Reflections 2011, Predictions 2012 - Part 2

Gazettabyte asked industry analysts, CEOs, executives and commentators to reflect on the last year and comment on developments they most anticipate for 2012. Here are the views of Verizon's Glenn Wellbrock, Professor Rod Tucker, Ciena's Joe Berthold, Opnext's Jon Anderson, NeoPhotonics' Tim Jenks and Vladimir Kozlov of LightCounting.

Glenn Wellbrock, Verizon's director of optical transport network architecture & design

The most significant accomplishment from an optical transport perspective for me was the introduction of 100 Gigabit into Verizon's domestic - US - network. 

"The key technology enabler in 2012 will be the flexible grid optical switching that can support data rates beyond 100 Gigabit"

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Next-gen 100 Gigabit short reach optics starts to take shape

The latest options for 100 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) interfaces are beginning to take shape following a meeting of the IEEE 802.3 Next Generation 100Gb/s Optical Ethernet Study Group.  

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Luxtera's 100 Gigabit silicon photonics chip

Luxtera has detailed a 4x28 Gigabit optical transceiver chip. The silicon photonics company is aiming the device at embedded applications such as system backplanes and high-performance computing (HPC). The chip is also being used by Molex for 100 Gigabit active optical cables. Molex bought Luxtera's active optical cable business in January 2011.

“Do I want to invest in a copper backplane for a single generation or do I switch over now to optics and have a future-proof three-generation chassis?”  

Marek Tlalka, Luxtera

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Active optical cable: market drivers

Behind the numbers

CIR’s report key findings

The global market for active optical cable (AOC) is forecast to grow to US $1.5bn by 2014, with the linking of datacenter equipment being the largest single market valued at $835m.  Other markets for the cabling technology include digital signage, PC interconnect and home theatre.

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