Finisar Announces 100G SWDM Firsts
Finisar is now in production with its 100G shortwave wavelength division multiplexing optical transceiver. This pluggable QSFP28 solution can transmit 100 Gbps over a single pair of multimode fibers.
That’s noteworthy considering that data center operators typically have to install a significant amount of fiber to support this level of performance. And that can be a costly and time consuming proposition.
“Many data centers today carry 10 Gbps optical signals over duplex multimode fiber, where one fiber is used to transmit a signal and the other is used to receive a signal,” Finisar explains. “When upgrading to 40 or 100 Gbps over MMF, data center operators must quadruple the amount of fiber 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 fiber pairs (i.e., 8 fibers).”
This new Finisar solution also is compliant with the 100G SWDM4 specification defined by the SWDM multi-source agreement. The company says it was the first optical transceiver vendor to complete reliability testing and release a 40 Gbps SWDM4 module earlier this year. And it is now first to complete reliability testing and release of a 100 Gbps SWDM4 module.
“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 center customers.”
New H3C Technologies is among the companies offering Finisar’s SWDM modules to their customers. Yi Zhaoping, product development manager at New H3C Technologies, commented: “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 centers.”
Edited by Mandi Nowitz
