IDC: Worldwide Ethernet switch market continues strong growth

Worldwide Ethernet switch revenues grew 22.0% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) to $10.3 billion and grew 18.7% for the full year 2022 to $36.5 billion, according to the recently published International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker.

The total worldwide enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $4.6 billion in revenue in 4Q22, a 0.7% year-over-year increase. For the full year, router market revenues increased 3.9% to $16.5 billion. Worldwide Ethernet switch revenues 18.7% for the full year 2022 to $36.5 billion while the service provider router market grew 3.9% to $16.5 billion

Ethernet Switch Market Highlights

• The Ethernet switch market's growth of 22.0% year over year in 4Q22 builds on growth of 23.9% in the third quarter of 2022. 
• Annual growth of 18.7% for the full year builds on the market growing 9.7% in 2021 compared to 2020. In the fourth quarter, the Ethernet switch market showed strength across both the datacenter and non-datacenter segments of the market. 
• Revenues in the non-datacenter/enterprise campus and branch segment grew 22.6% year over year in 4Q22, while port shipments rose 18.0% year over year. 
• For the full year, non-datacenter Ethernet switch revenues rose 15.7% while port shipments grew 12.2%. 
• Revenues in the datacenter portion of the market rose 21.2% year over year in 4Q22, while port shipments increased 17.3%. 
• For the full year, datacenter ethernet switch revenues rose 22.6% year over year and port shipments increased 12.2%.
• Market revenues for 200/400 GbE switches rose more than 300% for the full year in 2022 but were flat at 0.7% sequential growth from 3Q22 to 4Q22. 
• 100GbE revenues increased 18.7% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 22.0% for the full year. 25/50 GbE revenues increased 30.1% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 29.8% for the full year.
• Revenues for 1GbE switches rose 21.4% year over year in 4Q22 and grew 12.6% for the full year. 10GbE switches rose 1.0% year over year in the quarter but were flat at 0.4% for the full year.
• 2.5/5GbE switch revenue – also known as multi-gigabit Ethernet switches – rose 122.1% year over year in 4Q22, with 53.1% sequential growth from 3Q22 to 4Q22.

"Strong growth in the Ethernet switch market continued in the fourth quarter of 2022, driven by a variety of trends, but the most significant factor was the continued easing of component shortages and a reduction in supply chain disruptions," said Brad Casemore, research vice president, Cloud and Datacenter Networks, IDC. "Meanwhile, enterprises, service providers, and hyperscalers continue to build out Ethernet switching capacity, reinforcing the importance of connectivity and network infrastructure in today's digital-first business world."

Router Market Highlights

• The service provider segment, which includes both communications SPs and cloud SPs, accounted for 73.7% of the market's total revenues. 
• The service provider segment of the market decreased 4.0% year over year in 4Q22 and finished the full year up 1.3%. 
• Revenues in the enterprise segment account for the remaining share of the market and rose 17.1% year over year in the quarter and increased 12.9% for the full year.
• From a regional perspective, the combined service provider and enterprise router market in the U.S. rose 18.5% year over year in 4Q22 and was up 17.0% for the full year. 
• In Canada ,the router market increased 12.3% in the quarter and rose 1.4% for the full year, while in Latin America the market rose 5.2% in 4Q22 and was up 16.7% for the full year. 
• In the Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan & China), the market increased 0.7% in the quarter, but fell 3.9% for the full year. 
• Japan's market was up with 5.6% growth in 4Q22 and a 0.3% increase for the full year. 
• The People's Republic of China market decreased 18.9% in the quarter and 6.7% for the full year. 
• Revenues in Western Europe decreased 1.0% in 4Q22 but rose 5.2% for the full year, while the Central and Eastern Europe market was down 17.1% in the quarter and 21.2% for the full year. 
• The Middle East & Africa region was up 5.2% in the quarter and grew 3.7% for the full year.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS50475923

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2022 Global Provider Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD

Vertical Systems Group announced that seven companies achieved a rank on the 2022 Global Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD as follows (in order based on retail port share as of year-end 2022): Orange Business (France), Colt (U.K.), Verizon (U.S.), AT&T (U.S.), BT Global Services (U.K.), NTT (Japan) and Lumen (U.S.). This industry benchmark for multinational Ethernet network market presence ranks companies that hold a 4% or higher share of billable retail ports at sites outside of their respective home countries.

The following nine companies attained a 2022 Challenge Tier citation (in alphabetical order): Cirion (Argentina), Cogent (U.S.), Global Cloud Xchange (India), GTT (U.S.), SingTel (Singapore), T-Systems (Germany), Tata Communications (India), Telefonica (Spain) and Vodafone (U.K.). The Challenge Tier includes companies with share between 2% and 4% of this defined market.

“The market for global Ethernet ports expanded as enterprises continue to add sites to their existing networks,” said Rick Malone, principal of Vertical Systems Group. “DIA additions outpaced other Ethernet services, as enterprises transition to hybrid SD-WAN architectures worldwide.” 

Some highlights

• Rank positions are unchanged for the top four Global Ethernet Providers on the 2022 LEADERBOARD – Orange Business, Colt, Verizon and AT&T. Share differentials remain slim between these leading providers based on latest port share results.
• The next three LEADERBOARD positions have shifted due to Lumen’s divestiture of Latin American assets, which included a sizable Ethernet base.
• As a result, Lumen drops from rank position #5 to the #7 position. BT Global Services advances to the #5 position from #6, and NTT moves up to the #6 position from #7.
• The 2022 Challenge Tier expands from eight to nine companies with the addition of Cirion, which acquired global Ethernet ports from Lumen.
• Our research shows a steady uptick in the number of net new Global Provider Ethernet ports installed during 2022.
• Global Ethernet providers cite geopolitical disruptions, supply chain concerns, and increased competition as growth inhibitors for this segment.
• Five of the seven Global Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD companies have attained MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet certification as follows (in rank order): Orange Business, Colt, Verizon, BT Global Services, and Lumen.

https://www.verticalsystems.com/2023/03/06/ye2022-global-ethernet-leaderboard/

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Dell'Oro: Ethernet adapter market rose 40% in 2022

The Ethernet Adapter market grew 40 percent in 2022. However, we expect the market to moderate in 2023, as server vendors lower their inventory levels in anticipation of lower enterprise demand, and the major cloud service providers undergo a capex digestion cycle, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

“The Ethernet Adapter market achieved record revenue growth in 2022, primarily from the shift of product mix to higher speed ports and higher prices,” said Baron Fung, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “However, the market is changing rapidly, as the market shifted from a supply-constrained environment to one that is oversupplied with vendors reducing inventory levels. Enterprise demand is expected to slow this year, and we anticipate some major cloud service providers will undergo a server digestion cycle. However, there are opportunities in the market, as server access speeds continue to increase, and broader Smart NIC adoption is expected in 2023,” added Fung.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2022 Ethernet Adapter and Smart NIC report include:

• The Ethernet Adapter market is forecast for 13 percent revenue growth in 2023.
• 100 Gbps and higher speed ports could account for nearly half the market in 2023.
• Smart NIC open vendors such as AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA in a position to capture opportunities in the Cloud and Enterprise markets this year.

https://www.delloro.com/news/ethernet-adapter-market-grew-40-percent-in-2022/

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OFC attracted 11,500 participants and 515 exhibiting companies

Last week's OFC 2023 in San Diego attracted over 11,500 participants and 515 exhibiting companies.

"One of OFC's highlights was live interoperability demonstrations from leading optics companies running over OFCnet," said OFC chairs Chris Cole, Coherent Corporation; Ramon Casellas, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya; and Ming-Jun Li, Corning Incorporated. "Another was the Plenary Session with inspiring talks by three leading executives, including two females, who shared insights into how technology is transforming our industry and reshaping the world." 

"The optical sector is currently in an exciting period," said Woo Jin Ho, Analyst - Hardware and Communications Equipment, Bloomberg Intelligence. "Companies continued to introduce and launch new innovations at OFC 2023, such as 1.2T and 1.6T coherent optics and Co-Packaged Optics. But it was really refreshing to hear the ramp up and monetization of the innovations that were introduced at OFC two, three years ago."

"What an amazing week with so many innovations in one place," said Jelena Pesic, Ph.D., Nokia. "Nothing can replace face-to-face meetings with colleagues and researchers around the world. For Nokia, it was an opportunity to show our cutting-edge innovation with new PSE-6s, Coherent Routing, network automation, integrated C+L band line systems and 25G PON. Looking forward to seeing the boundaries being pushed even further at OFC 2024!"

OFC 2024 is scheduled for 24-28 March at the San Diego Convention Center.

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OFC video: First 200G PAM4 Mach-Zehnder modulated laser

What's hot at #OFC23? 

Sanjai Parthasarathi discusses the live demonstration of a 200G four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) Mach-Zehnder modulated laser. 

The demo featured a distributed feedback laser (DFB) and Mach-Zehnder modulator combined monolithically in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that enables 200G PAM4 for 1.6T transceivers with up to 10 km reach.

https://youtu.be/Ka9K23rL-TI

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OFC video: Nokia’s Super Coherent Photonics Service Engine

What’s hot at #OFC23?

Nokia’s Serge Melle discusses the latest generation super-coherent Photonic Service Engine, capable of 1.2 Tb/s over metro distances (118km) and 800 Gb/s over long haul distances (2,019 km), using a single wavelength.

https://youtu.be/LK6VZvKFuys

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OFC video: 400ZR for Cloud Metro

What’s hot at #OFC23? 

Juniper is bringing to market new 400ZR and 400ZR+ optics to power its Cloud Metro architecture. 

Juniper's Irene Zheng provides an overview.

https://youtu.be/HbJURV1eYH0 

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OFC video: Infinera - Turbo Charge your Network

What's hot at #OFC23?

Infinera's Tim Doiron gives us a rundown of the latest developments in coherent optical systems and pluggable solutions.

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OFC video: Adtran -100ZR pluggables offer fast upgrade path for access networks

What’s hot at #OFC23?

New 100ZR OSFP28 pluggables will change the access and aggregation infrastructure.

Adtran’s Stephan Rettenberger explains.

https://youtu.be/tpZq7uoPSo8

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OFC video: Fujitsu’s 1FINITY Ultra Optical System delivers 1.2 Tbps waves

What's hot at #OFC23?

How about pushing optical transmission to the next level?

Fujitsu's Rich Colter gives us the update of Fujitsu's flagship 1FINITY Ultra Optical System.

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OFC Video: AMD on Forward Error Correction at 800G

 What's hot at #OFC23? Forward Error Correction (FEC) becomes increasingly difficult as speed increases. So how does it work at 800G? AMD's Gilles Garcia provides a demo at this year's OFC in San Diego.

https://youtu.be/CriQPCwXEHs

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Broadcom intros 5nm integrated 800G PAM-4 PHY

At #OFC23, Broadcom announced sampling of its 5nm 100G/lane optical PAM-4 DSP PHY with integrated transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and laser driver.

The new BCM85812, which is optimized for 800G DR8, 2x400G FR4 and 800G AOC module applications, is based on the company’s existing 5nm 112G PAM-4 DSP platform.

Highlights

• Monolithic 5nm 800G PAM-4 PHY with integrated TIA and high-swing laser driver
• Delivers best-in-class module performance in BER and power consumption.
• Drives down 800G module power for SMF solutions to sub 11W and MMF solutions to sub 10W.
• Compliant to all applicable IEEE and OIF standards, capable of supporting MR links on the chip to module interface.
• Fully compliant with OIF 3.2T Co-Packaged Optical Module Specs
• Capable of supporting optical modules from 800G to 3.2T

At OFC, Broadcom demonstrated the BCM85812 in an end-to-end link connecting two Tomahawk 5 (TH5) switches using Eoptolink’s 800G DR8 optical modules. 

“This first-to-market highly integrated 5nm 100G/lane DSP PHY extends Broadcom’s optical PHY leadership and demonstrates our commitment to addressing the stringent low power requirements from hyperscale data center and cloud providers,” said Vijay Janapaty, vice president and general manager of the Physical Layer Products Division at Broadcom. “With our advancement in 200G/lane, Broadcom continues to lead the industry in developing next generation solutions for 51.2T and 102.T switch platforms.”

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Keysight and partners achieve 160 GBaud using PAM6

Keysight, in collaboration with the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Riga Technical University (RTU), demonstrated the first 310 GBaud rates using on-off keying modulation and 160 GBaud rates using PAM6 modulation with direct detection system to support 1.6 Tbps applications. 

The researchers focused on an approach using a low latency intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) system with the highest baud rate possible. The demonstration used amplification-free, externally modulated laser optical links that reduce overall power consumption.

 The demonstration was enabled by the new Keysight M8199B 256 GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator that delivers 75 GHz bandwidth and 2.5 V output amplitude in combination with the 110 GHz Keysight UXR1104A Infiniium UXR-Series Oscilloscope.

Dr. Oskars Ozoliņš, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, KTH and RTU, said: “Data center interconnects require simple and efficient solutions to reduce complexity. We demonstrated that using a simple solution such as an externally modulated laser with record baud rate for on-off keying, PAM4, and PAM16 is a very efficient solution for cost efficient links in data centers. With Keysight’s support we have been able to validate that our experiment works. Innovations like this are only possible when working side-by-side with partners like Keysight.”

Dr. Joachim Peerlings, Vice President of Network and Data Center Solutions at Keysight Technologies, said: “Keysight supports young talented researchers and is proud to contribute to the development of next generation datacom optical interfaces. Collaborations like this help to address the next leap in the technology wave.”

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MACOM launches 226Gbps per lane products for 1.6TB optical modules

At #OFC23, MACOM introduced its 226Gbps per lane technology product family for enabling 1.6TB optical modules.

The product family includes MACOM transimpedance amplifiers MATA-40734 and MATA-40736, Externally Modulated Laser (EML) driver MAOM-011112 and photodiode MARP-BP112. 

The TIAs allow for a data rate of up to 226.8Gbps per lane to support KP4 and IEEE concatenated Forward Error Correction (FEC) with 750um spacing to photodetectors to minimize channel-to-channel cross talk. TIAs for both wire-bonded and flip-chip applications are available. 

The EML driver is a single-channel flip-chip device enabling ultra-low inductance interfaces for optimum performance and minimum size in an optical module design. Its high bandwidth and high swing can help deliver industry-leading optical performance. 

The photodiode is also a flip-chip design with high responsivity and an integrated lens for improved alignment tolerance. It is available in both singlet and array form factor.

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Asia Submarine-cable Express upgrades with Ciena’s WaveLogic 5

Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a consortium subsea cable running a total of 8,148km between Japan to Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore, is leveraging Ciena’s Waveserver 5 powered by WaveLogic 5 Extreme and an optical bypass, to enable a 193% improvement in its original design capacity.

Waveserver 5 also minimizes ASE’s rack space and reduces power consumption by 60% for a greener solution.

The ASE cable also utilizes Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platforms in a Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) configuration and Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller. Ciena Services is providing consulting, systems integration, maintenance and network transformation services to the cable, a collaboration between the region’s telecommunication carriers—NTT Ltd Japan Corporation (NTT LJ), PLDT, StarHub and Telekom Malaysia.

“With Asia a key hub for international business, intra-Asia cable routes are becoming increasingly congested. In this crowded playing field, we’ve teamed up with Ciena on upgrades designed to enhance the delivery capacity of our current cables. We are especially pleased to have greener, more sustainable ways of powering connectivity and reduce power consumption,” said Mr. Yoshio Sato, ASE MC Chairman.

“We have been working extensively with ASE to maximize its network assets across the last few upgrades. With WaveLogic 5 Extreme enabling 400GbE single-wave transport across any distance, ASE can scale its cable with less power and cost. Together with ASE, we are making continued progress toward a more ecofriendly, connected future without compromise,” said Mr. Jamie Jefferies, Vice President and General Manager, International, Ciena.

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Credo and EFFECT Photonics team up on coherent DSPs

Credo is working with EFFECT Photonics on coherent Digital Signal Processor (DSP) merchant ICs.

The two companies will work together to develop new coherent DSP products featuring EFFECT Photonics’ coherent DSP technology and Forward Error Correction (FEC), combined with Credo’s high-speed SerDes, I/Os, Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), and Digital to Analog Converters (DACs). 

Credo will manufacture and manage the sales and supply channels of the co-developed merchant ICs, and provide complete design services and customer support.

The first products will target 100G ZR and 100G ZR+ applications. The products will work within the popular QSFP28 optical module’s ultralow 5W power envelope and extend network reach well beyond 80km to support advanced application requirements. These products will target new buildouts and the imminent 10G upgrade cycle to 100G for service providers, 5G telecom and fixed-access operators.

“Coherent technologies are gaining importance as they improve spectral efficiency and increase data throughput. Historically, coherent solutions have been mostly deployed for very long distances due to their high power and high cost,” said Scott Feller, Vice President of Marketing at Credo. “Our first collaboration with EFFECT Photonics will allow us to deliver capabilities that fit into the power envelopes of the most commonly used transceivers at a competitive price, providing our large volume customers with a refined solution that will seamlessly integrate into their existing access and edge infrastructure to address the dramatic bandwidth growth at the network edge.”

Highlights

• Optimized ZR and ZR+ solutions cover 40 to 500km links.
• Energy-efficiency with ultralow power consumption.
• Devices will be rated for both commercial and industrial temperature operating ranges.
• Compliant with industry standards.
• Credo’s high-speed data converters, SerDes and I/Os, are optimized for performance and energy efficiency.
• EFFECT Photonics’ best-in-class, field-proven coherent DSP and FEC technology (gained through the company’s acquisition agreement with Viasat).
• Credo will be the sole supplier of the merchant ICs, working with its foundry partners to provide dependable supply chain fulfilment with competitive lead times.
• Credo’s DSP expertise leverages its N-1 process technology advantage to deliver the most cost-effective coherent DSPs in the market.

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Airspan sells its Mimosa unit to Radisys and considers strategic options

Airspan Networks agreed to sell its Mimosa Networks business unit to Radisys Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms), for US$ 60 million on a debt free, cash free basis.

Mimosa has a diverse portfolio of point-to-point and point-to-multi-point products based on WiFi 5 and the newer WiFi 6E technologies as well as related accessories, such as twist on antennas, PoE Injectors, etc. These solutions have use cases in the backhaul requirements for 5G and FTTX/ FWA rollouts. Jio has been a major customer of Mimosa.

Airspan acquired Mimosa in 2018. Mimosa’s product development, manufacturing, and sales teams of 56 employees will continue with Mimosa following the acquisition by Radisys. Airspan maintains a reseller channel for specific joint 4G/5G and FWA projects and will continue marketing Mimosa products to some of its customers following the acquisition. Mimosa revenues for 2022 were approximately $25 million.

Separately, Airspan said it will sharpen its focus as a pure-play in 4G/5G Open RAN and private networks. The company’s Board of Directors is evaluating strategic option as has hired PJT Partners to pursue various options to optimize shareholder value.

Airspan reports unaudited revenue for FY22 and 4Q22 of $167.3 million and $41.7 million as well as FY22 Gross Profit of $66.4 million (39.7% gross margin) and 4Q22 Gross Profit of $19.2 million (46.1% gross margin).

Airspan acquires Mimosa Networks

Tuesday, November 20, 2018  Airspan, Mimosa  

Airspan Networks, which offers 4G & 5G small cell access and backhaul solutions, has acquired Mimosa Networks, a developer of wireless broadband systems. Financial terms were not disclosed. Mimosa, which was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, leverages Multi-User MIMO technologies in its outdoor gigabit wireless platforms for service providers. Mimosa's access, backhaul, and client solutions are deployed in a hybrid-fiber-wireless...

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Coherent shows 200G per lane for transceivers, CPO engine

At #OFC23, Coherent demonstrated an optical transceiver module operating at 200 Gbps per optical lane and co-packaged optical (CPO) multimode optical engine operating at 50 Gbps NRZ.

Some highlights

• 200G per lane OSFP optical transceiver - This live demonstration shows an OSFP form factor with 200G PAM4 per lane optical and 100G PAM4 per lane electrical interfaces, with an optical reach of up to 2 km. This transceiver is for use in the next generation of 25T and 50T Ethernet switches. It represents a natural evolution from transceivers with 100G optical lanes and is more power-efficient and cost-effective than previous generations. This technology is expected to form the core of the second generation of 800G transceivers and the first generation of 1.6T transceivers. They represent a natural evolution from transceivers with 100G optical lanes and are more power-efficient and cost-effective. Initial applications are anticipated in hyperscale datacenters, with enterprise applications to follow.
• Co-packaged 800G multimode optical engine - This live demonstration shows a module that features 16 channels of 50G NRZ transmitters and receivers in a 15 mm x 15 mm x 4 mm multimode CPO 800G VCSEL-based engine. The entire analog front end, including the driver, VCSEL, photodiode, and transimpedance amplifier, consumes less than 4 pJ/bit. Each VCSEL is paired with another unpowered device to enable 100% cold sparing for extremely high reliability. Such multimode CPO engines are intended for use in cost-, power-, and latency-sensitive applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning computer clusters. Prototypes of this multimode CPO engine, which are jointly developed with IBM under the sponsorship of ARPA-E, are available for immediate evaluation.

“These demonstrations will showcase the state of the art in datacom transceiver technology as we approach the era of terabit transmission,” said Dr. Lee Xu, Executive Vice President, Datacom Transceivers. “Such advances are critical to sustain the accelerating growth of the cloud through power efficiencies and cost reductions at both the module and architecture level.”

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Open ROADM tests interoperability at up to 400G

 At #OFC23, member of the Open ROADM Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) and demonstrating interoperability of optical network equipment elements at data rates up to 400G. Participants include AT&T, Ciena, Cisco-Acacia, Fujitsu, Infinera, Juniper, Lumentum, NEC, Nokia, NTT, Orange, and Ribbon in collaboration with the researchers at the OpNeAR laboratory of the University of Texas at Dallas and Politecnico di Milano.

The Open ROADM MSA defines interoperability specifications for disaggregated optical transport networks. These specifications, which also include YANG data models, address Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (ROADM), transponders, and pluggable optics. Multi-vendor Open ROADM compliant equipment can be integrated into the same network solution and controlled by the open source Transport PCE (TPCE) controller.

The optical network testbed  makes use of interconnected Open ROADM compliant equipment including ROADM nodes, 100G flexponders, Optical Transport Network (OTN) switches, 100G transponders, 400G transponders, 200G/300G/400G muxponders, a 400G single-node 3R regenerator, and CFP2-DCO and QSFP-DD 400G pluggable devices.

Demonstrated functionalities will include interoperability of CFP2-DCO 400G devices from three Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), an Open ROADM compliant 400G single-node 3R regenerator, an automated path restoration mechanism at the physical layer implemented in the open source TPCE controller, interoperability between CFP2-DCO and QSFP-DD 400G pluggable devices, an IPoverWDM architecture with routers hosting QSFP-DD 400G coherent pluggables supporting oFEC, and various multi-layer network monitoring techniques for both optical and data packet transport layers. These demonstrations will be carried out over a single testbed composed of multiple network elements provided by the participating OEMs.

The demonstration also marks the first showing of Open ROADM-compliant 400Gb/s transmission achieved via router-optimized QSFP-DD pluggables, which incorporate embedded amplification and tunable optical filtering to enable simple deployment over any type of ROADM line system. Optical signal Interoperability between CFP2-DCO 400G and QSFP-DD 400G will be showcased. With the ability to support all metro ROADM client performance requisites in the small QSFP-DD form factor, these technologies expand the range of Open ROADM applications to include converged IPoverWDM architectures, which Release 11.0 covers through an extension of both the device and service models to handle such use cases.

Two recently added functions to improve signal reliability in Open ROADM transport networks will also be demonstrated in the OFC’23 testbed. First, an Open ROADM-compliant 3R regenerator with a bidirectional single-node (all optical) design will be applied to a 400G signal routed through four ROADM sites in the testbed.  In this single-node design, only network interfaces must be specified (e.g., OTSI, OTSI-group, OTUC4, and ODUC4 for 400G) to achieve reliable high-data rate connections over multi-hop and/or long-distance physical routes. 

Second, the automated path restoration mechanism newly implemented in the open source Transport PCE (TPCE) controller will be applied to overcome unexpected quality degradations of a 400G service in the Open ROADM testbed. For any created wave service that is labeled as “restorable,” the open source TPCE controller triggers a restoration mechanism at the physical layer as soon as its signal is subjected to a severe power degradation (e.g., a fiber cut).  Upon receiving a change notification of the ROADM degree optical transmission section (OTS) interface operational state, TPCE computes a new candidate path to circumvent the problematic degree and reroutes the wave service over that path.

“AT&T is actively deploying Open ROADM MSA compliant optical network equipment and plans to have more than 10 metro markets supporting 100G and 400G traffic by year end,” says John Gibbons, AVP, Packet Core and Optical Transport, AT&T. “For operators, the interoperability enabled by Open ROADM can encourage lower costs, accelerate technology introduction, help reduce life-cycle costs, and allow networks to remain viable longer. The Open ROADM MSA continues to lead the industry in introducing new interoperable capabilities, as demonstrated by the Open ROADM demo at OFC 2023.”

http://openroadm.org/

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Sumitomo Electric to manufacture US Conec's MMC Multi-fiber Connector

Sumitomo Electric Lightwave has agreed to manufacture US Conec's MMC connector and TMT ferrule components for next-generation, high-density, multi-fiber cabling solutions. 

US Conec's MMC connector combines a novel, reduced footprint multi-fiber ferrule with a very small Form factor (VSFF) connector footprint which is 1/3 the size of the MPO format. This collaboration to deliver MMC solutions supports active hyper-scale data center cabling programs and ensures a robust supply chain for emerging and future optical link architectures. Initial deployments include 24F single-mode, low-loss MMC connectors.

"US Conec is a leader in the development of next generation VSFF multi-fiber connectivity, and we are pleased to partner with them to deliver connectivity solutions using their MMC connector, which is indispensable for building next-generation data centers. We will leverage our precision molding technology to produce and sell solutions utilizing MMC connectivity to help customers overcome their challenges for saving space and reducing installation time, thereby contributing to the realization of an advanced information society," said Yoshiyuki Suetsugu, Deputy General Manager, Info-communications Business Unit of Sumitomo Electric.

"We are excited to partner with Sumitomo Electric on next generation high density connectivity solutions with the MMC connector platform. Their long history as a premier MT ferrule maker makes Sumitomo Electric an excellent second source partner for TMT ferrules and MMC connector components. Combining Sumitomo Electric's proven high performance component background with state-of-the-art cable technology will help to ensure a robust supply chain for emerging fiber optic networks built with groundbreaking MMC based cabling solutions," said Joe Graham, President of US Conec.

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