Mar 11 2014
Mellanox® Technologies, Ltd., a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, and Ranovus, Inc., a leading provider of multi-terabit interconnect solutions for data center and communications networks, today announced the founding of an industry consortium to standardize Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) for an interoperable 100G WDM standard for 2 kilometer reach, covering today’s and tomorrow’s large cloud data center interconnectivity requirements.
The OpenOptics multi-source agreement (MSA) combines 1550 nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for QSFP-based solutions enabling the lowest cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth single mode fiber (SMF) connectivity, significantly improving terabit-scale data center infrastructure ROI.
“As the migration of data center network connectivity towards Leaf and Spine architecture accelerates, operators require innovative interconnect solutions to enable a scalable infrastructure at much better economics,” said Saeid Aramideh, chief marketing and sales officer for RANOVUS. “We believe that the application of a multi-channel channel laser source coupled with silicon photonics to enable connectivity in 1550 nm band in QSFP form/factor is a game changer in reducing the data center fiber plant connectivity cost by 4 to 7 times compared to legacy multi-mode fiber implementations.”
The OpenOptics MSA will add additional members to this consortium to achieve a true multi-sourcing supply chain. The key highlights of OpenOptics MSA specification are:
- 100Gb/s, 1550 nm C-band, 4x25Gb/s WDM
- Industry Standard Media: Single pair of single mode fiber (SMF)
- Reach: 2 km and beyond
- Standard WDM Spacing: ITU-T grid
- Industry Standard Form Factor: QSFP28
- Scalable data rates: 400G and beyond
“Our cloud customers want to deploy data center infrastructure that allows seamless upgrades to the interconnect just as they do in server, storage and network hardware,” said Shai Cohen, COO of Mellanox Technologies. “With 100G interconnects approaching commercialization in data centers, OpenOptics MSA brings 100G WDM technology to data center economics, density, power consumption, and 2 km link scalability on single mode fiber infrastructure.”
“Data center needs are accelerating. The growth of cloud data centers poses a triple challenge for technology: first, they need 100G sooner than others, but they also need it to be high-density, low-cost and easy to deploy from the start. The third challenge will be that they will move on quickly to the next speeds of 400G and 1Tb soon,” said Karen Liu, principal analyst with Ovum. “Alignment of industry efforts like OpenOptics MSA will be critical to meet this challenge by bringing WDM and single-mode fiber solutions tailored for data centers.”
For further information, please visit www.openopticsmsa.org.
Source: http://www.mellanox.com/