The Open XR Forum demonstrated long-haul point-to-point transmission between QSFP56-DD coherent transceivers over 1,400 km at 400 Gb/s using 16QAM modulation, as well as error-free performance at 300 Gb/s using 8QAM modulation over a span of 2,495 km.
The testing was conducted in conjunction with founding member Lumen Technologies using Infinera's ICE-XR 400G QSFP56-DD transceivers operating in third-party routers and transmitting over third-party line systems. The long-distance performance demonstrates the potential for pluggable transceivers to be used in DWDM long-haul and large metro networks. The integrated management features, which included in-band remote management and streaming telemetry, demonstrated transport functionality typically found in a transponder, but in the compact form of a pluggable transceiver. This management decoupling of key transceiver functions from host routing functions is a new and easily generalized method for integration and management of coherent transceivers in any host device, including routers, switches, and servers. The ability to separate management of IP and Optical functions better aligns with existing service provider operational models, helping resolve a key barrier for deployment of IP over DWDM.
The Open XR Forum said the demonstration is significant in two ways:
- long-reach performance equal to or greater than current state-of-the-art transceivers,
- the first published demonstration of an advanced management method that enables management and control of optical transceiver functions independently from the host equipment.
The details and results of this demonstration are available in an Open XR Forum report, P2P (Point-to-Point) Performance and Host Independent Management Proof of Concept Demonstration.
