The 4WDM MSA Group has added 100-Gbps specifications for 20- and 40-km reach to its existing 10-km specification. The group says the specifications are the first to address such reaches at 100G using forward error correction (FEC).
The 4WDM-20 and 4WDM-40 specifications leverage the same LAN-WDM grid as the IEEE's 100GBASE-LR4 and 100GBASE-ER4 standards. The FEC is the IEEE Std. 802.3 "KR4" RS Forward Error Correction, used on the host port to reduce cost.
The MSA members expect designers will use the specifications to create 100-Gbps optical transceivers for application in data center interconnects, mobile backhaul, and other switch, router and transport client-side interfaces in core/metro/access networks.
"The 4WDM-20 specification, which is an extension of the 100G-4WDM-10 10-km specification, enables customers to increase their reach using the same kind of optical components as 100GBASE-LR4 products," said MSA chair Jeffery Maki of Juniper Networks. "Similarly, the 100G-4WDM-40 enables 40-km reach with lower power consumption and in a smaller form factor than existing 100GBASE-ER4 compliant products that utilize a power-hungry SOA (semiconductor optical amplifier)."
"Sales of 100GbE 10 km reach transceivers are likely to exceed $1 billion in 2017 and demand for longer reach 100GbE optics is picking up," said Dr. Vladimir Kozlov, LightCounting Market Research founder and principal analyst. "The new 20- and 40-km specifications are an important milestone to enable this market, which we expect to reach $300 million by 2020."
The 4WDM MSA Group is an industry consortium formed in 2016 to define optical specifications and promoting adoption of interoperable 100-Gbps (4x25 Gbps) optical transceivers for 10 km based on the CWDM4 wavelength grid and 20 and 40 km based on the LAN-WDM wavelength grid over duplex single-mode fiber (see "4WDM MSA Group targets 10-40 km 100 Gbps optical transceivers").
Members of the 4WDM MSA include Applied Optoelectronics Inc., Broadcom Ltd., Brocade, Ciena, ColorChip, Dell Inc., Finisar Corp., Foxconn Interconnect Technology, Huawei Technology Co. Ltd., Inphi Corporation, Intel Corp., Juniper Networks, Kaiam Corp., Lumentum, MACOM Technology, NeoPhotonics Corporation, Oclaro Inc., Skorpios Technologies Inc., Source Photonics, and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd.
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