The Terabit Bidirectional (BiDi) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) group on Feb. 28 announced its formation as an industry consortium to develop interoperable 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s optical interface specifications for parallel multimode fiber (MMF).
Founding members of the Terabit BiDi MSA include II-VI, Alibaba, Arista Networks, Broadcom, Cisco, CommScope, Dell Technologies, HGGenuine, Lumentum, MACOM and Marvell Technology.
Leveraging a large installed base of 4-pair parallel MMF links, the new MSA will enable an upgrade path for the parallel MMF based 400 Gb/s BiDi to 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s.
The MSA notes that BiDi technology has already proven successful as a way of providing an upgrade path for installed duplex MMF links from 40 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.
The Terabit BiDi MSA specifications will address applications for critical high-volume links in modern data centers between switches, and server-switch interconnects.
“As the industry transitions to 100 Gb/s per lane signaling on high density 25.6 Tb/s and future 51.2 Tb/s switches, there is a market need to increase interface speeds using VCSEL based technology to achieve cost-optimal and faster interfaces,” commented Tzu Hao Chow, MSA co-chair.
“We will leverage prior industry specifications and work on both 100 Gb/s VCSEL and MMF BiDi technology in the development of these specifications,” added David Piehler, MSA co-chair.
The consortium noted that, as a result of this MSA's formation, the same parallel fiber infrastructure will be able to support data rates from 40 Gb/s up to 1.6 Tb/s.
The MSA participants say they are responding to an industry need for lower cost and lower power solutions in 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s form factors that BiDi multimode technology can provide.