OFS Announces it has Joined the Terabit BiDi Multi-Source Agreement

Dual wavelength bidirectional technology provides a cost-effective solution for terabit short-reach MMF applications in data centers

SAN DIEGO , March 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OFC 2023, Booth 3229, OFS, a leading designer, manufacturer, and supplier of innovative fiber optic network products announces it has joined the Terabit BiDi Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) group. 

The MSA recently announced the publication of release 1.0 of its optical specifications for 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s optical interfaces over 70 meters of OM4 multimode fiber (MMF) and over 100m of OM5 multimode fiber. The MSA's specifications utilize the widely adopted dual wavelength bidirectional transmission technology. This provides an upgrade path to the large-scale deployed parallel MMF cabling infrastructure. The specifications are built on the 100 Gb/s Ethernet MMF specifications.

Through collaboration with our partners in the Terabit BiDi MSA group, 800G BiDi performance is demonstrated over 100m of OFS multimode fiber at OFC '23 in the Broadcom booth 6425, March 7 – 9^th.

Additional members of the Terabit BiDi MSA include Alibaba, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Coherent, CommScope, Corning, Dell Technologies, HGGenuine, Hisense, Lumentum, MACOM, Marvell, Panduit and Tencent.

"The transition to 100 Gb/s per lane signaling is rapidly underway, and the release of the Terabit BiDi specifications is just in time for the industry to adopt cost-effective and fast interfaces with VCSEL based solutions," said Tzu Hao Chow, MSA co-chair.

"Multimode bidirectional optical transceivers have been crucial for preserving the usefulness of already existing fiber cables in data centers as technology has progressed from 10 to 25 to 50 Gb/s per lane. The Terabit BiDi specification is a roadmap to continue this trend," said David Piehler, MSA co-chair.

The Terabit BiDi MSA specification addresses short-reach applications including the critical high-volume interconnects between switches in modern data centers. The Terabit BiDi MSA participants are responding to an industry need for lower cost and lower power consumption solutions in the 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s form factors that bidirectional MMF technology can provide. Please visit terabit-bidi-msa.com to download the specification or learn more about the Terabit BiDi MSA. Interested companies are invited to join the MSA as Contributor Members. Please reach out to [email protected] for more information.

OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer, and provider of optical fiber, fiber optic cable, connectivity, fiber-to-the-subscriber (FTTx), and specialty fiber optic products. We put our development and manufacturing resources to work creating solutions for applications in such areas as telecommunications, medicine, industrial networking, sensing, aerospace, defense, and energy. We provide reliable, cost-effective fiber optic solutions that help our customers meet the needs of consumers and businesses today and into the future.

Headquartered in Norcross (near Atlanta) Georgia, U.S.A., OFS is a global provider with facilities in several countries worldwide. OFS is part of Furukawa Electric Group, a multi-billion-dollar leader in optical communications.

Please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

SOURCE OFS