News: Optoelectronics
2 October 2023
Ethernet Alliance’s ECOC demo spotlights scaling to 800Gb/s
The Ethernet Alliance has unveiled details of its multi-vendor interoperability demonstration in booth #460 at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2023) in Glasgow, Scotland, UK (2–4 October).
“Scaling from 10Mb/s to now 800Gb/s during the past 50 years, Ethernet continues to surprise and surpass competitive technologies by creating a more efficient whole network architecture from the data center to edge devices,” says David J. Rodgers, chair of the Ethernet Alliance’s Events & Conferences Committee.
The Ethernet Alliance returns to ECOC with support from companies representing the entire Ethernet landscape. Members participating in its interactive interoperability demo are AMD, Amphenol Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Hyper Photonix Ltd, Keysight Technologies Inc, Synopsys Inc, Teledyne LeCroy Inc, and Xena Networks Inc.
The Ethernet Alliance’s exhibit at ECOC encompasses a broad cross-section of Ethernet products and solutions. With speeds ranging from 10GbE to 800GbE, among the technologies comprising its demo are copper and optical cabling and interconnects, switches, routers, transceivers, test & measurement equipment, and pluggable form factors such as OSFP, QSFP-DD, QSFP, and SFP.
“AMD is committed to its strategic collaboration with the Ethernet Alliance and its partners to demonstrate the capabilities of 800G interoperability using AMD Versal Premium silicon and IP. The move towards 800G Ethernet is a vital step for the communications industry as the demands of next-generation connectivity experiences increase the need for sustainable evolution of network infrastructure,” says Harpinder Matharu, senior director, wired and wireless group (WWG), AMD.
“Our range of 400G and 800G Hyper Silicon photonics transceivers will be featured in this industry-wide demonstration, highlighting our dedication to seamless integration and interoperability across various host switching platforms and test equipment solutions,” says Xavier Clairardin, CEO of Hyper Photonix.
“Keysight is showcasing the latest 400/800 gigabit Ethernet speeds across a variety of interconnects, both optical and electrical, including 400ZR+, and 1.5m Direct Attach Copper (DAC) cables, featuring auto-negotiation/link training connectivity,” says Ram Periakarrupan, VP & general manager of Keysight’s Network Applications and Security group.
“The rise of AI-intensive workloads is driving significantly higher processing performance and energy-efficiency requirements in hyperscale data centers. Innovations in the Ethernet standard are critical to meeting the bandwidth and data connectivity needs of these systems,” says John Koeter, senior VP of marketing & strategy for IP, at Synopsys. “As a member of the Ethernet Alliance, Synopsys provides trusted, standards-compliant Ethernet IP solutions for data rates up to 1.6T that enable wide interoperability for high-performance computing and data-center SoCs,” he adds.
“The intersection of 800 Gigabit Ethernet with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning has put tremendous demands on assuring interoperability in network infrastructure. The critical first step in interop is link connectivity. Teledyne is pleased to showcase 800GE link connectivity via the M1288, the industry’s first platform that can analyze and debug large traces of 800GE Auto Negotiation and Link Training,” says Nick Kriczky, VP of products & services, Teledyne LeCroy. “Teledyne LeCroy is excited to be working with the Ethernet Alliance to support these industry requirements and demonstrate how Auto Negotiation and Link Training can be tested and verified.”
