ECOC 2024 MARKET FOCUS
A broad range of speakers and companies focused on modules and subsystems.
implement coherent into datacenter environments, especially shorter distance interconnects. Areas of power consumption driven in part by DSP evolution were discussed. The interesting perspective is that if coherent optics is to be driven successfully to the edge of the network, then just using electronics to help the optics may not be enough; the optics needs to perform better so that the electronics can scale down the power consumption. This trade-off seems to be at the heart of many of the approaches to bring coherent optics to compete with direct detect solutions for pluggable transceivers today. Discussions were taking place that now indicate that direct detect in datacenter optics is not waning as quickly as the community once thought and looks to be a mainstay for pluggable transceiver solutions all the way from 800Gbps, 1.6Tbps, 3.2Tbps and even 6.4Tbps. A fireside chat was conducted that explored the opportunities for copper at super short interconnects where the DAC cables have a strong position. This is the 1-3m interconnect range that has been evolving to AEC type interconnects with smart electronics over the past few years. Those who are solidly in the optics camp, while acknowledge that copper has owned this segment for forever, are still hoping that platforms such as silicon photonics could sneak into and take some share in the next half decade. However, it is not clear that displacing an incumbent such as copper will be easy, especially when metrics such as economies of scale, cost, reliability come into play. Coherent’s CTO Julie Eng gave a broad and wide -ranging update of optical components for datacom and telecom transceivers and confirmed that modulators are critical to enable
next generation transceiver data rates. Several talks looked at next generation of implementing quantum dot lasers, photonic wire bonding as well as driving VCSELs to ever increasing speeds. Discussions took place that wondered if VCSELs have reached their limit in raw bandwidth and speed, and if electronics could help them push performance further. A common theme that became more evident as the exhibit show progressed was the innovative ideas and concepts to address 224Gbps per lane with optical technologies. While it has been generally accepted that this metric is emerging, a number of companies are still undecided in how to address both this speed as well as 400Gbps per lane. Alternative technologies for optical communications included satellites by Coherent as well as LIDAR from Voyant. While these opportunities are slowly growing, interest at least at the show floor was strong with every seat taken at Market Focus. Traversing the show floor amongst many of the booths we saw water tanks – not with fish as one may see in aquariums, but with underwater transceivers in water-tight packages. Whether this has something to do with immersion cooling which does not utilise water one can only assume as immersion technology is becoming a more topic subject on the show floor. Two major panels topped the interest in Market Focus on the second and third days with luminaries such as Andy Bechtelsheim, Dave Welsh and Rang- Chen Yu along with companies such as Marvell, Lumentum, Innolight, Broadcom, Arista and others. Subjects of the panel sessions explored G-AI networks inside the datacenter as well as how to address next generation networking optics for 1.6Tbps and 3.2Tbps. A common denominator from both panels was
power consumption and how vendors would engineer solutions that could increase in data rate performance while reversing the trend of increasing power levels. At this time, it is not clear how the industry will address this major issue from the datacenter community. Existing efforts to be creative with the electronics has only worked in specific situations and is not a panacea for industries issue with reducing power consumption in general. Overall, the 50th ECOC show and Market Focus events in 2025 showcased the ongoing advancements and growing momentum of many broad portfolios of technologies that are driving increased data rate performance, and lower power consumption as demanded by the customers of datacom and telecom equipment. One big takeaway is that if you have a new and innovative platform to enable things like 3.2Tbps transceivers that is disruptive, then think very carefully if that disruptive technology needs the infrastructure to be disruptive too. If it does, then the probably of success falls very quickly, however, if the new technology platform fits into the infrastructure eco-system seamlessly then the chances for that new technology platform to success are extremely high today. With its high-quality technical content and global reach, the ECOC show floor with Market Focus and Product Focus sessions, has established itself as a premier event in the field, eagerly anticipated by industry professionals worldwide. As the show and conference looks ahead to 2025, expectations are high for continued growth and impact, reaffirming ECOC and Market Focus as the destination for the best updates for commercial optical communications technology and networking opportunities globally.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS 2024/2025
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