Acacia introduces 400G Portfolio

Acacia Communications is sampling multiple variants in its family of 400G pluggable optical transceiver modules including 400ZR, OpenZR+, and Open ROADM MSA. Acacia’s 400G pluggable module family features an expansive list of interoperability solutions in QSFP-DD, OSFP and CFP2-DCO pluggable form factors for cloud data center interconnects (DCIs) and service provider networks. These pluggable solutions were designed to enable network operators to address increasing bandwidth demand through a simplified network architecture, reducing both capital and operational expenditures. 

“Acacia’s vision has always been focused on driving down the level of power consumption, size and cost of coherent interconnects and we are proud of the significant advancements we have made in low-power digital signal processor (DSP) and 3D Siliconization technologies,” said Mehrdad Givehchi, Acacia’s Vice President of Hardware and Software and a Founder. “By supporting both QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors, our DCI customers are able to choose their preferred solution to access our technology.”

“Our new 400G pluggable modules are based on our Greylock 7nm DSP, which is our 3^rd generation of coherent DSP supporting low-power pluggable modules,” said Torben Neilsen, 400G Pluggable Product Line Manager at Acacia. “Our 3D Siliconization approach, which leverages high volume electronics manufacturing processes, benefits from the maturity of our silicon photonics technology and our vertical integration strategy.”

Acacia’s new 400G pluggable module family builds upon the technology leadership that Acacia has demonstrated in the coherent module market having shipped the following products since 2014: 

• > 200,000 coherent silicon photonic integrated circuits 
• > 400,000 coherent DSP ports 
• > 125,000 pluggable DCO modules 

400G pluggable modules represent a key architectural change in high-bandwidth data center interconnects because they can be plugged directly into switches and routers offering the same density for both coherent DWDM and client optics in the same chassis. This architectural change helps network operators support their growing bandwidth demands in a more cost-efficient manner.  

“We’re excited to be successfully passing traffic in the lab with the Acacia 400G-OSFP-ZR module in our 7000 Series switches and routers,” said Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer at Arista Networks. “400ZR is critical to meeting customer demand for growing data center interconnect bandwidth and we believe the thermal and optical performance of Acacia’s coherent platform in the OSFP form factor will provide network operators with a very reliable and power efficient solution.”

“Acacia is reinforcing its coherent pluggable leadership by sampling 400G technology in multiple form factors,” said Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst at Cignal AI. “Interoperable 400G solutions have the potential to transform cloud DCI and traditional operator architectures and create new applications for coherent optics at the edge of the network.”