Tag: 5G

The Demands for Optical Transceivers in Edge Computing of the 5G Cloud Era

5G motivates the edge computing progress. Higher rate and higher density optical transceivers will be required.

Edge computing is the leading-edge technology for the next-generation data center. In the current period, edge computing is in the period of practice. It is important that how to develop edge computing and how to meet the needs of edge computing.

On Jun. 25, 2019, the OCP China Day hosted in Beijing, China by one OCP Platinum member, Inspur. The distinguished guests from Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Baidu, Tencent, and Inspur attended the conference. They share vital topics such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, and SONiC about various leading-edge technologies here. Among these topics, edge computing has been frequently mentioned, here we will discuss the development of 5G and edge computing.

Source: Inspur

Edge Computing

The emerging applications and exponential data growth have been driving cloud service to extend the edge. It is difficult to cope with all the data through the cloud service due to the requirements of low latency and the limitation of bandwidth, there is no doubt that edge computing is a good way to meet the requirements of latency and save bandwidth in the network.

The Latest Exploration and Practices in the Field for Edge Computing

In this OCP China Day, Nokia, China Mobile, Baidu, Inspur and others shared the latest exploration and practices in the field for edge computing.

The “DEC” (Device, Edge, Cloud）edge computing deployment has been proposed by Baidu. While Guangjun Xie, Baidu ABC Cloud Group Cloud Computing Department General said that the cloud will reconstruct the traditional cloud computing in the future.

Tomi Männikkö, Nokia Hardware Architect also shared their exploration and practices for edge computing. He said that the edge computing is close to the client end, so it is important to ensure client experience.

Of course, the distinguished guests from other companies delivered a speech about the topic of edge computing. Here will be not mentioned.

5G Driving the Development of Edge Computing

5G motivates the edge computing progress. The Upgrading of 5G transmission network hardware technology is relatively limited. After receiving the radio signal from the base station antenna, the backhaul and longhaul through the optical communication network. On the transmission side, the improvement of hardware technology in the 5G era is relatively limited. The hardware equipment of the transmission network is still dominated by high-level switches, gateways, optical transceivers, optical fiber and cable.

The Optical Transceiver Is One of the Cores in the 5G Development

The core of the optical transceiver is the laser chip and the signal processing chip. In the telecom application, there are some problems such as heat dissipation, power consumption, wavelength dispersion to solve in the medium and long-distance transmission.

At present, 100G optical transceivers are mainstream for telecom in the medium and long-distance transmission. 200G optical transceivers and 400G optical transceivers will be used in the late of 5G. The current port density is hard to improve efficiency for network capacity and performance. Edge computing will be a part of 5G providing compute and storage resources. The core benefits of edge solutions are low latency, high bandwidth, and trusted computing and storage.

Conclusion

The advent of 5G, there are new services such as automatic driving, VR/AR and other application scenarios with the demands of low latency and high bandwidth.  Smart cities and the industrial Internet also have security demands. As an important support platform for 5G business, edge computing plays an important role in 5G.

The demands for low latency and high bandwidth of 5G edge computing will be accelerated the development of optical transceivers forwarding higher rate and higher density.

The Introduction of Optical Transceivers for 5G Networks

The demand for the 100G optical transceiver by the 5G network is very urgent. At present, there are many kinds of mature 100G optical transceivers in the market such as 100G QSFP28 optical transceivers and 100G CFP-DCO optical transceivers provided by Gigalight. This article will introduce the optical transceivers can be provided by Gigalight for 5G fronthaul, midhual and backhaul, especially, 25G BiDi Fronthaul Solution, 100G QSFP28/200G QSFP56 Midhaul/Backhaul Solution.

First of all, let’s see the demand for optical transceivers by 5G.

Optical Transceivers for 5G Fronthaul( I-temp)

Product Name Wavelength Reach Optical Interface Fiber Type Power Consumption
100G QSFP28 SR4 850nm 100m MPO-12 MMF ＜2.5w
100G QSFP28 4WDM-10 LWDM 10km Dual LC SMF ＜3.5w
25G SFP28 SR 850nm 100m Dual LC MMF ＜1w
25G SFP28 LR 1310nm 10km Dual LC SMF ＜1.5w
25G SFP28 ER 1310nm 40km Dual LC SMF ＜2.5w
25G BiDi SFP28 LR (10km) 1270/1330nm 10km Single LC SMF ＜2.5w
25G BiDi SFP28 LR (20km) 1270/1330nm 20km Single LC SMF ＜2.5w
25G LWDM SFP28 ER Lite LWDM 20km Dual LC SMF ＜2.5w
25G LWDM SFP28 ER LWDM 30km/40km Dual LC SMF ＜1.5w
25G CWDM SFP28  LR CWDM 10km Dual LC SMF ＜1.5w
25G DWDM SFP28 ER Lite C-band 100GHz 20km Dual LC SMF ＜1.5w
10G DWDM SFP+ ER C-band 100GHz 40km Dual LC SMF ＜1.5w
10G DWDM SFP+ ZR C-band 100GHz 70km Dual LC SMF ＜2.5w

25G BiDi Fronthaul Solution

25G BiDi I-temp transceiver(-45℃~85℃)

Feature and Highlights

Compliant with the SFP28 MSA standard

Data rate up to 25Gbps

Operating case temperature range -40°C to 85°C

Low power consumption<1W

Precise synchronization, to meet the strict requirements for uRLLC (automatic driving)

The Gigalight 25G BiDi optical transceivers are designed for Bi-directional 25G serial optical data communications by using 1270nm transmitter and 1330nm receiver. It is a high-performance module for 25G Ethernet and Option 10 CPRI applications which operate up to 10km/20km. This module incorporates Gigalight Technologies proven circuit and technology to provide reliable long life, high performance, and consistent service.

Optical Transceivers for 5G Midhaul/Backhaul

Product Name Wavelength Reach Optical Interface Fiber Type Power Consumption
200G QSFP56 FR4(PAM4) CWDM 2km Dual LC SMF ＜5.5w
200G QSFP56 LR4(PAM4) LWDM 10km Dual LC SMF ＜7w
100G QSFP28 LR4(100GE/OTU4) LWDM 20km Dual LC SMF ＜3.5w
100G QSFP28 LR4(100GE/OTU4) LWDM 40km Dual LC SMF ＜3.8w
100G CFP-DCO (w/ EDFA) C-band 50GHz 120-1200km Dual LC SMF ＜29w
100G CFP-DCO (w/o EDFA) C-band 50GHz 120-1200km Dual LC SMF ＜28w

100G QSFP28/200G QSFP56  Midhaul/Backhaul Solution

100G QSFP28 Optical Transceiver

Feature and Highlights

Cooled LAN WDM DFB transmitters and high sensitivity PIN receivers

Compliant with QSFP28 MSA, IEEE 802.3ba 100GBASE-LR4 and OTU4

Data rate up to 112Gbps

Operating case temperature range 0°C to70°C

Low power consumption<3.5W

High density and medium-and-long distance

200G QSFP56 Optical Transceiver(200G QSFP56 FR4 PAM4 2km)

200G QSFP56 FR4 (PAM4)

Feature and Highlights

Compliant with QSFP56 MSA and IEEE 802.3bs 200GBASE-FR4

Data rate up to 212Gbps (PAM4)

Operating case temperature range 0°C to 70°C

Low power consumption < 4.5W

Conclusion

Although the current 5G is still in the standard stage, major equipment manufacturers have actively carried out joint trials with operators to strive to achieve 5G commercial use by 2020. Recently, the ministry of industry and information technology issued 5G licenses to four enterprises. It means that 5G has started in China.

Compared with 4G technology, the 5G data transmission rate is 10 to 100 times that of 4G, which means that the number of optical transceivers used by a single base station will increase substantially when the optical transceiver rate remains unchanged.

>Under the 5G era, the optical transceiver will become one of the most flexible segments in the 5G industry chain. In addition, the demand for optical transceivers for the construction of large-scale data centers will also increase with the outbreak of 5G traffic.

Which One Is the Option for 5G Fronthaul? 10G, 25G or 100G? 

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5G is expected to be implemented in the following years. To have this 5G network realized, optical communication will be the cornerstone technology independent of various fronthaul options. The demand for high-rate optical transceivers will significantly increase because higher base-station density is required for the 5G network.

Although it is still not clearly determined which fronthaul architecture will be used in the 5G network, it is apparent that the network would employ both grey and color optics for 25Gbps based on 5G bandwidth requirement.

Grey and Color Optics

The light in WDM systems is carried over different wavelengths compliant with specific standards.

To distinguish wavelengths in different systems, the wavelengths in WDM systems are called colored light whereas the wavelengths in common optical systems are called grey light.

Grey light is within a certain wavelength range and does not have a standard wavelength, for example, the light at client-side optical ports of WDM devices.

Colored light is WDM-side optical signals of the OTN or line boards in a WDM system. The signals can be directly transmitted to multiplexer devices and have standard wavelengths.

Colored light is divided into CWDM and DWDM light, depending on wavelength division standards.

For 5G network, Gigalight has a complete portfolio of 10Gbps and 25Gbps optical transceivers that are tailored for upcoming standards such as eCPRI/NGFI as well as traditional CPRI options.

Gigalight 25G SFP28 transceivers also play in a critical role in the growing bandwidth demand in next generation access networks such as 5G wireless. While interface developments, like the recently released eCPRI specifications, will help improve bandwidth efficiency, the 5G wireless infrastructure will require significantly higher capacity in the optical links. Compact,  power and cost-efficient 25G transceivers supporting both Ethernet and CPRI-10 while exposed to the elements will play a key role in supporting the rollout of this next generation wireless infrastructure.

Conclusion

At present, 10G optical transceivers were mainly used in LTE base stations.  In the 5G network, it is expected that 25G and even 100G optical transceivers shall be the preferred solutions of the optical fronthaul network.

Vietnam–First 5G Call

The first call using fifth generation (5G) technology in Vietnam was successfully conducted by Telecom giant Viettel and Sweden’s Ericsson Group on May 10. Vietnam as one of the few countries in the world that has successfully tested the 5G technology, after the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

5G is an opportunity for Vietnam to improve its ranking in the world.

Vietnam wants to be at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and develop the ICT sector, so that Vietnamese people and businesses can compete in the global economy.

Vietnam has been seeking to bring 5G into commercial operation in 2020 and will be one of the first countries to deploy the latest network.

Vietnam’s 5G Development Strategy

In the first phase of 5G–Smart factories

Viettel and other network providers must experiment to cover 5G in all hi-tech zones, national innovation centres and smart factories by 2020.

In terms of transmission infrastructure

IoT technology based on 4G LTE-M and NB-IoT has been deployed by Viettel to become one of the first 50 operators in the world to deploy these technologies.

Artificial intelligence

Viettel is ready to apply artificial intelligence solutions to solve social problems.

Network security

Viettel also builds the largest and most sophisticated network security team in Vietnam to protect the safety of users on the internet.

Conclusion

Ericsson has accompanied Viettel in the experimental implementation of 5G. Viettel and Ericsson acknowledged the importance of using 5G in applying and improving the benefits of Industry 4.0. It was expected to promote digitalization in all sectors including production, agriculture, energy, healthcare and education.

By bringing 5G services to Vietnam early, Viettel and Ericsson have been building a foundation for Industry 4.0. 5G will provide important infrastructure to create momentum and allow Vietnam to attract more FDI in the hi-tech sector. About 5G news, Gigalight will continue to update the latest information about various countries for you.

5G Is Driving the Evolution of Optical Transceiver Industry

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We are now starting to see commercial 5G networks going live. Previous generations were focused on consumer and personal communications but now 5G will serve consumers, enterprises and take the internet of things to the next level, where superior connectivity is a prerequisite. Initially, 5G will be a capacity enhancer in metropolitan areas and enhanced mobile broadband and fixed wireless access will be ways for operators to address explosive traffic growth.

According to LightCounting, 5G will drive significant growth in the global market for optical transceivers since 2019, especially in China. At the same time, the demand for low-speed optical devices below 10G will gradually decrease and increase in the demand for transceivers of 25G, 50G, and 100G.

The change of optical transceiver demand is driven by 5G revolution. RAN architecture of the 5G system will realize the separation of CU and DU, which determines that 5G wireless network will include fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul. New requirements are proposed in terms of the amount of optical transceiver and the technical requirements of the optical transceiver.

Optical transceivers Need to Be Able to Meet the Requirements for Bearer Network in 5G Era

Fronthaul

The transmission distance should be within 10km or even shorter. The operating temperature should reach industrial temperature and the CPRI interface rate should reach 25Gbps.

Midhaul

The transmission distance should be at least 10km and the operating temperature should reach the commercial temperature. Gray optical transceiver or BiDi is mainly considered. In addition, 50G PAM4 may be a good choice.

Backhaul

The transmission distance should be more than 10km and the operating temperature should reach the commercial temperature. The 100G, 200G, 400G rate optical transceiver is mainly used. In addition, WDM or coherence technology will be taken into consideration.

 

Since the evolution of CPRI interface to PRI will lead to an increase of RRU power consumption, more heat-resistant optical transceivers are needed. In addition, the wireless architecture will evolve from DRAN to CRAN, and there will be a shortage of optical cable resources, which requires more energy-saving optical transceivers. In addition, 5G will use a higher frequency band, the coverage will be smaller, and the number of optical transceivers will be greatly increased so that the low-cost optical transceivers are needed. At the same time, 5G’s spectrum bandwidth increases transmission bandwidth, and higher speed optical transceivers are needed to meet this demand.

Conclusion

All in all, the core requirements for optical devices in wireless scenarios are mainly reflected in higher operating temperature range, less fiber resource consumption, lower cost, and faster single wave rate.

 

How to meet these needs of optical transceivers in the 5G era?

The solutions for High-temperature transceiver — industrial temperature light chip and silicon light can make the optical device itself work at high temperature, and can guarantee rapid heat conduction through good thermal design.

The solutions for optical fiber resource shortage—the most obvious solution is to use BiDi, which can save 50% of the optical fiber resources and thus use the existing optical fiber resources to transmit twice the bandwidth. Passive WDM solutions are also available.

 

Building on the success of the company’s 10G CWDM SFP+

transceiver and 10G DWDM SFP+ transceiver, Gigalight developed its next-generation 25G CWDM  in an SFP28 form factor. And Gigalight 25G SFP28 BiDi optical transceivers are available. This technology is believed to be a key building block for deploying these transceivers and is designed to enable cost-effective next-generation 5G wireless build-outs while also providing significantly more data capacity per fiber than other 25Gbased optical architectures. This will enable Transceiver-to-transceiver communications and self-wavelength tuning of remote transceivers during commissioning without host interaction, so field installation and remote maintenance are simplified and operational expenses are lowered.

 

According to different scenarios, there are different requirements for optical transceivers. The traditional optical device technology in the field can meet the current needs, but there is a trend to update the technical field of evolution. At the same time, the realization path of the growth of optical transceiver rate also presents a diversification trend. Finally, no matter what you need are, Gigalight is here to create, assist and innovate.

WDM Technology Will Be Broadly Used in the Coming 5G

 

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An Overview of WDM

WDM stands for Wavelength Division Multiplexing. WDM is the most important and most popular method to increase the capacity of a single strand of fiber.  

Traditionally, only one colored light was used on a single strand of fiber to carry the information, such as 1550nm light. However, starting from the early 1990s, the Internet boom pushed service providers to find a method to increase the capacity on their network in the most economical way. That is when WDM devices were invented.

In a WDM system, many different colored lights are combined by a WDM multiplexing device and put into a single strand of fiber, each color is called a channel.

On the receiver side, each color is separated into its own channel by a WDM de-multiplexing device. It shows that a single fiber’s capacity is increased by 40 times with a 40 channel WDM. The beauty of WDM is that you only need to upgrade the end equipment, no need to dig up trenches to bury more fibers, which is much more costly.   
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Communication systems are designed differently, and the width of the gap between each wavelength varies. Depending on channel spacing, WDM can be subdivided into CWDM and DWDM.

CWDM and DWDM

CWDM supports up to 18 wavelength channels transmitted through a fiber at the same time. To achieve this, the different wavelengths of each channel are 20nm apart.

DWDM, supports up to 80 simultaneous wavelength channels, with each of the channels only 0.8nm apart. 

CWDM technology offers a convenient and cost-efficient solution for shorter distances of up to 70 kilometers.

For distances between 40 and 70 kilometers, CWDM tends to be limited to supporting eight channels. Unlike CWDM, DWDM connections can be amplified and can, therefore, be used for transmitting data much longer distances.

 

  • Wavelengths Used in WDM

 

DWDM is typically limited to 1450 to 1650nm

CWDM may operate over the full range of 1280 to 1650nm

 

  • Laser Source Spacing

 

DWDM uses lasers at ~0.8nm spacing

CWDM uses lasers at a 20nm spacing  

Advantages of WDM Technology

  1. Large transmission capacity can save valuable optical fiber resources. For single-wavelength optical fiber systems, a pair of optical fibers are needed to transmit and receive a signal, while for WDM systems, no matter how many signals there are, the entire multiplexing system only needs a pair of optical fibers. For example, for 16 2.5gb /s systems, the single-wavelength optical fiber system needs 32 optical fibers, while the WDM system only needs 2 optical fibers.
  2. It can transmit different types of signals such as digital signals, analog signals, etc., and can synthesize and decompose them.
  3. When the network capacity is expanded, there is no need to deploy more optical fiber, nor need to use high-speed network components, only need to change the end machine and add an additional wavelength of light to introduce any new service or expansion capacity, so WDM technology is an ideal means of capacity expansion.
  4. The dynamic reconfigurable optical network can be constructed, and the all-optical network with high flexibility, high reliability, and high survivability can be formed by using optical division multiplexer (OADM) or optical cross-connection device (OXC) at the network nodes.

WDM Technology Is Expected to Optimize Cost for 5G Development

The 5G wireless infrastructure necessitates wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology to optimize fiber usage. Fixed and reconfigurable multiplexing are two approaches that provide tradeoffs in terms of network scalability, reliability, and cost. Optical networks closest to the antenna are the most cost sensitive and can benefit from fixed WDM solutions. Gigalight’s broad portfolio of WDM modules is available in various configurations including coarse-WDM (CWDM), dense-WDM (DWDM) modules and other WDM solutions.  

 

The Development of 5G in Southeast Asian Countries at Glance

Although 5G isn’t yet widely available, it’s coming!

This article will analyze the evolutionary situations of 5G in Southeast Asian Countries.

Indonesia

Anyone who attended the Asian Games in 2018 could have tried out 5G in Jakarta, Indonesia. A special Telkomsel SIM card was needed in order to connect to the network.

It’s unclear whether Indonesia will see commercial 5G begin to roll out in 2019 or 2020, or later, but a trial of this size was a great indicator that they’re on a track of some sort.

Thailand

Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country’s largest mobile phone operator, is testing 5G in Thailand but hasn’t indicated when they plan to go live with a commercial 5G network.

Singapore

StarHub announced in November 2018, that they, in partnership with Nokia, completed their first outdoor pilot of 5G on the 3.5 GHz frequency band. However, there’s no information on when StarHub will have a 5G network ready for Singaporean customers.

Philippines

The wireless communications company Smart has been testing 5G since 2016 and announced in June of 2018 the launch of 5G TehnoLab, their 5G innovation lab. Smart plans to have a 5G-ready network live for customers by 2020.

In November 2018, Smart rolled out their first 5G cell sites in the Philippines. They were erected in Makati Central Business District (Makati CBD) and at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga.

In Smart’s 5G testing, they’ve managed to achieve speeds of over 14 Gb/s, and have completed a 5G-enabled video call.

Globe Telecom is another company on track to deploy 5G in the Philippines in the second quarter of 2019.

Malaysia

5G in Malaysia will likely start to be available in specific areas in 2020.

According to the MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission), which established a “national 5G Task Force” in 2018, a complete study and report on a 5G deployment in Malaysia will be available by September 2019.

The transmission on 5G creates high requirements for temperature environment, product reliability, capacity. Gigalight enables to meet 5G fronthaul carrying out the industrial upgrade for products in the past year.

Gigalight 10G industrial optical modules successfully win the 5G fronthaul market for Source Korean. Currently, Gigalight 10G industrial optical modules

are available such as 10G CWDM SFP, 10G DWDM SFP and so on.

South Korea Started Its Path to 5G

South Korea has been seeking to become the world’s first country to provide commercial service for the 5G network.

There are three companies that agreed to bring 5G to South Korea: SK Telecom (SKT), KT, and LG Uplus.

Three Companies Offer 5G in South Korea

SKT(SK Telecom)

SKT 5G access is available for a manufacturing business in Ansan called Myunghwa Industry. The company also schedules to provide 5G to enterprise customers in Daejeon, Incheon, Daegu, Ulsan, Busan, and Gwangju.

In 2017, with an outdoor 5G trial in Seoul, and shortly after built out 5G technology in their autonomous driving city called K-City.

In 2018, their 5G test network enabled two cars to communicate with each other.

And in early 2019, they made their first live 5G TV broadcast. This 5G rollout will mark the end of their 2G services.

SKT is also part of a 5G smart factory alliance with over a dozen other companies. Announced in late 2018, the alliance was formed for two reasons: to investigate how 5G can improve factory performance and to support the government’s plan to build tens of thousands of smart factories by 2022.

KT Corporation

KT Corporation launched its 5G network at Lotte World Tower in Seoul, plus several other areas including Ulleungdo, Jeju, and Dokdo. They aim to provide 5G coverage for over 80 cities before 2020 and will offer commercial 5G services in March 2019, with business sectors being the first to see 5G’s benefits (smart factories, smart traffic networks, etc.).

Before their 5G rollout, KT and Intel showcased 5G at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. They’ve committed to a $20 billion investment through 2023 to research how to best utilize 5G.

LG Uplus

South Korean 5G provider LG Uplus is live with its 5G network in Seoul and some other nearby locations, and is on their way to wider coverage, having erected over 7,000 5G base stations in 2018. LG Uplus plans to provide 5G infrastructure in major cities before 2020. Their first 5G customer was LS Mtron.

When Is 5G Coming to South Korea?

SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus began their 5G services in South Korea that was two days earlier than previously announced the launch date would be April 5, when sales of Samsung’s 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 smartphone began.

Although 5G launched in South Korea, it’s not available everywhere just yet.

SK Telecom’s 5G network already covers 85 cities and communities, with 34,000 base stations installed across the nation.

The South Korean government’s Ministry of Science and ICT predicts that by 2020, 30 percent of the country’s mobile users will have access to a 5G network, with 90 percent coverage by 2026.

Conclusion

South Korea is one of the top consumers of the optical fiber. When it comes to the current South Korean 5G market, there are potential demands to 5G optical modules. 5G base stations will augment the global roll-out of FTTH networks over the coming years. There will be a need for high capacity fiber links to connect. Of course, the optical modules for 5G base stations were used to connect will be rapidly increasing. Gigalight 10G/25G industrial optical modules are enabling the highest bandwidth, highest density, lowest power, and lowest total cost interconnect solutions on the market today. We are ready to partner with you to push 5G. Let’s build the future of 5G  together.

Forecast that by 2020, most countries will have access to 5G networks.

5G is an attractive topic all the time. The speed of 5G is the significant advantage it has over 4G, which is what will allow 5G networks to change the way we live our everyday lives. With 5G, you will see the world as you’ve never seen it before.

Optical Modules for 5G Fronthaul

With the development of the optical communication industry and the improvement of the technology, the demand for bandwidth is increasing, the communication equipment manufacturers and operators will increase their investment in the optical communication network and equipment, thus driving the development of the optical module industry.

The global optical module market keeps a steady growth. According to Ovum’s market share report, the communications market share is expected to grow in 2021. The global market for optical communications reached the US $10.1 billion in 2017 and has been growing rapidly. The market is expected to reach the US $16.6 billion by 2020, with a projected compound growth rate of 18 percent over the next three years.

The development of optical communication technology cannot be separated from the milestone breakthrough of optoelectronic device technology.

In the 1970s, the emergence of the semiconductor laser and low loss optical fiber unlock the doors of optical fiber communication.

In the 1980s, DFB laser technology.

In the 1990s, Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) technology.

In the 2000s, the DWDM technology.

In the 2010s, coherent communication technologies are driving the optical communication system at a rate of 1,000 times per decade in terms of transmission capacity.

How will the optical module industry develop in the future? What are the trends?

In the next three years, the development of optical module technology industry will show the high speed, integration, large bandwidth, small size, and low power consumption.

How will the optical module industry develop in the future?
High Rate

In different application areas, optical modules will be considered both performance and cost of ways to enhance the rate and capacity.

In the Transport Network

At present, 100G DP-QPSK technology has been mature and become the mainstream of transmission network, and the new technology and application not only focus on trunk lines but also gradually sink and extend to Metropolitan Area Network. Metropolitan area networks and data centers will be the fastest growing segment of the market over the next few years.

Above 100G, the 400G and 1T technology has developed steadily. The coding series and the bit rate have been improved further, the modulation code type has been diversified such as the original DP-QPSK, DP-8QAM and DP-16QAM, DP-32QAM and also have DP-64QAM.

At present, the coexistence of multiple codes has not changed, there is no absolute advantage of transmission code.

In the Data Communication

With the explosive growth of bandwidth traffic, the speed of Ethernet interface has far exceeded the speed of physical bandwidth of optoelectronic devices PSM (Space Division Multiplexing), wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM, LAN-WDM, 4WDM), and high-order modulation PAM4 are becoming the trend.

At present, the 100G optical module mainly adopts QSFP28 package. 400G optical transceiver package is the difficulty. The 100G optical module mainly focuses on OSFP and QSFP-DD two multi-source protocols.

In the Fiber Optic Access Networks 

The technology can be divided into GPON and EPON in the passive optical network field. With the increasing popularity of FTTX and the rise of high bandwidth applications such as 4K/8k video, VR/AR, users’demand for access bandwidth is increasing.

In the Barrier Networks for 4G/5G 

Unlike previous 3G and 4G mobile communications, 5G mobile communications technology is not only an upgrade but also a driving platform for the future digital world and the infrastructure for the development of the Internet of things, which will truly create a new fully connected world. In order to adapt to the large bandwidth, low delay, and mass connection services, new requirements are put forward in the aspects of bandwidth, capacity, delay and network flexibility of 5G bearer network. 5G bearer network architecture is divided into fronthaul, middle-haul and backhaul.

In the 5G transmission network, the line side bandwidth of the core layer and convergence layer is between 100G and 600G. The client interface for 5G access layer equipment needs 10G/25G, and the network interface bandwidth is larger than 25G. In the 5G middle-haul network, the transmission bandwidth is close to the requirement of the backhaul network. In the 5G fronthaul network, the bandwidth is less than 25G with the PRI interface.

Integration

In order to meet the market demand for low power consumption, low cost, high density, and high reliability, the academia, and industry have paid more attention to photonic integration, optoelectronic integration, and silicon-based photonic integration technology. The manufacturing cost of packaging and coupling can be reduced through integration, the suppliers of optoelectronic devices and modules, and the users of operators can reduce the operating cost of equipment power consumption, computer room occupied area, and system opening.

High Bandwidth

The industrialization of ultra-low loss and large effective area optical fiber, the academic research of multi-core and fiber-optic communication technology are all hot spots in recent years. The optical amplifiers, optical connectors, and optical backplanes are also being optimized around the optimization of fiber transmission performance in the field of optoelectronic devices.

Small Size

The smaller size of optical device and module is helpful to reduce the size of the whole machine, increase the bandwidth density of the panel, reduce the area of the machine room and save the operation and maintenance cost. The same rate package becomes smaller, or the same package rate increases. At present, the 100G coherent optical module on the line side has evolved from the original 5″x 7″ fixed installation mode to 4″x 5″, further to CFP-DCO, CFP2-ACO packaging, and lower power consumption. The 400G coherent optical module may be packaged as CFP8-ACO, CFP2-DCO, OSFP or QSFP-DD. The QSFP-DD is the most compact. With the rapid development of the data communication industry chain, the client side packaging will be unified with the digital communication module, such as QSFP28 or 400G OSFP, QSFP-DD package.

Development Trend of Module 

With the increasing demand for information processing, the data flow carried by the network is increasing. Internet traffic is bound to increase the demand for bandwidth in optical networks.

The 5G era is coming soon, and it is expected that the 5G networks of various operators will enter the peak period of large-scale construction by 2022. Base station antenna is upgraded from 2 * 2 Mimo to 4 * 4 Mimo, which promotes the upgrade of base station optical module from 6G/10G to 10G/25G/50G. According to Lightcounting, the wireless forward market has grown since 2017, and demand for 25G optical transceiver modules has risen rapidly, reaching a $710 million market segment by 2022, with 10G and 25G  being the dominant rates. Gigalight 10G/25G optical modules for 5G fronthaul are available. Especially, Gigalight 25G optical modules adopt self-developed mini-TO and process optimization to reduce cost.

Conclusion

Overall, the global market for optical modules is the largest segment of the optoelectronic device market. According to Ovum’ forecast, the market will continue to grow rapidly and is expected to grow to $11 billion by 2022. The application of 25G optical module has gradually replaced the 10G optical module to become the mainstream. However, 10G will be the replaced option before the mature of 25G. The data center, wireless network, access network, and transmission network have formed the demand resultant force for 25G optical transceiver module, which will be the explosive force of the industry.