A new Terabit Bidirectional (BiDi) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) group has been established to develop interoperable 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s optical interface specifications for parallel multimode fiber (MMF).
The goal is to provide an upgrade path for the parallel MMF based 400 Gb/s BiDi to 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s. BiDi technology has already proven successful as a way of providing an upgrade path for installed duplex MMF links from 40 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.
The Terabit BiDi MSA specifications will address applications for critical high-volume links in modern data centers between switches, and server-switch interconnects.
Founding members of the Terabit BiDi MSA include II-VI, Alibaba, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Cisco, CommScope, Dell Technologies, HGGenuine, Lumentum, MACOM and Marvell Technology.
“As the industry transitions to 100 Gb/s per lane signaling on high density 25.6 Tb/s and future 51.2 Tb/s switches, there is a market need to increase interface speeds using VCSEL based technology to achieve cost-optimal and faster interfaces,” said Tzu Hao Chow, MSA co-chair.
