Thursday, May 21, 2020

Nokia debuts WaveFabric Elements: photonic chips, devices, subsystems

Nokia unveiled its WaveFabric Elements portfolio of photonic chips, devices and subsystems, including its fifth generation coherent digital signal processor family, the Photonic Service Engine V (PSE-V).
The company said its WaveFabric Elements address the demanding power, performance, and cost-per-bit requirements of 400G networking across data center, metro, core and subsea applications.

Nokia’s WaveFabric Elements portfolio combines digital signal processing (DSP) and optics technologies focused on emerging end-to-end 400G applications. The new, fifth generation coherent DSP family consists of multiple designs optimized for different optical networking applications, form factors, and platforms. These include:

  • PSE-Vs (super coherent), which can run up to 90 Gbaud and employ the second generation of Nokia Bell Labs-pioneered probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS). PSE-Vs are capable of transporting up to 800G, while providing 60% greater reach, 40% lower power per bit, and 15% greater spectral efficiency than previous DSP generations. 
  • PSE-Vc (compact), which enables programmable capacity from 100G to 400G with metro to long haul capability. Its extremely low power enables integration into a variety of pluggable transceiver modules.

The new DSPs are complemented by the CSTAR portfolio of coherent optical modules from its recent acquisition of Elenion Technologies. CSTAR leverages state-of-the-art silicon photonics and packaging technology, and addresses applications, including intra-data center, metro DCI and long-reach optical transport. In addition to pairing them with the new PSE-V DSPs within Nokia platforms, the company will sell them independently to industry partners for integration into pluggable transceiver modules available to the broader market.

The CSTAR family of optical engines is currently shipping to customers. PSE-V-based platforms and pluggables will be available beginning in Q4 2020.

Sam Bucci, Head of Optical Networks at Nokia, said: "Networks are truly at an inflection point, and 400G will be a catalyst for a significant transformation. With our WaveFabric Elements portfolio, Nokia is committed to supplying the 400G optical ecosystem with components, subsystems and design services, as well as continuing to build the highest performing optical transport solutions for the 400G era and beyond."



https://www.nokia.com/networks/technologies/pse-super-coherent-technology/

Nokia to acquire Elenion for silicon photonics

Nokia agreed to acquire Elenion a start-up developing silicon photonics-based System-on-Chip solutions that can be produced in a CMOS foundry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Elenion, which was founded in 2014 and is based in New York City, develops highly integrated, low-cost silicon photonics technologies for short-reach and high-performance optical interfaces and has pioneered a design toolset which enables a greatly simplified, low cost, scalable manufacturing process. The Elenion platform simplifies integration with optical chipsets, lowers power consumption, improves port density and helps to lower the overall cost per bit for network operators.

Nokia said Elenion's state-of-the-art silicon photonics design platform improves product costs by bringing simplification and scale to the optical supply chain. It is expected to bring time-to-market and cost advantages to Nokia’s broad portfolio of networking solutions.