Acacia Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIA), a leading provider of high-speed coherent optical interconnect products, and Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE), a market-leading designer and manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products, today jointly announced that they have successfully demonstrated interoperability between their respective CFP2-DCO modules operating at 200G.
The modules, based on Acacia's Meru DSP ASIC, demonstrated 200G transmission over an amplified link with greater than 1,000 km of standard single mode fiber, using high-performance 8QAM and 16QAM operating modes. This demonstration validates 200G interoperability between Lumentum and Acacia CFP2-DCO modules for new deployments, as well as with Acacia's CFP2-DCO modules already deployed in the field.
The modules from Acacia and Lumentum were designed for plug-and-play compatibility, providing customers with two proven coherent optics suppliers for CFP2-DCO modules, and to enable these customers to quickly and cost-effectively deploy 200G networks. The companies have worked together to develop and validate a common specification that provides optical interoperability, as well as a common host interface. The CFP2-DCO form factor has been adopted by multiple network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) in switch, router, and transport platforms. Providing four times higher density than 100G CFP-DCO solutions by doubling the data rate in a smaller form factor, Acacia's and Lumentum's Meru-based CFP2-DCO modules offer interoperability without sacrificing capacity or performance.
"This demonstration of interoperability at 200G highlights the value that we intended to create through our collaboration with Lumentum on the CFP2-DCO," said Benny Mikkelsen, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Acacia Communications. "Historically, interoperability in commercially available products has been limited to lower performance at 100G data rates. We believe that Meru-based modules are the only commercially available CFP2-DCO modules supporting 8QAM and 16QAM modulation at 200G."
CFP2-DCOs are becoming increasingly important for higher-speed optical networks because they integrate the coherent DSP into the pluggable module. The digital host interface enables simpler integration between module and system resulting in faster service activation for telecommunication providers, and a pay-as-you-grow deployment model whereby the cost of additional ports can be deferred until additional services are needed.
"Industry trends are moving toward increasing multi-vendor interoperability, motivated by the needs of network operators," said Beck Mason, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Telecom Transmission at Lumentum. "Our CFP2-DCO module, based on our proven Indium Phosphide PIC technology, supports both standards-based interoperability at 100G, as well as higher performance modes at 100G and 200G.
About Acacia Communications
Acacia Communications develops, manufactures and sells high-speed coherent optical interconnect products that are designed to transform communications networks through improvements in performance, capacity and cost. By implementing optical interconnect technology in a silicon-based platform, a process Acacia Communications refers to as the "siliconization of optical interconnect," Acacia Communications is able to offer products at higher speeds and density with lower power consumption, that meet the needs of cloud and service providers and can be easily integrated in a cost-effective manner with existing network equipment.