Andrew Schmitt wrote an article for the OIF detailing how standardization initiatives catalyzed a transition from multiple proprietary tunable laser solutions to a nearly universally used standard. The efforts of OIF members resulted in the rapid adoption and usage of tunable lasers and marked a turning point for lower tunable laser costs and higher sales.
“The cost of tunable lasers dropped, and volume surged – in 2018 over 300,000 tunable lasers built to OIF guidelines were deployed in coherent optics built for WDM applications. Also, tunable lasers have nearly made non-tunable solutions obsolete at 10G speeds, with the cost of tunable solutions now matching that of non-tunable devices.”