CIG’s LPO Breakthroughs at ECOC 2023 Electrify Industry
Linear Drive Pluggable Optics (LPO) continues to make waves in the industry since its initial buzz at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) in March.
CIG, a leader in LPO, stole thespotlight at ECOC 2023 in Glasgow, UK, where Dr. Michael Xin, CIG's Vice President for Marketing, unveiled groundbreaking test data and proposed innovative techniques that move LPO closer to wide-spread adoption. Dr. Xin’s presentation, "Linear Pluggable Optics Modules for Data Center Interconnects," was described by LightCounting as "the most extensive set of LPO test data to date" (see LightCounting report “October 2023 ECOC 23: An agenda of serial versus parallel”).
A key result reported was how, with the proper design, a single-lane tuning can be sufficient for simplifying the calibration of all 8 lanes of a switch port for LPO modules. This advance is key to simplifying operations, hence, reducing costs. Xin also mentioned that LPO currently has significant performance variations across switches from different vendors, but CIG has proposed a way to address this issue: as long as the switch vendor can tune each port up the port connectors (TP1A) of a switch and module vendors are responsible for tuning module driver peaking to address module impairments, this will lead to a plug-and-play situation similar to the current DSP-based module operation. Optimizing switch designs and tuning each switch port will be a top priority, especially as signaling speeds increase to 200G per lane. Although challenges remain, Xin expressed confidence in the future, stating, “We are on a very promising path,” and more results are expected in the coming year。
LPO is poised to revolutionize applications that require dense optical interconnects, and CIG is leading the way. For further information about CIG's innovative LPO solutions, please visit the CIG website at www.cigtech.com).
