Acacia Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACIA) and Inphi Corp. (NASDAQ GS: IPHI) say they have demonstrated interoperability between their respective 400ZR optical transceivers over a 120-km amplified link. The demonstration, which involved Acacia’s 400ZR QSFP-DD module and Inphi’s COLORZ II QSFP-DD optical transceiver loaded into Arista switches, is notable because the two optical modules are equipped with different coherent DSPs.
The 400ZR optical transceivers are based on the OIF 400ZR Implementation Agreement, which contains specifications designed to enable interoperable coherent 400G optical modules with reaches of approximately 120 km amplified, primarily for data center interconnect (DCI; see “OIF releases 400ZR optical interface Implementation Agreement”). Vendors began to announce 400ZR modules at the end of 2019 and early this year (see, for example, “Inphi sampling COLORZ II QSFP-DD optical transceiver for 400ZR data center interconnect” and “NeoPhotonics ships 400G ClearLight CFP2-DCO coherent optical transceiver”), with interoperability demonstrations a rationale next step. Inphi previously had demonstrated interoperability with optical modules from NeoPhotonics (see “NeoPhotonics, Inphi demo 400ZR optical transceiver interoperability at 120 km”). However, Inphi supplied the DSP technology for the devices used, which would seem to make interoperability more direct. The demonstration between Acacia and Inphi is more significant, then, because both module vendors use coherent DSPs they developed in-house.
“Hyperscale network operators are planning to utilize interoperable 400ZR solutions to support growing bandwidth requirements between data centers,” said Josef Berger, AVP of marketing, optical interconnect at Inphi. “This testing provides an exciting validation of the 400ZR ecosystem designed to meet the need for high-performance, low-power coherent pluggable solutions that support cost-effective DWDM architectures for DCI.”
“The industry has been anticipating the availability of interoperable 400ZR solutions to meet the growing demand for DCI bandwidth, particularly for network operators evolving their data center architectures to 400G Ethernet with optical connections between switches,” added Tom Williams, vice president of marketing at Acacia. “These solutions provide data center operators with greater flexibility in the components and suppliers they use to build out their networks.”
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