OFS to Present Live Demonstration of the Future of Multimode Fiber at OFC 2015

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Mar 23, 2015, 08:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, March 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- OFC/ NFOEC 2015, Booth 2111 - OFS, a leading designer, manufacturer and supplier of innovative fiber optic network products and solutions will showcase recent technology trends in multimode fiber (MMF) transmission in live demos at OFS' booth 2111 during OFC 2015, outlining the future of optics in the datacenter.

MMF has a larger core than single-mode fiber, supporting several hundred optical modes. The larger core helps reduce the cost of aligning transceivers and adding connectors to MMF and allows the fiber to be used with low cost and low power VCSEL-based transceivers. The demonstration showcases future transmission trends in short reach datacenter interconnects and will include:

Pre-production samples of IEEE 802.3 100GBASE-SR4 Ethernet transceivers transmitting over a > 200m, 12-fiber MPO-terminated OM4 MMF cable. These transceivers will enable upgrade from 40 to 100 Gb/s in 2016 over the same datacenter MMF cabling used with 40G modules.
Commercial extended reach 40G transceivers operating over 675m of 12 fiber MPO-terminated, OM4 cable between 40G Ethernet switches. Although the IEEE 10GBASE-SR4 standard calls out only 150m over OM4 MMF, module vendors have brought extended reach parts to market which still support 400m as did the 10G standard.
Commercial 40G transceivers transmitting with 850 and 900nm wavelengths over 200m of duplex OM4 MMF between 40G Ethernet switches. These transceivers represent the first commercial application of wave-division multiplexing (WDM) over MMF.

"These demonstrations will illustrate a paradigm shift in how MMF transceivers are standardized," said Robert Lingle, Jr., Director of Systems & Technology Strategy for OFS. "Fifteen years ago, the 10G Ethernet standard aimed at the 99^th percentile for optical reach. For the last five years, standards have aimed at closer to the 80^th percentile in order to keep module costs low, but transceiver makers then introduced extended reach parts to cover up to the 99^th percentile of reach in the enterprise datacenter space. The datacenter community needs to understand that – although the new 100GBASE-SR4 modules based on 25G lane rates are only standardized to 100m – the vendors will likely come out with extended reach parts aiming at 200 to 300m soon thereafter."

The most far-reaching impact will come from the trend of applying WDM to the multi-mode space with more than one wavelength per fiber. In fact a new standard for wideband MMF that supports four WDM wavelengths is in process in TIA at this time, with support from the fiber, structured cabling, and transceiver communities. "The advent of WDM coupled with higher speeds for VCSELs and multi-mode fiber will make it possible to achieve 400Gb/s and even 1.6 Tb/s in compact cable structures, such that MMF links are likely to remain the low cost paradigm in enterprise datacenters for years to come," added John Kamino, Senior Product Manager for Multimode Fiber at OFS.

For more information on these and other OFS products, stop by the OFS booth #2111 or visit www.ofsoptics.com.

About OFS

OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber, optical fiber cable, connectivity, FTTX and specialty photonics solutions. Our marketing, sales, manufacturing and research teams provide forward-looking, innovative products and solutions in areas including Telecommunications, Medicine, Industrial Automation, Sensing, Government, Aerospace and Defense applications. We provide reliable, cost effective optical solutions to enable our customers to meet the needs of today's and tomorrow's digital and energy consumers and businesses.

OFS' corporate lineage dates back to 1876 and includes technology powerhouses such as AT&T and Lucent Technologies. Today, OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications.

For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

SOURCE OFS