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Insights

August 31, 2023

The Future of 5G Fronthaul

The 5G network revolution promises to fulfill the capacity needs that previous cellular generations could…

The 5G network revolution promises to fulfill the capacity needs that previous cellular generations could no longer provide to the ever-increasing customer demands. This network generation is expected to revolutionize the concept of telecommunication and bring the most anticipated services of larger bandwidth, higher speed, and reduced latency as part of the modern cellular network. The upgrade from 4G to 5G has shifted the radio access network (RAN) from a two-level structure with backhaul and fronthaul in 4G to a three-level structure with back-, mid-, and fronthaul:

Fronthaul is the segment between the active antenna unit (AAU) and the distributed unit (DU)
Midhaul is the segment from DU to the centralized unit (CU)
Backhaul is the segment from CU to the core network.

Figure-backhaul-fronthaul — Figure 2: Simplified diagram that shows and compares the building blocks of 4G (left) and 5G (right) access networks and the links between these blocks.

5G promises to interconnect exponentially more devices than before, with higher speed and latencies. As a result, 5G edge network bandwidth requirements can reach up to 100 times more than 4G. These requirements will put more pressure on the existing fiber infrastructure, and mobile network operators are expected to deliver their 5G promises with relatively little expansion in their fiber infrastructure.

The initial rollout of 5G has already happened in most developed countries, with operators switching from 1G SFP transceivers and grey transceivers to 10G SFP+ or wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Mobile networks must move to the next phase of 5G deployments, which will exponentially increase the number of devices connected to the network. These more mature phases of 5G deployment will require operators to scale capacity cost-effectively. The move to 25G tunable optics in fronthaul networks will enable this expansion in capacity in an affordable way and help promote a long-awaited convergence between mobile and fixed access networks.

Enhancing Mobile Fronthaul Capacity

The move from 4G to 5G networks saw many operators upgrade their 10G grey transceivers to tunable 10G transceivers and 25G grey transceivers to make the most of their fiber infrastructure. However, as the 5G rollout moves into a more mature phase, the demands of fronthaul networks will often require even greater capacity from fiber infrastructure.

These future demands are a key reason why South Korea’s service providers decided to future-proof their fiber infrastructure and invested in 10G and 25G WDM technology since the early stages of their 5G rollout. Over time, providers in other countries will find themselves fiber-limited and turn towards tunable technologies. These trends are why LightCounting forecasts that the 25G DWDM market will provide the most significant revenue opportunity in the coming five years.

These 25G tunable transceivers support a typical reach of 10 km. It can reach up to 15 or even 20 km with extra amplification and compensation. Maximizing the capacity of fronthaul fiber will not only be beneficial for mobile network providers and telecom business developers, system architectures, equipment manufacturers, and product developers.

Graph DWDM Annual Sales — Figure 2: Fronthaul tunable optics transceiver revenues. Source: LightCouting Next-Gen Access Optics Report (2021)

DWDM Solutions For Fronthaul Aggregation

The transitions to 3G and 4G relied heavily on more efficient use of broader RF spectrum blocks. These transitions were as simple for many cell sites as changing the appropriate radio line card at a base station unit. The same cannot be said about the transition to 5G. Particularly this second phase of 5G deployment will require a more profound restructuring of mobile network architecture. These mature 5G networks will use higher frequency bands, which require the deployment of more cell sites and antennas to cover the same geographical areas as 4G. In contrast, existing antennas must upgrade to denser antenna arrays.

The characteristics of this second 5G deployment mean that operators must deploy larger-bandwidth channels and more total channels due to the additional base stations. DWDM is an excellent fit for interconnecting these new smaller cell sites since it allows operators to quickly increase their number of channels without having to lay out new and expensive fiber infrastructure. Thanks to the 25G capacity, these additional channels can be easily aggregated into the fronthaul transport network without being limited by fiber infrastructure.

Figure-5g-frount-haul-deep-fiber — Figure 3. Comparison between 4G legacy fiber deployments in access networks vs. future deep fiber deployments in 5G. The latter needs significantly more fiber capacity and infrastructure that can handle this aggregation, such as DWDM.

The Dream of Fixed-Mobile Access

Carriers that provide both fixed and mobile network services may often have to deal with situations in which their fixed and mobile access networks compete against each other. Since these networks often use different technology standards and even transmission media (e.g., legacy coaxial networks in fixed access), these carriers often have to build additional and arguably redundant optical infrastructure.

These carriers have long dreamed of merging their fixed and mobile network infrastructures under the same standards and transmission pipes. Such solutions reduce the need to build and manage redundant infrastructure. The expansion of fiber infrastructure and WDM technology might finally provide them with the opportunity to do so.

Figure-metro-core-network — Figure 4: Simplified example of some critical technologies and network architectures that could be merged in a converged fixed-mobile access network solution. These include radio access networks (RAN) with DWDM technology and Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) protocols, as well as passive optical networks that combine time-division multiplexing (TDM) and WDM technology.

Passive optical networks (PON) have become a popular solution to implement fiber-to-the-home solutions. These networks’ bandwidth and latency requirements are leading to the standardization of 25G PONs and WDM-PON technology. Now that both mobile and fixed access are considering 25G WDM solutions, it might be a good time to revisit the subject of convergence, as together, this network will offer various quality services such as communication, entertainment, and data acquisition without any terminal, application, network, and location limitation.

Takeaways

25G tunable optics will become an industry standard for mobile fronthaul in the coming years. They allow operators to make the most of their existing fiber infrastructure, maximizing bandwidth and increasing the network’s ability to aggregate more signals from smaller and more numerous 5G base stations. For certain carriers, they could enable a future converged fixed-access network that simplifies the installation and management of their infrastructure. As shown by the example of South Korean network operators, it pays off to anticipate all these future demands and invest in a future-proof network that can scale up quickly.

Tags: 5G, access, aggregation, backhaul, capacity, DWDM, fronthaul, Integrated Photonics, LightCounting, metro, midhaul, mobile, mobile access, network, optical networking, optical technology, photonic integrated chip, photonic integration, PIC, PON, programmable photonic system-on-chip, solutions, technology

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Insights

July 28, 2023

Implementing Software Defined Networks and Virtualisation for More Agile and Scalable Networks

In continuation on the theme of building agile, scalable and flexible networks, this article looks…

In continuation on the theme of building agile, scalable and flexible networks, this article looks at the role of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) in more detail. Along with automated management and orchestration, these technologies are enablers for the paradigm shift that is necessary to address the challenges facing network operators today.

Joost Verberk, Director of Product Management, also covered some of the thinking during his recent Technology Showcase presentation at OFC 2021. If you would like to watch that session on-demand, then please click here.

Despite 5G being the most efficient and energy-aware mobile communication standard ever released, the enhanced services provided by 5G—mobile broadband, critical business and emergency communications, massive IoT—will drive traffic volume exponentially.

In the past, service providers addressed these increased network demands by spending more money and buying more hardware. However, network operators cannot allow their infrastructure spending to increase exponentially with network traffic, because the number of customers and the prices they are willing to pay for mobile services will not increase so steeply. Additionally, different data-driven applications have different requirements, so operators need agile, flexible networks that can adapt automatically and in real-time to these different customers.

Achieving these joint goals of sustainability and flexibility requires new technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV).

SDN Makes Networks More Agile and Scalable Through Centralized Control

In a traditional network paradigm, switches contained both the hardware that forwards traffic (the data plane) as well as the software that sets the rules of where to forward said traffic (the control plane). Each switch would independently create their routing tables using some kind of network protocol—such as spanning-tree—without receiving much instruction from the rest of the network.

This kind of network would struggle to scale up and be agile enough to meet the increasing demands for bandwidth and new 5G services. To add new types of services and features to the network, each switch has to be configured manually and individually. Furthermore, with data and control plane coupled into the same box, network operators are often constrained by closed and proprietary platforms to interface with the switching hardware.

In a nutshell, the SDN paradigm separates the switching hardware from the software, effectively decoupling the data plane from the control plane. Operators don’t have to configure traffic flow rules at each switch anymore but instead can set traffic flow rules at a central controller which will then push these instructions out to the different switches. The language between this controller and the switches is an open protocol, with OpenFlow being the most commonly used one. This guarantees interoperability between switching hardware of different manufacturers and gives operators more freedom to introduce innovative and updated services without being constrained by closed and proprietary platforms.

Through the SDN paradigm, business policies can be quickly translated into routing configurations through centralized control. This includes:

prioritization (e.g. video traffic over web traffic)
compliance (isolating finance data from engineering data)
metering (for service providers)
reliability (critical applications are configured with higher QoS).

The central controller also has a view of the whole network that individual switches don’t have, allowing operators to allocate network resources more intelligently and dynamically. Resources can be allocated through schedules (such as backup services at night) or on-demand (such as adjusting for real-time traffic patterns). This added flexibility and optimization’s will improve network outcomes for operators.

Furthermore, SDN improves security by allowing operators to implement different security settings to different types of network traffic. One side of the software-defined network can be used for low-security data that can circulate publicly, and the other side can be used for more sensitive information protected by software-based firewalls and encryption codes. Since the centralized control can see the entire network, end-to-end monitoring and intruder detection can be implemented more effectively, too.

NFV Separates Software From Hardware

Virtualization technology uses a software emulator (known as a hypervisor) to create an abstraction layer over the physical hardware. In doing so, it creates a virtual computing system known as a virtual machine (VM). This virtualization process effectively separates software from hardware. By partitioning a single unit of hardware into multiple virtual systems, users can run multiple applications that would have normally required multiple units of hardware. Simply put, virtualization allows for more efficient use of physical computer hardware. After many years of providing increased returns on hardware investment in the IT world, network operators have taken notice, and are now trying to use virtualization software to run multiple network functions on a single server.

The highly fragmented classical network appliance approach required several specialized hardware units, including routers, controllers, packet sniffers, firewalls. Every time a site needed a new network function, a new appliance had to be installed physically on-site. This kind of hardware development constituted a large entry barrier for new vendors, which hindered healthy competition and quick innovation cycles.

On the other hand, network function virtualization (NFV) infrastructure consists of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, storage and ethernet switches. Thanks to the virtualization layer the same general-purpose hardware unit can implement many different specialized functions, from load balancers to firewalls to VPNs. Since the NFV implementation does not require the installation of new specialized hardware on-site, it can be completed automatically and remotely.

This approach reduces both capital and operational costs. The commercial off-the-shelf devices are produced on a much larger scale than dedicated network hardware, so they are more easily and cheaply procured. Meanwhile, automated and remote installation can deploy new services and applications to users more quickly. By migrating workloads and powering down unused software, operators can also reduce their energy costs. Meanwhile, the standard and open interfaces that control NFV infrastructure help operators avoid vendor lock-ins and thus enable greater flexibility in network implementation, upgrades, and innovation.

Combining SDN and NFV for Automation and Orchestration

SDN and NFV have a lot of points in common: they both employ some degree of network abstraction to implement network functions and services via software, they use COTS hardware over dedicated proprietary hardware, and they interface with hardware using open APIs for more efficient implementation and automation.

These approaches can be implemented independently, but they synergize well with one another and can thus be combined to provide more efficient and enhanced performance results depending upon what an operator wants to accomplish. SDN is a bit different from NFV but many NFV architectures employ SDN controllers as part of their network. These differences between both the technologies allow them to be implemented together on the same network in a mutually beneficial manner which will enhance the network performance more as compared to the performance achieved by implementing a single technology.

When SDN is employed on an NFV infrastructure, its function is to transmit data packets from one device to another. At the same time, the networking functions of SDN for routing, policy-making and application run in a virtual machine located somewhere on the network. Hence, NFV offers basic networking functions, whereas SDN controls and manages them for specific purposes. SDN also defines and modifies the configuration and behaviour programmatically.

By combining SDN and NFC, operators can create a more flexible and programmable network architecture that uses network resources efficiently. The open standards allow easy access to all information across multiple vendor platforms based on COTS equipment, with no need to get into each proprietary management console as before. This approach provides full visibility across the entire network stack, including options to reconfigure on demand.

Towards a Self-Managed, Zero-Touch Automated Network

The upcoming 5G networks will consist of a massive number of devices, software applications and technologies. These technologies will occupy large frequency bands that must be utilized efficiently to accommodate the increasing number of users.

Delivering these services with efficiency and sustainability requires the deployment and implementation of SDN and NFV technologies that will simplify the way operators control and manage the network functions with reduced cost and efficient resource utilization. SDN will give operators more control of the flow of data throughout the network, allowing for a more agile, controllable and secure network later. NFV will give the network operators tools to make more efficient use of their installed hardware base.

However, EFFECT Photonics’ vision of the next-generation mobile networks goes beyond SDN and NFV. Ultimately, we want a self-managed, zero-touch automated network. Achieving this full automation requires two additional components alongside SDN and NFV:

Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for full automation of the network
Sensor and control data flow across all layers of the OSI model, including the physical layer

NFV unlocks automation and reconfigurability across the top layers (4-7) of the OSI model, while SDN unlocks them in layers 2 and 3, but the physical layer should also communicate with the rest of the OSI stack and be programmable.

In the next article, we will explain how integrated photonics and specifically our DWDM system-on-chip technology can unlock the physical layer to automation and complete the paradigm shift towards fully automated networks.

To download this article in PDF format, please click here.

For more on our optical system-on-a-chip products, visit: https://old.effect.jkc-dev.nl/product/

Tags: network function virtualisation, NFV, SDN, software-defined network, Telecom

Insights

July 28, 2023

The Light Path to a Coherent Cloud Edge

Smaller data centers placed locally have the potential to minimize latency, overcome inconsistent connections, and…

Smaller data centers placed locally have the potential to minimize latency, overcome inconsistent connections, and store and compute data closer to the end user. These benefits are causing the global market for edge data centers to explode, with PWC predicting that it will nearly triple from $4 billion in 2017 to $13.5 billion in 2024.

As edge data centers become more common, the issue of interconnecting them becomes more prominent. This situation motivated the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) to create the 400ZR and ZR+ standards for pluggable modules. With small enough modules to pack a router faceplate densely, the datacom sector could profit from a 400ZR solution for high-capacity data center interconnects of up to 80km. Cignal AI forecasts that 400ZR shipments will dominate the edge applications, as shown in the figure below.

Graph-100G-ports — Figure 1: Forecast of 100G port equivalents shipped for edge applications. These shipments are overwhelmingly 400ZR standard technology. Source: Cignal AI Transport Applications Report Q42021.

The 400ZR standard has made coherent technology and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) the dominant solution in the metro data center interconnects (DCIs) space. Datacom provider operations teams found the simplicity of coherent pluggables very attractive. There was no need to install and maintain additional amplifiers and compensators as in direct detect technology. A single coherent transceiver plugged into a router could fulfill the requirements.

However, there are still obstacles that prevent coherent from becoming dominant in shorter-reach DCI links at the campus (< 10km distance) and intra-datacenter (< 2km distance) level. These spaces require more optical links and transceivers, and coherent technology is still considered too power-hungry and expensive to become the de-facto solution here.

Fortunately, there are avenues for coherent technology to overcome these barriers. By embracing multi-laser arrays, DSP co-design, and electronic ecosystems, coherent technology can mature and become a viable solution for every data center interconnect scenario.

The Promise of Multi-Laser Arrays

Earlier this year, Intel Labs demonstrated an eight-wavelength laser array fully integrated on a silicon wafer. These milestones are essential for optical transceivers because the laser arrays can allow for multi-channel transceivers that are more cost-effective when scaling up to higher speeds.

Let’s say we need an intra-DCI link with 1.6 Terabits/s of capacity. There are three ways we could implement it:

Four modules of 400G: This solution uses existing off-the-shelf modules but has the largest footprint. It requires four slots in the router faceplate and an external multiplexer to merge these into a single 1.6T channel.
One module of 1.6T: This solution will not require the external multiplexer and occupies just one plug slot on the router faceplate. However, making a single-channel 1.6T device has the highest complexity and cost.
One module with four internal channels of 400G: A module with an array of four lasers (and thus four different 400G channels) will only require one plug slot on the faceplate while avoiding the complexity and cost of the single-channel 1.6T approach.

Table-comparison-module — Table 2: Comparison of different ways to implement a 1.6 Terabit/s link: four modules of 400G, a single-channel 1.6T module, and a module with four channels of 400G.

Multi-laser array and multi-channel solutions will become increasingly necessary to increase link capacity in coherent systems. They will not need more slots in the router faceplate while simultaneously avoiding the higher cost and complexity of increasing the speed with just a single channel.

Co-designing DSP and Optical Engine for Efficiency and Performance

Transceiver developers often source their DSP, laser, and optical engine from different suppliers, so all these chips are designed separately from each other. This setup reduces the time to market and simplifies the research and design processes but comes with trade-offs in performance and power consumption.

In such cases, the DSP is like a Swiss army knife: a jack of all trades designed for different kinds of optical engines but a master of none. For example, current DSPs are designed to be agnostic to the material platform of the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) they are connected to, which can be Indium Phosphide (InP) or Silicon. Thus, they do not exploit the intrinsic advantages of these material platforms. Co-designing the DSP chip alongside the PIC can lead to a much better fit between these components.

To illustrate the impact of co-designing PIC and DSP, let’s look at an example. A PIC and a standard platform-agnostic DSP typically operate with signals of differing intensities, so they need some RF analog electronic components to “talk” to each other. This signal power conversion overhead constitutes roughly 2-3 Watts or about 10-15% of transceiver power consumption.

Figure-dac grey blocks — Figure 3: Simplified diagram of the building blocks of a coherent transceiver in which the DSP drives the optical engine directly from its digital-to-analog converter (DAC). This setup can minimize the power conversion overhead of optical transceivers.

However, the modulator of an InP PIC can run at a lower voltage than a silicon modulator. If this InP PIC and the DSP are designed and optimized together instead of using a standard DSP, the PIC could be designed to run at a voltage compatible with the DSP’s signal output. This way, the optimized DSP could drive the PIC directly without needing the RF analog driver, doing away with most of the power conversion overhead we discussed previously.

Graph-DSP-power — Figure 4: Comparison between the drive power and power consumption of three different PIC + DSP pairings: standard DSP with a silicon PIC, standard DSP with an InP PIC, and an optimized DSP with an InP.

Additionally, the optimized DSP could also be programmed to do some additional signal conditioning that minimizes the nonlinear optical effects of the InP material, which can reduce noise and improve performance.

Driving Scale Through Existing Electronic Ecosystems

Making coherent optical transceivers more affordable is a matter of volume production. As discussed in a previous article, if PIC production volumes can increase from a few thousand chips per year to a few million, the price per optical chip can decrease from thousands of Euros to mere tens of Euros. Achieving this production goal requires photonics manufacturing chains to learn from electronics and leverage existing electronics manufacturing processes and ecosystems.

While vertically-integrated PIC development has its strengths, a fabless model in which developers outsource their PIC manufacturing to a large-scale foundry is the simplest way to scale to production volumes of millions of units. Fabless PIC developers can remain flexible and lean, relying on trusted large-scale manufacturing partners to guarantee a secure and high-volume supply of chips. Furthermore, the fabless model allows photonics developers to concentrate their R&D resources on their end market and designs instead of costly fabrication facilities.

Further progress must also be made in the packaging, assembly, and testing of photonic chips. While these processes are only a small part of the cost of electronic systems, the reverse happens with photonics. To become more accessible and affordable, the photonics manufacturing chain must become more automated and standardized. It must move towards proven and scalable packaging methods that are common in the electronics industry.

If you want to know more about how photonics developers can leverage electronic ecosystems and methods, we recommend you read our in-depth piece on the subject.

Takeaways

Coherent transceivers are already established as the solution for metro Data Center Interconnects (DCIs), but they need to become more affordable and less power-hungry to fit the intra- and campus DCI application cases. Fortunately, there are several avenues for coherent technology to overcome these cost and power consumption barriers.

Multi-laser arrays can avoid the higher cost and complexity of increasing capacity with just a single transceiver channel. Co-designing the optics and electronics can allow the electronic DSP to exploit the intrinsic advantages of specific photonics platforms such as indium phosphide. Finally, leveraging electronic ecosystems and processes is vital to increase the production volumes of coherent transceivers and make them more affordable.

By embracing these pathways to progress, coherent technology can mature and become a viable solution for every data center interconnect scenario.

Tags: campus, cloud, cloud edge, codesign, coherent, DCI, DSP, DSPs, DWDM, integration, intra, light sources, metro, modulator, multi laser arrays, photonic integration, PIC, power consumption, wafer testing

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July 28, 2023

Reaching a 100ZR Future for Access Network Transport

In the optical access networks, the 400ZR pluggables that have become mainstream in datacom applications…

In the optical access networks, the 400ZR pluggables that have become mainstream in datacom applications are too expensive and power-hungry. Therefore, operators are strongly interested in 100G pluggables that can house coherent optics in compact form factors, just like 400ZR pluggables do. The industry is labeling these pluggables as 100ZR.

A recently released Heavy Reading survey revealed that over 75% of operators surveyed believe that 100G coherent pluggable optics will be used extensively in their edge and access evolution strategy. However, this interest had yet to materialize into a 100ZR market because no affordable or power-efficient products were available. The most the industry could offer was 400ZR pluggables that were “powered-down” for 100G capacity.

By embracing smaller and more customizable light sources, new optimized DSP designs, and high-volume manufacturing capabilities, we can develop native 100ZR solutions with lower costs that better fit edge and access networks.

Making Tunable Lasers Even Smaller?

Since the telecom and datacom industries want to pack more and more transceivers on a single router faceplate, integrable tunable laser assemblies (ITLAs) must maintain performance while moving to smaller footprints and lower power consumption and cost.

Fortunately, such ambitious specifications became possible thanks to improved photonic integration technology. The original 2011 ITLA standard from the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) was 74mm long by 30.5mm wide. By 2015, most tunable lasers shipped in a micro-ITLA form factor that cut the original ITLA footprint in half. In 2021, the nano-ITLA form factor designed for QSFP-DD and OSFP modules had once again cut the micro-ITLA footprint almost in half.

Figure-Evolution-laser — Figure 1: Evolution of tunable laser form factors for coherent optics (2011-2021). Figure inspired from a picture in Laser Focus World.

There are still plenty of discussions over the future of ITLA packaging to fit the QSFP28 form factors of these new 100ZR transceivers. For example, every tunable laser needs a wavelength locker component that stabilizes the laser’s output regardless of environmental conditions such as temperature. Integrating that wavelength locker component with the laser chip would help reduce the laser package’s footprint.

Another potential future to reduce the size of tunable laser packages is related to the control electronics. The current ITLA standards include the complete control electronics on the laser package, including power conversion and temperature control. However, if the transceiver’s main board handles some of these electronic functions instead of the laser package, the size of the laser package can be reduced.

This approach means that the reduced laser package would only have full functionality if connected to the main transceiver board. However, some transceiver developers will appreciate the laser package reduction and the extra freedom to provide their own laser control electronics.

Co-designing DSPs for Energy Efficiency

The 5 Watt-power requirement of 100ZR in a QSFP28 form factor is significantly reduced compared to the 15-Watt specification of 400ZR transceivers in a QSFP-DD form factor. Achieving this reduction requires a digital signal processor (DSP) specifically optimized for the 100G transceiver.

Current DSPs are designed to be agnostic to the material platform of the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) they are connected to, which can be Indium Phosphide (InP) or Silicon. Thus, they do not exploit the intrinsic advantages of these material platforms. Co-designing the DSP chip alongside the PIC can lead to a much better fit between these components.

To illustrate the impact of co-designing PIC and DSP, let’s look at an example. A PIC and a standard platform-agnostic DSP typically operate with signals of differing intensities, so they need some RF analog electronic components to “talk” to each other. This signal power conversion overhead constitutes roughly 2-3 Watts or about 10-15% of transceiver power consumption.

However, the modulator of an InP PIC can run at a lower voltage than a silicon modulator. If this InP PIC and the DSP are designed and optimized together instead of using a standard DSP, the PIC could be designed to run at a voltage compatible with the DSP’s signal output. This way, the optimized DSP could drive the PIC directly without needing the RF analog driver, doing away with most of the power conversion overhead we discussed previously.

Optical Subassemblies That Leverage Electronic Ecosystems

To become more accessible and affordable, the photonics manufacturing chain can learn from electronics packaging, assembly, and testing methods that are already well-known and standardized. After all, building a special production line is much more expensive than modifying an existing production flow.

There are several ways in which photonics packaging, assembly, and testing can be made more affordable and accessible: passive alignments of the optical fiber, BGA-style packaging, and flip-chip bonding. Making these techniques more widespread will make a massive difference in photonics’ ability to scale up and become as available as electronics. To read more about them, please read our previous article.

Takeaways

The interest in novel 100ZR coherent pluggable optics for edge and access applications is strong, but the market has struggled to provide “native” and specific 100ZR solutions to address this interest. Transceiver developers need to embrace several new technological approaches to develop these solutions. They will need smaller tunable laser packages that can fit the QSFP28 form factors of 100ZR solutions, optimized and co-designed DSPs that meet the reduced power consumption goals, and sub-assemblies that leverage electronic ecosystems for increased scale and reduced cost.

Tags: 100 ZR, 100G, 100ZR, 400ZR, C-band, C-PON, coherent, DSP, filters, future proof, Korea, laser sources, O-band, Packaging, pluggable, roadmap, S-band

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July 28, 2023

Designing in the Great Lakes

Last year, EFFECT Photonics announced the acquisition of the coherent optical digital signal processing (DSP)…

Last year, EFFECT Photonics announced the acquisition of the coherent optical digital signal processing (DSP) and forward error correction (FEC) business unit from the global communications company Viasat Inc. This also meant welcoming to the EFFECT Photonics family a new engineering team who will continue to work in the Cleveland area.

As EFFECT Photonics expands its influence into the American Midwest, it is interesting to dive deeper into Cleveland’s history with industry and technology. Cleveland has enjoyed a long story as a Midwest industrial hub, and as these traditional industries have declined, it is evolving into one of the high-tech hubs of the region.

Cleveland and the Industrial Revolution

Cleveland’s industrial sector expanded significantly in the 19th century because of the city’s proximity to several essential resources and transportation routes: coal and iron ore deposits, the Ohio and Erie Canal, and the Lake Erie railroad. For example, several steel mills, such as the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and the Cleveland Iron and Steel Company, emerged because of the city’s proximity to Lake Erie, facilitating the transportation of raw materials and goods.

Building on the emerging iron and steel industries, heavy equipment production also found a home in Cleveland. Steam engines, railroad equipment, and other forms of heavy machinery were all manufactured in great quantities in the city.

Cleveland saw another massive boost to its industrial hub status with the birth of the Standard Oil Company in 1870. At the peak of its power, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its founder and head, John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men of all time. This history with petroleum also led to the emergence of Cleveland’s chemicals and materials industry.

Many immigrants moved to Cleveland, searching for work in these expanding industries, contributing to the city’s rapid population boom. This growth also prompted the development of new infrastructure like roads, railways and bridges to accommodate the influx of people.

Several important electrical and mechanical equipment manufacturers, including the Bendix Corporation, the White Motor Company, and the Western Electric Company (which supplied equipment to the US Bell System), also established their headquarters in or around Cleveland in the late 19^th and early 20th century.

From Traditional Industry to Healthcare and High-Tech

In the second half of the 20^th century, Cleveland’s traditional industries, such as steel and manufacturing in Cleveland began to collapse. As was the case in many other great American manufacturing centers, automation, globalization, and other socioeconomic shifts all had a role in this decline. The demise of Cleveland’s core industries was a significant setback, but the city has made substantial efforts in recent years to diversify its economy and grow in new technology and healthcare areas.

For example, the Cleveland Clinic is one of the leading US academic medical centers, with pioneering medical breakthroughs such as the first coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. Institutions like theirs or the University Hospitals help establish Cleveland as a center for healthcare innovation.

Cleveland is also trying to evolve as a high-tech hub that attracts new workers and companies, especially in software development. Companies are attracted by the low office leasing and other operating costs, while the affordable living costs attract workers. As reported by the real estate firm CBRE, Cleveland’s tech workforce grew by 25 percent between 2016 and 2021, which was significantly above the national average of 12.8 percent.

A New Player in Cleveland’s High-Tech Industry

As Cleveland’s history as a tech hub continues, EFFECT Photonics is excited to join this emerging tech environment. Our new DSP team will find its new home in the Wagner Awning building in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland’s West Side.

This building was erected in 1895 and hosted a sewing factory that manufactured everything from tents and flotation devices for American soldiers and marines to awnings for Cleveland buildings. When the Ohio Awning company announced its relocation in 2015, this historic building began a redevelopment process to become a new office and apartment space.

EFFECT Photonics is proud to become a part of Cleveland’s rich and varied history with industry and technology. We hope our work can help develop this city further as a tech hub and attract more innovators and inventors to Cleveland.

Tags: digital signal processing (DSP), EFFECT Photonics, forward error correction (FEC), high-tech hub, industrial history, Integrated Photonics, Ohio Awning Company, Photonics, Tremont neighborhood, Viasat Inc., Wagner Awning building

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July 28, 2023

The Growing Photonics Cluster of the Boston Area

As they lighted the candles in their ship, the Pilgrim families traveling on the Mayflower had no…

As they lighted the candles in their ship, the Pilgrim families traveling on the Mayflower had no idea they would help build a nation that would become a major pioneer in light technology and many other fields.

The United States features many areas with a strong photonics background, including the many companies in California’s Silicon Valley and the regions close to the country’s leading optics universities, such as Colorado, New York, Arizona, and Florida.

However, the Greater Boston area and Massachusetts state, in general, are becoming an increasingly important photonics hub with world-class universities and many successful optics and photonics initiatives and companies. Let’s talk a bit more about their legacy with light-based technology and the history of the town of Maynard with the high-tech industry.

From World-Class Labs to the Real World

The Boston area features many world-class universities collaborating with the government and industry to develop new photonics technology. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston University, Tufts University, and Northeastern University are major research institutions in the area that lead many photonics-related initiatives.

The state of Massachusetts, in general, has also been home to several prosperous photonics businesses, and initiatives are being made to capitalize on Boston’s extensive medical industry knowledge to boost biomedical optics and photonics. Raytheon, Polaroid, and IPG Photonics are examples of Massachusetts-based businesses that promoted optical technology.

The US federal government and Massachusetts state are committing resources to get these academic and industry partners to collaborate as much as possible. In 2015, the Lab for Education and Application Prototypes (LEAP) network was established as part of a federal drive to revive American manufacturing. The Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, a state grant program, and AIM Photonics, the national manufacturing institution, each contributed $11.3 million to constructing labs around Massachusetts universities and colleges.

The LEAP Network objectives are to teach integrated photonics manufacturing practice, offer companies technician training and certification, encourage company engagement in the tool, process, and application upgrades, and support AIM Photonics in their manufacturing and testing.

These partnerships form a statewide ecosystem to educate the manufacturing workforce throughout the photonics supply chain. The facilities’ strategic placement next to both universities and community colleges allows them to attract students from all areas and stages of their careers, from technicians to engineers to fundamental researchers.

From the Mill to High Tech: The Story of Maynard

A trip down Route 2 into Middlesex County, 25 miles northwest of Boston, will take one past apple orchards, vineyards, and some of Massachusetts’ most stunning nature preserves before arriving at a historic mill on the Assabet River. The community around this mill, Maynard, is a charming and surprisingly historical hub of economic innovation that houses an emerging tech ecosystem.

location-maynard-clocktower — Historic Assabet Woolen Mill, built in 1847, on Main Street on Assabet River in Maynard’s historic town center in spring, Maynard, Massachusetts, USA.

The renowned Assabet Woolen Mill was established for textile manufacturing in 1847 by Amory Maynard, who by the age of 16 was managing his own sawmill company. Initially a carpet manufacturing plant, Maynard’s enterprise produced blankets and uniforms for the Union Army during the Civil War. The company employed immigrants from Ireland, Finland, Poland, Russia, and Italy, many of them coming to the mill for jobs as soon as they arrived in the nation. By the 1930s, the town of Maynard was recognized as one of the most multi-ethnic places in the state.

The Assabet Woolen Mill continued to create textiles until 1950. The 11-acre former mill complex, currently named Mill and Main, is the contemporary expression of the town’s evolution and relationship with innovative industry.

The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) occupied the facility before the end of the 50s with just $70,000 cash and three engineers. From the 1960s onward, DEC became a major global supplier of computer systems and enjoyed tremendous growth. It’s hard to overstate the company’s impact on Maynard, which became the ” Mini Computer Capital of the World” in barely twenty years.

Following DEC’s departure, the mill complex was sold and rented out to a fresh group of young and ambitious computer startups, many of whom are still operating today. Since then, more people and companies have joined, noting the affordable real estate, the enjoyable commute and environs, and the obvious cluster of IT enterprises. For example, when Acacia Communications, Inc. was established in 2009 and needed a home, Maynard’s mill space was a natural fit.

Similarly, EFFECT Photonics is proud to make a home in Maynard´s historic mill space and be a part of this community’s innovative heritage. We hope our work can serve as a positive example and inspiration for the neighborhood and help more innovators and inventors come to Maynard.

Tags: Boston, Boston University, DEC, Maynard, MIT, Photonics, Woolen Mill

Insights

July 28, 2023

The Next Bright Lights of Eindhoven

Paris may be the more well-known City of Light, but we may argue that Eindhoven…

Insights

July 28, 2023

What is DWDM and Why Should You Care?

Imagine a couple of small trucks moving along a country road in opposite directions, carrying…

Imagine a couple of small trucks moving along a country road in opposite directions, carrying goods between factories and consumers. As the population grows and demand increases, the trucks grow in number, and diversity of goods and traffic increases. City planners must start adding lanes until, eventually the tiny country road has become a large multi-lane highway with 18-wheelers moving vast volumes of different types of merchandise every day. A similar rapid expansion in ‘cargo’ has happened in telecommunications.

The telecommunications industry and service providers, in particular, have faced a dramatic and very rapid increase in the volume and type of data their systems must handle. Networks built initially to transmit soundwaves as electrical signals from one phone to another were now faced with managing data and video in real-time from many devices. Within approximately 30 years, we have moved from the introduction of the Internet and the creation of the Worldwide Web to the rollout of 5G wireless technology and the Internet-of-Things (IoT), through which virtually all devices can theoretically be interconnected.

Handling this exponentially increasing data traffic has required massive contributions from fiber optics and optical communications systems. In these systems, laser light carries much higher data transmission rates over greater distances than electrical signals. To encode the data into light, transmit it, and decode it back into electrical signals upon receipt, optical communication systems rely on optical transceivers. Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is a transceiver technology developed around 20 years ago that dramatically increases the amount of data transmitted over existing fiber networks. Data from various signals are separated, encoded on different wavelengths, and put together (multiplexed) in a single optical fiber.

The wavelengths are separated again and reconverted into the original digital signals at the receiving end. In other words, DWDM allows different data streams to be sent simultaneously over a single optical fiber without requiring new cables to be laid. In a way, it’s like adding more lanes to the information highway without having to build new roads!

Optical fiber with DWDM Channels — Figure 1: Example of a bidirectional DWDM system. At the central office, transceiver modules pick different wavelength channels for transmission, and these channels are combined into a single fiber through a device called a multiplexer. A demultiplexer splits the wavelength channels into separate fibers and the receiving modules on the remote end. Since this is a bidirectional system, transmission can go opposite too, from the remote end to the central office.

The tremendous expansion in data volume afforded with DWDM can be seen compared to other optical methods. A standard transceiver, often called a grey transceiver, is a single-channel device – each fiber has a single laser source. You can transmit 10 Gbps with grey optics. Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) has multiple channels, although far fewer than possible with DWDM. For example, with a 4-channel CWDM, you can transmit 40 Gbps. DWDM can accommodate up to 100 channels.

You can transmit 1 Tbps or one trillion bps at that capacity – 100 times more data than grey optics and 25 times more than CWDM. While the volume of data transmitted with DWDM is impressive, demand will continue to grow as we move toward IoT and 5G. Adding additional optical transceivers with different wavelengths to a fixed-wavelength DWDM system can significantly increase costs. Tunable DWDM transceivers allow you to control the wavelength (color) that the laser channel emits, adding flexibility and reducing cost. However, two obstacles prevented the broader deployment of DWDM technology.

First of all, installing and maintaining many new DWDM optical links was a time-consuming and costly process. Fortunately, the telecom industry developed a new weapon to face these challenges: self-tuning DWDM modules. Self-tuning DWDM modules minimize the network’s time-to-service by eliminating additional installation tasks such as manual tuning and record verification and reducing the potential for human error. They are host-agnostic and can plug into any third-party host equipment.

Furthermore, tunability standards allow modules from different vendors to communicate with each other, avoiding compatibility issues and simplifying upgrade choices. Self-tuning modules made the deployment and operation of DWDM links faster, simpler, and more affordable. The second issue had to do with size. DWDM modules were traditionally too large, so plugging them into a router required sacrificing roughly half of the expensive router faceplate capacity. Telecom operators could not accept such a trade-off. Advances in electronic and photonic integration overcame these trade-offs, miniaturizing coherent line card transponders into pluggable modules the size of a large USB stick.

Few companies worldwide supply DWDM technology with such compact sizes and self-tuning features. EFFECT Photonics is among them, and its tunable and cost-effective DWDM technologies will act as enablers of 5G and IoT, bringing the future to you today.

Tags: DWDM, Integrated Photonics, optical networking, optical technology, photonic integrated chip, photonic integration, PIC, programmable photonic system-on-chip

Insights

July 27, 2023

Day of Photonics 2022, Photonics FAQ

On October 21st, 1983, the General Conference of Weights and Measures adopted the current value…

On October 21^st, 1983, the General Conference of Weights and Measures adopted the current value of the speed of light at 299,792.458 km/s. To commemorate this milestone, hundreds of optics and photonics companies, organizations, and institutes all over the world organize activities every year on this date to celebrate the Day of Photonics and how this technology is impacting our daily lives.

At EFFECT Photonics, we want to celebrate the Day of Photonics by answering some commonly asked questions about photonics and its impact on the world.

What is Photonics?

Photonics is the study and application of photon (light) generation, manipulation, and detection, often aiming to create, control, and sense light signals.

The term photonics emerged in the 60s and 70s with the development of the first semiconductor lasers and optical fibers. Its goals and even the name “photonics” are born from its analogy with electronics: photonics aims to generate, control, and sense photons (the particles of light) in similar ways to how electronics does with electrons (the particles of electricity).

What is Photonics Used for?

Photonics can be applied in many ways. For the Day of Photonics, we will explore two categories:

Communications

Light is the fastest information carrier in the universe and can transmit this information while dissipating less heat and energy than electrical signals. Thus, photonics can dramatically increase the speed, reach, and flexibility of communication networks and cope with the ever-growing demand for more data. And it will do so at a lower energy cost, decreasing the Internet’s carbon footprint.

A classic example is optical fiber communications. The webpage you are reading was originally a stream of 0 and 1s that traveled through an optical fiber to reach you.

Outside of optical fibers, photonics can also deliver solutions beyond what traditional radio communications can offer. For example, optical transmission over the air could handle links between different sites of a mobile network, links between cars, or to a satellite out in space. At some point, we may even see the use of Li-Fi, a technology that replaces indoor Wi-Fi links with infrared light.

Sensing

There are multiple sensing application markets, but their core technology is the same. They need a small device that sends out a known pulse of light, accurately detects how the light comes back, and calculates the properties of the environment from that information. It’s a simple but quite powerful concept.

This concept is already being used to implement LIDAR systems that help self-driving cars determine the location and distance of people and objects. However, there is also potential to use this concept in medical and agri-food applications, such as looking for undesired growths in the human eye or knowing how ripe an apple is.

Will Photonics Replace Electronics?

No, each technology has its strengths.

When transmitting information from point A to B, photonics can do it faster and more efficiently than electronics. For example, optical fiber can transmit information at the speed of light and dissipate less heat than electric wires.

On the other hand, since electricity can be manipulated at the nanometer level more easily than light, electronics are usually better for building computers. There are some specific areas where photonic computers could outperform traditional electronic ones, especially given the rise of quantum computers that can be made with photonic components. However, most computer products will remain electronic for the foreseeable future.

Thus, photonics is not expected to replace electronics but to collaborate and integrate strongly with it. Most future applications will involve photonic systems transmitting or sensing information then processed by electronic computers.

Tags: DayofPhotonics2022, Integrated Photonics, Photonics

Insights

July 25, 2023

The Whats and Hows of Telcordia Standards

Before 1984, the world of telecom standards looked very different from how it does now.…

Before 1984, the world of telecom standards looked very different from how it does now. Such a world prominently featured closed systems like the one AT&T had in the United States. They were stable and functional systems but led to a sluggish pace of technology innovation due to the lack of competition. The breakup of the Bell System in the early 1980s, where AT&T was forced to divest from their local Bell operating and manufacturing units, caused a tectonic shift in the industry. As a result, new standards bodies rose to meet the demands of a reinvented telecom sector.

Bellcore, formerly Bell Communications Research, was one of the first organizations to answer this demand. Bellcore aided the Regional Bell Operating Companies by creating “generic requirements” (GR) documents that specified the design, operation, and purpose of telecom networks, equipment, and components. These GRs provided thorough criteria to help new suppliers design interoperable equipment, leading to the explosion of a new supplier ecosystem that made “GR conformant” equipment. An industry that relied on a few major suppliers thus became a more dynamic and competitive field, with carriers allowed to work with several suppliers almost overnight.

Bellcore is now Telcordia, and although the industry saw the emergence of other standards bodies, Telcordia still plays a major role in standardization by updating and producing new GR documents. Some of the most well-known documents are reliability prediction standards for commercial telecommunication products. Let’s discuss what these standards entail and why they matter in the industry.

What is the goal of Telcordia reliability standards?

Telecommunications carriers can use general requirements documents to select products that meet reliability and performance needs. The documents cover five sections:

General Requirements, which discuss documentation, packaging, shipping, design features, product marking, safety and interoperability.
Performance Requirements, which cover potential tests, as well as the performance criteria applied during testing.
Service Life Tests, which mimic the stresses faced by the product in real-life use cases.
Extended Service Life Tests, which verify long-term reliability.
Reliability Assurance Program, which ensures satisfactory, long-term operation of products in a telecom plant

Several of these specifications require environmental/thermal testing and often refer to other MIL STD and EIA / TIA test specifications. Listed below are a few common Telcordia test specifications that require the use of environmental testing.

Telcordia Generic Requirement	Description/Applicable Product
GR-49-CORE	for Outdoor Telephone Network Interface Devices
GR-63-CORE	for Network Equipment-Building System Requirements (NEBS): Physical Protection
GR-326-CORE	for Single Mode Optical Connectors and Jumper Assemblies (Fiber Optics)
GR-468-CORE	for Optoelectronic Devices Used in Telecommunications Equipment
GR-487-CORE	for Electronic Equipment Cabinets (Enclosures)
GR-974-CORE	for Telecommunications Line Protector Units (TLPUS)
GR-1209-CORE	for Fiber Optic Branching Components
GR-1221-CORE	for Passive Optical Components

Table 1: Common Telcordia GR documents that require environmental testing.

What are Telcordia tests like

For example, our optical transceivers at EFFECT Photonics comply with the Telcordia GR-468 qualification, which describes how to test optoelectronic devices for reliability under extreme conditions. Qualification depends upon maintaining optical integrity throughout an appropriate test regimen. Accelerated environmental tests are described in the diagram below. The GR recommends that a chosen test regimen be constructed upon expected conditions and stresses over the long term life of a system and/or device.

Mechanical Reliability & Temperature Testing
Shock & Vibration	High / Low Storage Temp	Temp Cycle
Damp Heat	Cycle Moisture Resistance	Hot Pluggable
Mating Durability	Accelerated Aging	Life Expectancy Calculation

Table 2: Examples of necessary verification tests for transceivers that will operate in harsh temperatures

Our manufacturing facilities and partners include capabilities for the temperature cycling and reliability testing needed to match Telcordia standards, such as temperature cycling ovens and chambers with humidity control.

Why are Telcordia standards important?

Companies engage in telecom standards for several reasons:

Strategic Advantage: Standards influence incumbents with well-established products differently than startups with “game changer” technologies. Following a technological standard helps incumbents get new business and safeguard their existing business. If a new vendor comes along with a box based on a new technology that gives identical functionality for a fraction of the price, you now have a vested stake in that technological standard.
Allocation of Resources: Standards are part of technology races. If a competitor doubles technical contributions to hasten the inclusion of their specialized technology into evolving standards, you need to know so you may react by committing additional resources or taking another action.
Early Identification of Prospective Partners and Rivals: Standards help suppliers recognize competitors and potential partners to achieve business objectives. After all, the greatest technology does not necessarily “win the race”, but the one with the best business plans and partners that can help realize the desired specification and design.
Information Transfer: Most firms use standards to exchange information. Companies contribute technical contributions to standards groups to ensure that standards are as close as feasible to their business model and operations’ architecture and technology. Conversely, a company’s product and service developers must know about the current standards to guarantee that their goods and services support or adhere to industry standards, which clients expect.

Takeaways

One of our central company objectives is to bring the highest-performing optical technologies, such as coherent detection, all the way to the network edge. However, achieving this goal doesn’t just require us to focus on the optical or electronic side but also on meeting the mechanical and temperature reliability standards required to operate coherent devices outdoors. This is why it’s important for EFFECT Photonics to constantly follow and contribute to standards as it prepares its new product lines.

Tags: accelerated, AT&T, Bellcore, closed, coherent, innovation, monopoly, open, partners, reliability, resource allocation, service life, technology, Telcordia

Sub-Assemblies: pITLA

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Insights

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Optical Subassemblies That Leverage Electronic Ecosystems

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Cleveland and the Industrial Revolution

From Traditional Industry to Healthcare and High-Tech

A New Player in Cleveland’s High-Tech Industry

From World-Class Labs to the Real World

From the Mill to High Tech: The Story of Maynard

From Matches to the Light Bulb Factory

From ASML and Photonics Research to Philips

Bringing Photonics into the Real World from the Lab

What is Photonics?

What is Photonics Used for?

Communications

Sensing

Will Photonics Replace Electronics?

What is the goal of Telcordia reliability standards?

What are Telcordia tests like

Why are Telcordia standards important?

Takeaways

Sub-Assemblies: pITLA

Careers

Contact Us