Finisar has announced that it is in full production of its 100G shortwave wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) optical transceiver. The pluggable QSFP28 transceiver is the first mass-produced module capable of transmitting 100 Gbps over a single pair of multimode fibres, thereby enabling users to upgrade from existing 10 to 100 Gbps without altering the existing fibre infrastructure.
The transceiver is also the first optical module on the market compliant with the 100G SWDM4 specification defined by the SWDM multi-source agreement (MSA) (www.swdm.org/msa).
Many data centres today carry 10 Gbps optical signals over duplex multimode fibre (MMF), where one fibre is used to transmit a signal and the other is used to receive a signal. When upgrading to 40 or 100 Gbps over MMF, data centre operators must quadruple the amount of fibre deployed if they wish to use optical transceiver modules based on the IEEE 40GBASE-SR4 or 100GBASE-SR4 standards, both of which rely on four fibre pairs (i.e., 8 fibres). The transceiver, system, and cabling suppliers that constitute the SWDM MSA have agreed on specifications that avoid the need for this additional fibre, and therefore allow data centres to further leverage their investment in their existing MMF plant.
According to Finisar, it was the first optical transceiver vendor to complete reliability testing and release a 40 Gbps SWDM4 module earlier this year, and is now also the first vendor to complete reliability testing and release a 100 Gbps SWDM4 module. These modules comply with the “40G SWDM4” and “100G SWDM4” specifications of the SWDM MSA, respectively.
“The SWDM modules provide great value to our data centre customers,” explained James Wynia, director of network product management at Dell EMC. “The ability to leverage existing 10G fibre infrastructure not only saves our customers additional capital expenditure, but also provides operational savings by eliminating the need for new fibre installation and associated facility upgrades.”
“Finisar’s SWDM modules are the first of their kind to finish qualification and be released to mass production,” said Dale Murray, principal analyst at LightCounting Market Research. “These duplex MMF modules provide systems vendors with a strong competitive advantage against other vendors who offer only parallel multimode optics at 40G and 100G to their data centre customers.”
“We are pleased to offer Finisar’s SWDM modules to our customers,” said Yi Zhaoping, product development manager at New H3C Technologies. “SWDM modules are an example of how New H3C allows our customers to maximize the value of their prior investments and seamlessly scale their data centres.”
In addition to the 40G SWDM4 and 100G SWDM4 modules currently in production, Finisar previously demonstrated an extended-reach 100G eSWDM4 module at the European Conference on Optical Communications in Gothenburg, Sweden in September 2017.
