Microsemi and Acacia Communications announced interoperability between Microchip’s DIGI-G5 Optical Transport Network (OTN) processor and Acacia’s AC1200 Coherent Module.
Microsemi’s DIGI-G5 OTN processor supports FlexE and OTUCn protocols, enabling new terabit scale line cards with flexible rate optical interfaces for packet optical transport platforms. Acacia’s AC1200 modules support for metro and data center interconnect networks. Specifically, while the DIGI-G5 processes client traffic into OTN, the 1.2T AC1200—powered by Acacia’s Pico digital signal processor (DSP) ASIC—on the line card will enable the OTN connections over two 600G tunable DWDM wavelengths with flexible transmission three-dimensional (3D) shaping features. These features, which include fractional quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and adaptive baud rate optimize transmission reach and capacity, approaching theoretical limits on a wide range of network configurations, in a power efficient manner.
The companies said their collaboration enables the first flexible rate system architectures with an established ecosystem to support the market’s transition to 200G, 400G, 600G and flexible rate OTN networks built with new Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) and OTUCn protocols. FlexE was designed to provide up to 30 percent greater bandwidth efficiency compared to traditional Ethernet link aggregation (LAG) with fewer limitations. Combining it with OTUCn and tunable fractional dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) transmission brings service providers the potential to improve their OTN network capacity by up to 70 percent.
“DIGI-G5 allows our optical transport system partners to deliver terabit-class OTN switching line cards at 50 percent less power per port while enabling flexible rate ports and protocols up to 600G,” said Babak Samimi, vice president for Microchip’s Communications business unit. “Demonstrating interworking of the DIGI-G5 with Acacia’s AC1200 coherent module highlights that the ecosystem is ready to support the market transition to these new protocols, rates and multi-terabit architectures.”
“In addition to high capacity and density, our AC1200 module introduces several key features designed to enable network operators to optimize capacity, reach and spectral efficiency —making flexible transmission solutions up to 600G a reality,” said Benny Mikkelsen, Chief Technology Officer of Acacia Communications. “With Microchip’s DIGI-G5 scaling up capacity and reducing power at the same time, and the optical performance provided by our AC1200, we believe that Acacia and Microchip are helping to enable the market to scale network capacity with improved efficiency.”
ECOC 2018: Acacia presents 600 Gbps per Wavelength Coherent Transmission
At the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) in Rome, Acacia Communications demonstrated its AC1200 coherent module with dual-core design enabling 1.2 Tbps error-free transmission over fiber with 600 Gbps per wavelength.
The Acacia AC1200 module supports transmission capacity of up to 1.2 Tbps in a footprint that is 40 percent less than the size of the 5” x 7” modules that support transmission speeds of 400 Gbps today.
The module is based on Acacia’s Pico DSP ASIC, which utilizes two wavelengths that can be configured to support from 100 Gbps to 600 Gbps capacity each. The Acacia AC1200 supports a suite of advanced three-dimensional (3D) shaping features that may be optimized to enable performance approaching theoretical limits on a wide range of network configurations.
Acacia shipped its first AC1200 module customer samples in March 2018 and anticipates production to begin by the end of 2018.
Acacia said its high-capacity solution targets the requirements for connections between large data centers with reaches of 100km and above using standard single-mode fiber.
Microsemi’s DIGI-G5 powers Terabit OTN switching cards
Microsemi introduced its DIGI-G5 Optical Transport Network (OTN) processor for terabit capacity OTN switching cards.
The company said this newest generation in its DIGI franchise enables packet-optical transport platforms to triple in capacity while slashing power consumption by 50 percent per port.
DIGI-G5 delivers 1.2 terabits per second (Tbps) of combined OTN and client interfaces and is first to market with newly standardized 25 Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 50GE, 200GE, 400GE, Flexible OTN (FlexO) and Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) with integrated security engine enabling flexible encrypted optical connections.
Transporting Ethernet, storage, intellectual property (IP)/ multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and 4G/5G Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI)/eCPRI services over 100G OTN switched connections has proven to be the most fiber, power and cost-efficient deployment solution for moving bits in today’s metro and long-haul networks.
“Our DIGI OTN processor portfolio has been instrumental in transforming service provider networks to mass deploy 100G OTN switched networks,” said Babak Samimi, vice president and business unit manager for Microsemi’s Communications Business Unit. “Our DIGI-G5 breaks new ground by enabling the industry’s transition to new OTN 3.0 architectures at terabit scalability by delivering three times the port density while lowering power consumption by 50 percent per port.”
DIGI-G5 highlights
- Total interface bandwidth of up to 1.2Tbps
- Comprehensive Ethernet support: 10GE, 25GE, 50GE, 100GE, 200GE, 400GE and the new OIF FlexE specification
- New OTN 3.0 rates, enabling flexible (FlexO) and fractional 100G+ (OTUCn, OTUCn-m) transmission
- 56G PAM-4 Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) allows direct connection to QSFP-DD, OSFP and coherent digital signal processors (DSPs)
- Integrated packet test set enables remote troubleshooting and debug, driving down capital and operating expenditures
- Integrated security engine enabling end-to-end AES-256 based encryption and authentication
- Integrated G.HAO bandwidth-on-demand processing for OTN switching networks
- Innovative DIGI-Mesh-Connect architecture which enables compact, pay-as-you-grow OTN switching at lowest cost and power by eliminating the need for a centralized switch fabric device.
- Sampling is expected in Q2
