[March 9, 2023 (Pacific Standard Time)] At OFC 2023, International Photonics & Electronics Committee (IPEC) successfully held a global advanced optoelectronic technology webinar themed “Optoelectronics Technology and Industry Standards in the Cloud Era”. Participating experts discussed the evolution of data center networks (DCNs) to beyond 400G and shared the latest research progress of the IPEC Advanced Technology Work Group in the Optic Input & Output (OIO) field.

In recent years, the evolution roadmap of the next-generation data center interconnect (DCI) has become a hot topic in the optoelectronic field. A common question is whether the pluggable module solution can still support higher port rates and meet future DCI requirements. Nowadays, the explosive growth of traffic has driven the bit rate of Ethernet interfaces beyond 800 Gbit/s and the switching capacity to over 51.2 Tbit/s. As an international standards organization, IPEC organized this seminar to discuss the future technology evolution roadmap towards 100+ Tbit/s. The seminar was chaired by Frank Chang, Chairman of the IPEC Advanced Technology Work Group, Chief Engineer and CTO of Source Photonics, and brought together representatives from well-known analyst organizations and IPEC members, including LightCounting, Huawei, Hisense Broadband, SENKO, HG Genuine, and AOI.

OFC 2023 – SF13, IPEC International Seminar on Optoelectronic Technology

Eric Bernier, Chief Editor of the IPEC OIO project, from Huawei HiSilicon Optoelectronics, introduced the development of the IPEC standards organization. He noted that, thanks to the joint efforts of all members and industry partners, IPEC has made great progress in researching key optoelectronic fields such as 400G/800G high-speed optical connections, next-generation wireless optical technologies, and OIO chips, and that the organization is continuously promoting the standardization of the optoelectronic industry. According to Eric, the IPEC Advanced Technology Work Group will focus on cutting-edge technology research and discuss with partners the new technology trends, future application scenarios, and technical challenges of high-speed optical interconnection in data centers.

Investments by cloud companies in mega data centers and their supporting networking infrastructure have created a new and very dynamic segment in the optical components and modules market. Dr. Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO of LightCounting, shared his company’s market research data: total sales of global Ethernet transceivers increased from about US$950 million in 2012 to US$5 billion in 2022, with Chinese vendors increasing their market share the fastest. He highlighted that power consumption reduction of optical components and optical modules has become a hot topic in the industry. He also expects that more new architectures and packages, such as CPO/NPO and linear-drive pluggable optics (LPO), will emerge in the future, attracting even greater attention.

With the explosion of large-capacity data center applications, optical components are placed under greatest strain in short-distance and high-rate transmission scenarios. Dr. Jason Li from Hisense Broadband shared the latest research progress on high-power DFB lasers, pointing out that high-power DFB lasers are one of the key light sources for next-generation optical communications. This is because such lasers can simultaneously achieve high optical power, narrow linewidth, low relative intensity noise, uncooled operation, and customizable far field, among others — all while having a compact footprint and good wall-plug-efficiency.

In the AI computing era, Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) is viewed as a technology that can achieve low power consumption and high energy efficiency in robust computing power scenarios. Tiger Ninomiya, Senior Technologist from SENKO, delivered a speech entitled “Optical Interconnection Technology in the CPO Era”. Tiger stated that CPO will upgrade connection technologies (especially the optical connectivity inside CPO switches), and will face technical challenges such as the fiber quantity, faceplate density, external laser sources (ELSs), and internal fiber routing of the system. He also introduced SENKO’s multiple connector solutions for the CPO architecture, which minimize the risk of fiber/connector problems and facilitate jumper replacement to meet the requirements of CPO-based switch applications.

Hyperscale data center operators are driving unprecedented growth in data communication rates. Jim Theodoras, Vice President of HG Genuine R&D, revealed that as these required increases in bandwidth outpace the ability of serial channels to respond, the industry has turned to parallelism and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to deliver the required aggregate bandwidths. This in turn has led to optical links that are too complex for discrete optical components. Both pluggable optics and CPO require photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology to support the continuous upgrade of switching networks. Jim concluded that PIC is no longer just a research subject, but an essential component for meeting future data communication requirements.

The ELS is a critical component to power CPO for the next generation Ethernet switches, AI accelerators, high performance computing, and the like. Dr. Huanlin Zhang, R&D Director from AOI, spoke about the ELS technology and application, and discussed the ELS optical power class and its high-power laser requirements. He then presented a case study on ELS module’s optical path insertion loss and power consumption estimation.

At OFC 2023, IPEC invited many technical experts to share the latest technological research progress and industry development trends in the optoelectronic field, and also discuss and envisage the application of emerging advanced optoelectronic technologies, with an aim of promoting the sustainable prosperity of the global optoelectronic industry and building an open and broad platform.

About IPEC

IPEC (www.ipec-std.org) is an international standards organization that is committed to developing open optoelectronic standards and delivering strategic roadmap reports. IPEC focuses on standardizing solutions in optical chips, optical/electrical components, and optical modules. Markets addressed by IPEC include 5G, IoT and AI.

By December 2022, the number of IPEC members has increased from 13 to 41. Currently, the IPEC members include China Telecom, CAICT, Meituan, Huawei, FiberHome, Broadex, CIG, Wenzhou Yihua Connector, Fujitsu Optical Components (FOC), Hisense Broadband, HGGenuine, Source Photonics, Yamaichi, AOI, InnoLight, ZTE, AROPTICS-TECH, Mindsemi, Accelink, O-Net, H3C, YOFC, Foxconn, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sitrus Technology, Semtech, Advanced Fiber Resources, ATOP Corporation, SiFotonics, Intel, Acon Optics, JONHON, Suzhou GL Foresight Electronic Technology, Liobate, SENKO, Marvell, VIAVI, Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology, Dongguan Luxshare Technology, National Optoelectronics Innovation Center (NOEIC), and Amphenol.

IPEC is open to any interested party who wishes to join. All IPEC members have the opportunity to participate in the development of all IPEC standards and reports on a non-discriminatory basis. The process of developing these standards and reports is transparent to all members. IPEC is registered in Switzerland.

About OFC 2023

Optical Fiber Communication Conference & Exposition 2023 was co-sponsored by Optica (formerly OSA), IEEE/ComSoc Communications Society, and IEEE/LEOS Optoelectronics Society, and held 5–9 March in San Diego, California.

Founded in 1975, OFC is the most important event in the global optoelectronic and optical communication exhibition. It has been recognized as an international event with the highest specifications, largest scale, longest history, strongest professionalism, and greatest influence in the global optical communication field.