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Cignal AI reports, data, and analyst opinions in the news.

Coherent Announces L-Band 800G ZR/ZR+ Pluggable Transceivers

The transceiver leverages the Coherent L-band 140 Gbaud IC-TROSA, and demonstrated at ECOC2024 in a Juniper PTX.

Routed Optical Networking Continues to Transform the Industry

Cisco executive Bill Gartner highlighted a recent Cignal AI report in a note talking about the benefits and milestones of the company’s Routed Optical Networking (RON) architecture.

Success Story: OIF 400ZR Standardization Efforts

OIF standardization initiatives resulted in the fastest ramping telecom technology in history and marked a turning point in the market from proprietary embedded WDM optics to interoperable pluggable coherent modules.

Marvell, Lumentum and Coherent Demonstrate Industry’s First 800G ZR/ZR+ Pluggable Modules

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson and the first interop of 800ZR modules.

OFC 2024 Reflections

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch’s thoughts on OFC 2024.

Coherent, Juniper, and Marvell Demonstrate 800ZR System at OFC24

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on 800ZR pluggables volumes

Ekinops Delivers 800G Solution, Doubles Capacity and Extends Reach

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on Gen 120P market growth

Acacia Introduces 800G ZR+ with Interoperable PCS

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on interoperable PCS and 800ZR

Ribbon and Cisco Demonstrate 1.2 Tbps Interoperability

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Ribbon’s announced interop testing with Cisco

Infinera Announces Intra-Datacenter 1.6 Tb/s Optics

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on the 1.6Tbs client optics market.

OIF Launches 1600ZR+ at Q1 2024 Meeting

Mentioned: Andrew Schmitt on the success of the OIF in pluggable coherent applications

Credo Announces 800G Retimer for Linear Receive Optics

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson and Credo’s new half-retimed 800G DSP

The Market Opportunity for Linear Drive Optics

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson interviewed about the in depth report on Linear Drive optics.

Marvell Delivers Industry’s First Pluggable Coherent 800 Gbps DSP and Module

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson and Marvell’s 800ZR DSP and module announcements.

Linear Drive optics offer benefits, but challenges will limit deployment

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson and the Linear Drive report

Five Themes from NGON 2023

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch at NGON 2023

Enabling a 100ZR Ecosystem

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson by Effect Photonics on building the 100ZR supply chain.

LightReading Video Interview: OFC2023

Phil Harvey Interviews Scott Wilkinson about pluggable coherent at OFC 2023.

Coherent to Showcase 100G and 400G Coherent Transceivers

Mentioned: Andrew Schmitt on Coherent’s first 100ZR demo

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Nokia Launches Next-Gen Coherent Optics

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Nokia’s new PSE-6 coherent solution

Ekinops Announces New CFP2-based 400G Transport Solution

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on new hardware from Ekinops

Ciena’s buying two firms so it can bring more to the edge

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Ciena’s acquisition of Tibit and Benu

Smartoptics Takes Leading Role in Sustainable Optical Networking

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Smartoptics IP-over-DWDM initiatives

ECOC 2022 Reflections

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson’s thoughts on ECOC 2022

InnoLight’s New Pluggable Coherent Module Underscores Companies’ Commitment to Driving 10G to 100G Transition

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on Innolight’s new 100ZR module

Source Photonics Wins ECOC Industry Award for its 400G QSFP-DD and 100G QSFP28 PAM4 Products

Mentioned: Andrew Schmitt on Source Photonics ECOC award

SubTel – Locating Historical Submarine Cables

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch contributes to SubTel Forum Magazine

Cisco Helps Service Providers with Advancements to Its Converged Network Solution

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Cisco’s Routed Optical Networking Architecture

Marvell Achieves Industry-Leading DSP Shipment Milestone

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on Marvell shipping 100k 400G coherent DSPs.

Lightreading Video Interview: OFC2022

Phil Harvey Interviews Andrew Schmitt at OFC 2022

OIF 1Q22 Member Meeting Results in New Projects

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on the OIF’s role in the success of 400ZR

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Nokia showcases Coherent Routing solution for IP-optical networks

Mentioned: Kyle Hollasch on Nokia IP over DWDM demo

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Marvell and OE Solutions Lead the 10G to 100G Transition

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on Marvell and OE solutions announcement.

Acacia Unveils 1.2T Multi-Haul Pluggable Module

Mentioned: Scott Wilkinson on Acacia’s new product announcement

ADTRAN, ADVA to merge for metro to access play

Mentioned: ADTRAN and ADVA have announced a merger

OFC2021 Marketwatch SOTI Slide

OFC21: Marketwatch State of the Industry

Quick thoughts on equipment spending trends as well as a current view on the role of pluggable coherent modules.

Marvell Announces DSP for Pluggable Markets

Marvell, in conjunction with newly closed acquisition Inphi, announced it’s latest generation 400ZR DSP – Deneb.

650K Coherent Ports Shipped by Cisco and Acacia

In conjunction with OFC, Cisco published a note quantifying the total volume of coherent ports shipped with Acacia and Cisco technologies combined.

Preview Video for OFC 2021 – Part 1

In a video produced by OFC, Scott Wilkinson previews the important topics expected during OFC 2021 such as embedded optics and fifth-generation coherent & pluggable optics.

Inphi Announces Production Ramp of 400ZR and ZR+ QSFP-DD Transceivers

Inphi announced that the development of its 400ZR module is complete and that the products have reached production availability.

Telia Carrier Leans on Pluggable Optics for a Simpler Network

Lightreading covered an announcement by Telia Carrier that it was one of the first major network operators to use pluggable 400ZR and OpenZR+ coherent modules.

OIF Completes Transport SDN API Interoperability Demonstration

OIF members participated in a ten-week long interoperability testing exercise in Telefonica’s Madrid lab in order to conduct a multi-vendor demonstration within Telefonica’s network with participation from China Telecom and TELUS.

Acacia Strengthens Portfolio with New Coherent Bi-Directional Pluggables

Acacia announced further enhancements to its 100G coherent pluggable product line targetted at edge and access applications.

1Q20 network operator capex jump didn’t help everyone

Lightwave published an article summarizing 1Q20 optical hardware results using data from our report.

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Nokia launches WaveFabric Elements optical portfolio for 400G ecosystem

Nokia launched it’s 5th generation coherent solution. This includes new PSE-5 DSPs, new CSTAR silicon photonics from its Elenion acquisition, and pluggable CFP2-DCO and QSFP-288DD pluggable modules.

OIF Publishes Implementation Agreement for 400ZR

The OIF announced that the official release of the 400ZR implementation agreement is now available for download.

Infinera Unveils More Compact Modular Optical Transport Solutions

Infinera announced new versions of the Groove chassis to support 5th generation coherent ICE6 optics and provide feature enhancements to better address applications outside of cloud and colo operators.

Acacia Builds Upon Coherent Pluggable Leadership with 400G Portfolio

Acacia announced a new family of 400G coherent pluggable optics for 400ZR/Open ROADM applications based on the new 7nm Greylock DSP.

Is 2020 the year for data center network 400G?

Lightwave gathered opinions from several people in the industry to look at the opportunity for 400G in the data center during 2020.

The Era of 400G Coherent Pluggables Finally Emerges

Gazettabyte authored a lengthy article about the sampling of the first 400G DSP for use in pluggable applications. It included an interview with Inphi, Neophotonics, and analysts including Andrew Schmitt.

Inphi Samples Industry’s First 400ZR QSFP-DD Transceiver

Inphi announced it sampled the industry’s first 400ZR QSFP-DD module to major cloud operators and equipment manufacturers.

Inphi Samples Industry’s First Coherent DSP Enabling 400G Pluggables

Inphi announced it sampled its new Canopus coherent DSP, the industry’s first merchant 7nm coherent DSP designed to support 400ZR and 400ZR+ applications. Andrew Schmitt commented in the press release, joined by others from Arista and Juniper.

Infinera Announces XR Optics

Infinera introduced its roadmap concept for XR optics, the industry’s first point-to-multipoint coherent optical subcarrier aggregation technology. Andrew Schmitt provided editorial commentary in the release.

Inphi Announces Volume Production Shipments of Porrima PAM4 Platform

Inphi announced that it was first to production with a 100Gbps/400Gbps Single-Lambda PAM4, a complete 56GBaud solution with linear TIA and drivers.

New Projects at the OIF 3Q19 Meeting

Andrew Schmitt spoke at the Optical Internetworking Forum’s 3Q19 meeting in Montreal on July 30th, 2019. The OIF press release mentioned the two new projects kicked off at the meeting as well as highlighted Andrew’s presentation on 400ZR, which was attended by about 100 OIF members.

Opinions abound on Cisco’s purchase of Acacia

LightWave summarized the opinions of several people in the optics industry about the $2.6B proposed acquisition of Acacia by Cisco.

Cisco to Buy Acacia for Pluggable Optical Goodness

LightReading reported on Cisco’s proposed acquisition of Acacia and requested a quote from Cignal AI.

What’s Next for Neophotonics?

LightReading summarized the challenges faced by Neophotonics as a result of the ban on component shipments to Huawei. The article quoted Andrew Schmitt at length about the potential outcome of the ban and the prospect for M&A activity involving Neophotonics as a result.

Success Story: OIF Tunable Laser Standardization Efforts

OIF standardization initiatives catalyzed a transition from multiple proprietary tunable laser solutions to a nearly universally used standard

Acacia Communication’s Pico DSP and AC1200 Builds Industry Momentum

Before OFC, Acacia highlighted progress towards bringing the AC1200 optical module and Pico DSP to production with customer field trials of its components in Adva and Cisco equipment.

Cisco and Verizon Demonstrate the Benefit of Multi-Haul Transport

Cisco mentioned multi-haul, our concept of a coherent link that is capable of operating across a wide range of speeds and distance, in a blog detailing the results of a trial with Verizon of their new NCS1004 platform.

Ciena Introduces WaveLogic 5 to Fuel the Content Economy

Ciena announced its latest generation of coherent technology with a dual strategy of pushing coherent speeds to 800Gbs as well as delivering low power pluggable 400ZR solutions.

Infinera Announces ICE6

Infinera announced the details and schedule for ICE6, its next-generation coherent engine featuring 800G operation. It is a 1.6T monolithic PIC co-packaged with a new internally developed 7nm DSP.

II-VI to acquire Finisar for $3.2 billion

Lightwave summarized the acquisition of Finisar by II-VI and requested commentary from Cignal AI.

New York Investor Visits – Raymond James

On November 5th, Andrew Schmitt and Scott Wilkinson traveled to New York for a day of 1:1 meetings with investors and a lunch presentation to a group of investors. Topics included the role compact modular systems would play in shaping operator spending, Chinese spending and technology trends and discussion of the ongoing industry consolidation.

Raymond James released a note summarizing the discussions – some observations are excerpted here:

Inphi 3Q18 Conference Call

Acacia mentioned data from our Optical Applications report during its calendar first quarter conference call with investors on May 3, 2018. The company referenced our extensive work following the development of the coherent 400G ZR market.

Gazettabyte: Ciena to sell its own coherent modules

Gazettabyte discovers that Ciena is actively hiring people to staff an Optical Microsystems Division including internal salespeople tasked to secure market footprint.

LIGHTWAVE: Cignal AI boosts 2018 coherent 200G, 400G port shipment forecast

Lightwave writes about our 2Q18 Optical Application report and changes to the 2018 200G & 400G forecast.

Inphi: Sampling Small Form Factor 64GBaud Quad Coherent TIA and Driver

Prior to ECOC 2018 Inphi introduced the industry’s smallest form factor, lowest power and highest performance 64GBaud quad coherent TIA and driver.

LIGHTWAVE: Coherent 400G, edge 100G future growth catalysts

Lightwave covers our 1Q18 Optical Application report and documents our boost of the 100G coherent market forecast in 2022.

Ciena – Why the Secret Behind Strong Early Adoption of 400G Technology is … 200G

Ciena references data from the most recent 4Q18 Optical Application report in a blog post that outlines its opinions on how 400G is being deployed.

Acacia 1Q18 Conference Call

Acacia mentioned data from our Optical Applications report during its calendar first quarter conference call with investors on May 3, 2018. The company referenced our extensive work following the development of the coherent 400G ZR market.

Fujitsu Accelerates Path to 5G with Next-Generation Variable Optical Transport

Fujitsu announced its new 1FINITY T500 and T600 products, adding to its family of compact modular transponders and optical common equipment. The T600 is capable of 600G per wavelength coherent operation using the NTT Electronics DSP.

Inphi Announces World’s First 400Gbps PAM4 Platform Solutions

Inphi announced its 16nm 400Gbps 56GBaud Porrima Single-Lambda PAM4 chip platform. This silicon is required to hit cost points for QSFP56-DD modules that will enable high volume adoption of 400GbE inside data centers.

Nistica launches wavelength management products for data center and 5G mobility applications

This was an announcement for Nistica’s new WSS module, code-named Bernoulli, which is designed for use in compact modular optical open line systems. It fits in the size of a CFP2 module and comes in different versions to perform critical monitoring, power balancing, or optical switching functions.

Microsemi Enables Terabit OTN Switching Cards for Flexible Optical Networks

Microsemi (Acquired PMC-Sierra) announced announced a 1.2 Terabit capacity OTN framer/processor chip, no doubt designed to pair with the flood of 1.2T DSPs hitting the market during 2018. The device can support 400GbE clients as well as Flex-E and has onboard encryption.

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Nokia pushes optical network capacity to theoretical limits with Photonic Service Engine 3 chipset

Nokia announced it’s third generation coherent in-house DSP family. AMopng support for higher modulations and baud rates supporting up to 2x600G transmission, it added probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS) which maximized channel capacity.

Netflix Accelerates Global Video Streaming with Infinera Cloud Xpress 2

Infinera announced that Netflix deployed the Infinera Cloud Xpress 2 to expand their delivery capacity for streaming videos.

Acacia 3Q17 Conference Call

Acacia mentioned data from our Optical Applications report during its third-quarter earnings conference call with investors on November 3, 2017. The company highlighted our unique work to measure and forecast demand for 100G+ coherent deployments at the edge of the network.

Inphi 3Q17 Conference Call

Inphi mentioned adjusting internal forecasts for 100G port growth during its third-quarter earnings conference call with investors on October 31, 2017.

Infinera Sets Two Industry-First Milestones for Optical Transport Technologies

Infinera published two papers at ECOC 2017 that set new milestones in terms of baud rate (100Gbs) and modulation density (1024 QAM). While these technologies are years away from commercial reality and deployment Infinera is demonstrating a continued commitment to the in-house development of photonic integration and the results it believes this can achieve.

Inphi samples 16nm Polaris™ PAM4 DSP Product Family with Integrated EML and VCSEL Driver

Inphi announces samples of its latest Polaris PAM-4 DSP for inside the data center which. This is the PAM-4 engine that powers optical modules such as 200G QSFP28s and 400G CFP8s running FR8 signaling. The chip also integrates both single and multi-mode laser drivers, further reducing cost.

Semtech and Multiphy Demonstrate Single Lambda 100G Chipset for the Datacenter

Semtech and Multiphydemonstrate a single-lambda 100G solution at ECOC for DR4 modulation in a QSFP28. This included a single channel PAM-4 DSP from Multiphy, and modulator driver and TIA from Semtech.

Infinera Delivers Industry-leading 19 Terabits of Capacity on Trans-Atlantic Route

Infinera completed a trans-Atlantic field trial with it’s new XTS-3300, slightly edging out the performance of previous announcements by Ciena and Nokia for trans-Atlantic links.

Infinera Unveils XTM II for Cloud Scale Metro Packet-Optical Applications

Infinera announced a major upgrade to its XTM chassis (Transmode acquisition) bringing 200G and 400G uplink capabilities to existing systems already deployed in the field.

Infinera Cloud Xpress 2 Now Generally Available

Infinera announced its new CX2 is GA and deployed in cloud and colo networks, a crucial strategic follow up to its successful first-gen Cloud Xpress, which the competition has now caught up to.

NGON Discussion on Optical Disaggregation vs. Integration

A compact summary of Cignal AI’s position in the debate:

Inphi Coherent TIAs Surpass 25 Billion Successful Field Hours

Inphi is the market share leader for coherent driver and receiver electronics and wanted to highlight exactly how much of their product is in the field.

Infinera Introduces Instant Network and Leads the Way to Cognitive Networking

Infinera announced a major expansion of its Instant Bandwidth feature, making those features network wide and eventually paired with software-based network control.

Ranovus Announces Worlds First 200G Direct Detect Tranceiver

Ranovus announces a new direct detect solution in CFP2 DCO format, joining InPhi in offering solutions to the DCI marketplace.

Inphi: Industry’s First 64G Quad Linear Modulator Driver

Inphi announces a companion component to its 400G TIA, and now offers electronics to interface the latest 400G+ DSPs with coherent optics

Lightreading: Infinera, Nokia Chase ‘Anyhaul’ Dollars

Andrew Schmitt comments on Infinera’s announcement of an upgraded mobile anyhaul (front/backhaul) optical transport system.

LIGHTWAVE: Inphi to buy coherent DSP developer ClariPhy for $275M

Lightwave quotes Andrew Schmitt in its article regarding the acquisition of Clariphy Communications by Inphi:

Piper Jaffray Hikes Price Targets On China Optical Boom

An Investor Business Daily article summarized a research note from Piper Jaffray. The note was issued by Troy Jensen following a call held with Andrew Schmitt and 70+ buy-side investors.

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ECOC 2016 Market Focus Interview (VIDEO)

Andrew Schmitt is interviewed after his presentation at ECOC 2016 in Dusseldorf where he presented an update on the use of 100G coherent in the data center interconnect and metro markets.

Infinera Introduces Cloud Xpress 2; Extends Leadership in Data Center Interconnect

Infinera announced a follow on product to it’s groundbreaking Infinera Cloud Xpress, including the integration of it’s GEN4 PIC technology.

Inphi Announces Quad Linear Driver

Inphi bet big and bet early on linear drivers, rather than limiting drivers, for coherent applications. As a result they dominate this market. It announced a product refresh at ECOC 2016.

Fujitsu Announces Modular Blade Families in 1FINITY™ Platform

Fujitsu Network Communications rolled out its new 1FINITY Platform, aimed at service providers interested in dis-aggregated optical network architectures.

100G Inside the Datacenter Goes Prime Time

Andrew Schmitt wrote an article sent to all OFC 2016 attendees foreshadowing what would be the big themes for the show and what trends would follow throughout the year.

ClariPhy First 16nm Coherent Optical Networking Platform

Clariphy announced a new 16nm silicon platform designed to be the foundation for future 400G coherent DSP designs.

Ciena Announces 6500 T-Series Packet-Optical Platform

As part of it’s impending rollout of equipment in Verizon’s metro WDM network, Ciena announced a new 6500 platform for this application.

LIGHTWAVE: Component suppliers brace for ZTE export ban effects

Lightwave summarizes the news that the US Dept. of Commerce has blocked all exports to ZTE in China.

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Nokia Expands Mobile Fronthaul Offerings

Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent, really) announced its first integrated mobile fronthaul transport system. Happy to say it also was the first quote for Cignal AI.