SUPER 8: A scalable 200G Super-thermal, 8 channel CWDM architecture

The global datacentre equipment market is projected to be worth US$72B by 2020 with double digit growth fueled by exponential demand for services such as cloud computing, mobile internet usage and emerging IoT. Datacentre operators have to disrupt the supply chain as they seek more aggressive technology roadmaps to support a host of new services. They are building larger and larger datacentres that require more interconnection bandwidth. The cost and availability of the high capacity optical server interconnects has become a bottleneck to continue datacentre growth. As a result, this market has seen an unprecedented upgrade cycle with a transition from 10 Gbps to 40Gbps occurring in 2014, followed by another to transition from 40G to 100G in 2016. The industry is currently expecting 400G to ramp starting in 2018/2019—but it is struggling to find a satisfactory solution >100G. Our project aims to deliver a disruptive, scalable architecture which will deliver solutions > 100G based based on a technology which is proven in the 40G and 100G market. The consortium assembled can address the full component to transciever development supply chain in the UK, and service volume manufacturing from existing facilities in Scotland and Wales.