect to acquire velocity through their development cycle by leveraging their test solutions at each stage, from R&D to design verification to manufacturing,” said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president of the Network Infrastructure Unit, Keysight Technologies. “Keysight modular hardware and software solutions seamlessly combine metrology-grade mmWave hardware and format-specific software measurements. These customers can now scale from today’s 4G evolved designs (under 6 GHz) into the new mmWave bands, and accelerate a faster transition into production, with minimum cost.”

The Ball Aerospace-built 256-element array uses Anokiwave integrated circuits, and was designed to deliver 5G modulation in GHz-wide bandwidths in either a single-beam mode or in MIMO applications for up to 4 concurrent beams with up to +60 dBm EIRP.

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RETN deploys Infinera XT-330 and FlexILS

RETN, which operates a backbone network that spans 33,000 kilometers of fiber and connects 34 countries across Europe, Asia and North America, has deployed the Infinera XT-3300 and FlexILS to scale network capacity for its international wholesale and enterprise customers.

RETN previously deployed the Infinera DTN-X, XT-500 and Cloud Xpress throughout Europe and Russia.

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France's SFR deploys Cisco Network Services Orchestrator

SFR, a subsidiary of the Altice Group, is deploying Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) to simplify the entire lifecycle management for its services, automating core functions across physical and virtualized networks for both existing and new customers.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cisco said its NSO delivers several benefits to operators including the ability to:

• Transform their networks and services towards programmability, by empowering SFR teams to manage their network services more efficiently
• Assure quality of service for critical applications, driven with agility, flexibility and simplicity of management at its core
• Provide faster delivery of revenue-generating services and shorter activation times from months to minutes
• Automate service lifecycle and reduction of manual configuration steps by up to 90 percent
• Deliver model-driven automation, to abstract the services from the underlying devices, in a standardized way
• Instill transparent orchestration spanning multiple domains in the network to include NFV and SDN through use of an open, modern programmable platform
• Reduce failed service activations and network issues by removing the risk of human error

“Utilizing Cisco’s leading network automation software allows us to bring a common API for our services across different networks in a simplified manner,” said Christophe Delaye, CTIO, SFR. “As a result, enabling SFR to get back to what matters the most – supporting our customers’ network automation requirements and enabling them to deploy new services quickly.”

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Nokia Bell Labs Prize offers up to $175,000 - entries close April 25

Nokia Bell Labs opened its fifth annual global Prize competition for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Nokia Bell Labs Prize competition, which offers up to $175,000 to the first, second and third place winners, "seeks disruptive innovative proposals that address the grand human challenges that drive and will underpin the fourth industrial revolution, and enable an enhanced ability to sense, control and automate everything." Entries will be accepted until April 25, 2018.

Marcus Weldon, president of Nokia Bell Labs & CTO for Nokia, said: "We are at the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution that will transform human existence in previously unimaginable ways.The Bell Labs Prize seeks innovators who will power this revolution, with an interest in collaborating with a wide diversity of intellects, disciplines, backgrounds, skills, geographies, philosophies...everything - that's the classic 'Bell Labs way', and the secret of our success."

https://bell-labs.com/prize/

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