Acacia Communications has begun sampling multiple variants in its family of 400G pluggable optical transceiver modules, including 400ZR, OpenZR+, and Open ROADM MSA. Volume production is expected in the second half of 2020.
Acacia’s 400G pluggable module family features an expansive list of interoperability solutions in QSFP-DD, OSFP and CFP2-DCO pluggable form factors for cloud data center interconnects (DCIs) and service provider networks. The modules are based on Acacia’s Greylock 7nm DSP, its 3rd generation of coherent DSP. The company is pursuing a 3D Siliconization approach that allows for high volume manufacturing processes.
OpenZR represents the combination of 400ZR and the Open ROADM MSA. It targets metro regional DCI applications.
Acacia said 400G pluggable modules represent a key architectural change in high-bandwidth data center interconnects because they can be plugged directly into switches and routers offering the same density for both coherent DWDM and client optics in the same chassis.
“We’re excited to be successfully passing traffic in the lab with the Acacia 400G-OSFP-ZR module in our 7000 Series switches and routers,” said Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer at Arista Networks. “400ZR is critical to meeting customer demand for growing data center interconnect bandwidth and we believe the thermal and optical performance of Acacia’s coherent platform in the OSFP form factor will provide network operators with a very reliable and power efficient solution.”
“Acacia is reinforcing its coherent pluggable leadership by sampling 400G technology in multiple form factors,” said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst at Cignal AI. “Interoperable 400G solutions have the potential to transform cloud DCI and traditional operator architectures and create new applications for coherent optics at the edge of the network.”
Acacia also noted the following company milestones
> 200,000 coherent silicon photonic integrated circuits
> 400,000 coherent DSP ports
> 125,000 pluggable DCO modules
