Low-power IC delivers 100 Gbps over SMF optical links
The MB8AJ2060 100G DMT PHY targets low-power, small-footprint optics and transmission over single-mode fiber (SMF). It features on-chip hardware for analog/digital conversion interface to optics, DMT modulation/demodulation, FEC processing and high-speed SerDes electrical interface. The device is protocol agnostic (transparent pass-through of client data signals), supports multiple 100 Gbps-class clients (100GE, ODU4, OTU4, 128GFC) and provides support for CAUI-4/OTL4.4/CPRI on client-side interface.
Smart devices driving cloud-computing and delivery of cloud-based services, as well as the distribution of 4G and eventually 5G services is driving the need for low-cost, efficient transport at the physical layer, in addition to the requirement to maximize fiber capacity by driving 100 Gbps over a single wavelength. One way to do this is to use multi-level signaling to increase the symbol rate and run a higher bit rate for the same Baud rate. Using this technique (2 bits/symbol) to get from 25 Gbps per wavelength, a standard binary signaling rate, to 50 Gbps is a good step forward. But to get to 100 Gbps, the next step is to double the Baud-rate to 56 GBaud. This is challenging to achieve with low-performance optical components, particularly for distances greater than a couple of kilometers. Another alternative is DMT, a multi-carrier modulation format that inherently runs at a very low Baud rate.
DMT is a robust and proven technology, forming the basis for high-speed broadband delivery over millions of copper links since it was introduced over 15 years ago. With advances in mixed-signal technology over the last few years, particularly high-speed, low-power ADCs and DACs, Socionext is uniquely positioned to deliver DMT transmission at 100 Gbps, several orders of magnitude faster than broadband delivery in the access network.
“OFDM-based communications technologies like DMT, using individually modulated, orthogonal carriers, have been successful in overcoming limitations of legacy modulation formats where low-cost, higher data capacity is the goal. DVB-T, xDSL and LTE were all enabled using OFDM” said Manfred Mettendorff, Senior Director Marketing & Business Management with Socionext. “Proven, leading-edge mixed signal IPs, designed by Socionext’s Network SoC BU in Europe and Japan, now take this approach a major step forward for fiber optic networks.”
For transport over fiber medium, at distances of a few tens of kilometers, the limiting factor is not fiber but the components at the each end of the link. Owing to the fundamental capability of DMT to adapt to channel characteristics and interferences, it is ideally suited to the challenge of using low-performance optical components to transport data over such links very efficiently. This, in turn, allows DMT to support the growing requirements for 100G optical links in datacenter interconnect and wireless back hauling and front hauling.
The MB8AJ2060 100G DMT PHY provides flexible data rates: line side of 25G, 50G, and 100G, as well as client-side sub-rates of 4x25G, 2x50G, and 1x75G. Other features include selectable low latency on-chip FEC; Link Communication Channel (LCC); end-to-end link negotiation and management; hitless, in-operation link diagnostics and reconfiguration; integrated CPU subsystem; device initialization and link training; link management and non-real time DMT algorithms; and on-chip, low-speed DAC for optics control
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